When it comes to choosing a Bluetooth headset there are several things that should factor into your choice, considering this is most likely something that will be worn quite often, price really isn’t one of the factors as you can’t really put a price on comfort, at least I can’t. The other factors though are quality of the construction, clarity of the speaker, clarity of your voice to others, battery life, and ease of use, are just some that I think are important. If you look around though you’ll find many BT headsets touting all sorts of features, but which ones do you really need in your headset?

Today for review I’ve got the Zivio Boom Wireless Headset, it’s Bluetooth obviously, and it’s basically for use with your cellphone, but it can be used with other BT devices as well. I’ll be honest here, I hated this product when I first got it, it was very difficult to fit to my ear, it just wouldn’t stay in my ear, it kept falling out no matter what I did. My ear was actually sore from the time I spent playing with it trying to get it to fit me correctly, so I did what anyone would do, I gave up, at least for a couple days until my frustration wore off. Taking a fresh look at it, I got it fitted and in my ear in less that 5 minutes, not sure what I did different this time, but it fit and stayed in my ear, and I like it, I like it very much now. The Zivio Boom gets it’s name from the boom style microphone that can be pulled out of the ear piece, the sound is loud and clear, and it’s nicely made. So, continue on to learn more about a very nice product…

First up we’ve got the unboxing video for you, then the still pictures:

The box for the Zivio Boom is very nice, it’s a display style box with windows on the front and back so you can get a view of the entire product, it opens like a book to show you the accessories included and a listing of specs and features.

There’s actually a box inside of the box that is compartmentalized, unpacking everything we find the BT headset itself, two USB cables for charging, one short and one long, a dual USB AC adapter, 6 mushroom style earpieces, 2 mushroom connectors, 3 scoop style earpieces, 2 ear loops, 2 ear loop magnets and of course the user manual.

The Zivio Boom is heavy, it’s mostly metal actually, on the front are three buttons, a multi-function button, and volume up and down. Down on the bottom corner is a small round piece of metal, this is the tip of the boom microphone.

On the top is the power button along with the mini-USB connector for charging.

The speaker can swivel all around, up and down and side to side to ensure a good fit. To use the mushroom style earpieces you need to attach an adapter, then stick the earbud onto that, to use the scoop you just attach it to the speaker.

The main feature of this product is of course the boom microphone, it’s made of Nitinol memory metal, so you can adjust it to fit your face, then slide it back in, but when you slide it back out it knows where you had it so there’s no more adjusting after that. It’s also very flexible and easy to adjust, it also seems fairly durable. The last picture below is a close up of the actual microphone.

Specifications:

Zivio Boom Bluetooth Headset

Meet the Boom

Flexible, durable, retractable.
Pull it out, slide it back in, bend it to fit your face—the boom is ready to flex for you. Made of revolutionary memory-metal Nitinol, the boom is both resilient and flexible, and can be retracted for easy storage.

Be heard
Featuring a telescoping boom, the Zivio puts the microphone right where it needs to be: at the corner of your mouth. The result? Background noise falls away, leaving only your natural voice.

Take it down a notch
Nobody likes a loud talker. Maintain discretion while discussing the details of your legal brief or your date last night—the taxi driver won’t be privy to your personal drama, while the person on the other end will catch every detail.

A signal
Extend the boom and let people know you are on the phone, not off your rocker

Size and weight
Length (retracted):    53.5 mm
Length (extended):    137 mm
Width:    15 mm
Depth:    7 mm
Weight:    13 g

Wireless
* Bluetooth Version 2.1 + EDR and Multipoint
* 10 m (33 ft) range between phone and headset

Power and battery
* Talk time: 10 hours
* Standby time: 200 hours
* Built-in rechargeable battery
* Charging via power adapter or any other standard USB compliant charging device
* Power adapter simultaneously charges two USB devices

In the box
* Zivio Boom wireless headset
* Dual USB power adapter
* Short (7 cm) USB charging cable
* Long (1.5 m) USB charging cable
* 3 scoop earpieces
* 6 mushroom earpieces
* 2 mushroom connectors
* 2 ear loops
* 2 ear loop magnets

I’ve got a few BT headsets and I’ve favored the Jawbone2 for quite sometime now, so here’s a picture of the two of them for comparison, they’re basically the same size really, though the Zivio is much thinner.

