N-Gage Wireless Dual Headset
|

Hands-free devices used to be the sole domain of young sales executives who drove BMWs, a demographic of the British population that no-one in their right mind would want to identify themselves with. But today the sight of someone walking down the street, seemingly talking to themselves as if they’re one sandwich short of a picnic, is a pretty common one. Especially now that we can all enjoy wireless connectivity via Bluetooth headsets.

Bluetooth headsets such as our subject today – the N-Gage Wireless Dual Headset. By synchronising it with your Bluetooth-enabled N-Gage (go to Tools, Bluetooth, to do so) you can use it to listen to your games in stereo with the two earpieces, or disconnect the two to use only the one larger earpiece for talking on your phone when on the move or driving.

Setting the headset up is pretty straightforward, provided you pay close attention to the included instructions; the buttons on the headset are concealed behind various LEDs and logos, so you’ll need a good memory the first few times you use it. However, once you’ve got it all figured out, the headset performs surprisingly well. The sound reproduction is as good as the wired headphones you get with the N-Gage QD as standard and suffer not a jot from being wireless. The audio is crisp, clear and free from static or interference. It's capable of being pretty loud, too.

We have a few criticisms, however. Firstly, pretty it ain’t. And while the design might (sort of) tie in with that of the N-Gage itself, it’s hard to get excited about. The lack of branding is refreshing – there’s a small N-Gage logo on the other side of the earpiece – so it’s not as garish as we might have feared. But more importantly, it’s just not very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. The earpiece doesn’t sit snugly, and consequently whenever you reach for a button to take an incoming call or to change the volume, you unsettle it, requiring you to reach up with both hands to get it sitting just right again.

It’s not as if it’s a very affordable headset, either, costing just over £56 online at the official N-Gage accessories store. Granted, it’s well-built and will work with most mobile phone handsets, not just Nokia's. But the negatives far outweigh the positives, we’re sorry to say.

All of which means we’ll probably forget about the N-Gage Wireless Dual Headset and stick with the free wired earphones we’ve already got.

N-Gage Wireless Dual Headset

A fair effort, but it's too uncomfortable to wear for long pocket gaming sessions
Score