First thing you’ll have to do is charge it, plug it in, light turns red, then turns green when charged.

The lights also indicate battery level, when powered on you can just tap the power button and the LEDs will light up in one of several colors to let you know the status of the battery.

As I mentioned in the intro I hated this thing originally because I just couldn’t get it to fit my ear, but after putting it down and coming back I figured it out, it’s not the same as other BT headsets and that’s how I was originally looking at it, it’s a new product that different, so that’s how I should have handled it.

The Zivio Boom comes with earbuds or mushroom style earpieces and scoop earpieces, I’m accustomed to the earbud style and I’ve never seen or used a scoop before, so of course I ignored the scoops and went about trying the mushrooms out, they didn’t work, even with the ear loop it just wasn’t comfortable and wouldn’t stay on or in my ear, I tried all of the sizes and none of them worked. Another thing I didn’t take into account when fitting this to my ear is that the speaker can move every way, it tilts up, down, sideways, diagonally and even rotates to make sure it will fit your ear. So eventually I gave up on the mushrooms and tried the scoops, same problem again, even with the ear loop, it just wouldn’t stay in my ear, but then I remember the whole speaker moves around, with the scoop on I did a bit of adjusting and the Zivio Boom fit perfectly and stayed in place even without the ear loop. Personally I don’t like ear loops and try to avoid them if possible, I wear sunglasses most of the time outside and it’s just not comfortable with the ear loop at all for me.

Ok, so I got it charged and got it to fit, next was using it, I used it with the Pantech Matrix Pro that I just reviewed and my AT&T Tilt as well, with the Matrix Pro it had no problems connecting after the initial pairing, it was automatic, but with my Tilt it sometimes connects automatically and other times I have to go in an set the Zivio Boom as the device I want to use. So basically it just depends on the phone I guess as to how the pairing will work for you and your phone.

One thing nice is that you can use the Boom microphone or not, using it with the boom  extended in actually nicer as you don’t have to talk very loud, you can whisper and you’ll be heard clearly on the other end, using it with the boom retracted is just like using any other BT headset. With the boom extended people can plainly see that you’re most likely talking to a person rather then yourself.

The first thing I noticed about the Zivio Boom is that it is very comfortable, once you get it to fit right, but it is, after a while it’s like it’s not even there, for the first couple days a of using it I had to keep checking to make sure it was still snug in my ear. The first time I made a call with the Zivio Boom I was amazed at just how loud it is, this is a good thing, at least for me, I like it to be nice and loud, the next thing I noticed is that it was very clear, perfectly clear, no crackling or anything along those lines. People I spoke too also said I sounded like I was talking to them on a regular phone, a friend of mine didn’t even knows I was using a BT headset until he saw me with it later that day and asked if I was talking to him with it, he was impressed.

So, call quality is great on both ends, battery life isn’t so hot though, I didn’t get the rated 10 hours talk time out of it, more like about eight hours, maybe a little more, but that’s still very good, at least in my opinion, though not getting the advertised time isn’t so good.

The quality of the headset is very nice, it’s mostly metal, which makes it probably the heaviest BT headset on the market today, I believe some people will not like the weight of it. It is well made though, and it’s thin, but still about the same size as other out there, at least in length.

Conclusion:

The Zivio Boom Wireless Headset is a unique product that I think most people will be happy with, it’s well made, it’s easy to use, it sounds very good and it’s comfortable to wear for long period of time.

…but it’s not without it’s faults either, I didn’t get the rated talk time from it, and it can be a bit difficult to get the correct fit, also being mostly metal it’s rather heavy in weight.

All in all though, I really like the Zivio Boom, once you get it to fit right, it’s very comfortable, you can wear it with or without the ear loop, and the sound quality is very good on both ends. The boom style microphone is nice as it puts the microphone right near your mouth so your conversations can be kept private. The speaker is nice and loud, something I very much appreciate, especially if driving with the windows down, or the radio playing.

Pros:
Loud speaker
Clear sounding
Well made
Lots of extras included
Dual USB charger included
Fairly easy to use

Cons:
Didn’t get the 10 hours talk time
Can be hard to get to fit correctly

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance