By Melvin Seah, a freelance writer

LAST week, my colleagues were amused to find me walking around the office with a pair of headphones on and seemingly talking to myself.

No, I had not gone bonkers. I was testing Sony's new DR-BT101 Bluetooth headphones.

Unlike most headsets which make you look like a telephone operator, the BT101 does not have that ugly, across-your-face microphone boom. Instead, the microphone is embedded on the outer surface of the right earpad.

When I paired the BT101 with my mobile phone, it looked like I was speaking to the earphones.

Stares aside, usage is easy.

Control music playback via the buttons on the right ear pad and there is a switch to play, pause, rewind and forward tracks. You also get volume buttons and a multi-function button that lets you answer calls.

To charge the headphones, just hook them up to a computer via a USB port.

Now for the techie bit: your phone needs to be enabled with these advances that allow the headset to talk to the phone: Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, HFP (hands-free profile) or HSP (headset profile) and the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) which allows the headset to control music functions on the phone.

I was able to pair the BT101 with my Nokia E51 cellphone quickly. After this initial pairing, the headphone connected to my phone automatically every time I turned it on.

Its range is impressive - I could walk about 30 steps away before the music started to break. But once I lost the connection, it would not automatically re-connect until I rebooted it.

According to Sony, its built-in rechargeable battery life will give 12 hours of music playing. I left my phone playing MP3s on loop mode and squeezed almost 14 hours out of it before the battery went flat.

For music, this gizmo tackled the many music genres in my phone well. Joni Mitchell's smoky voice came across beautifully and punk tracks from Green Day sounded punchy.

Phone calls made from the office were clear and I was pleasantly surprised that the other person could hear me well even without a microphone boom.

While the gizmo has noise suppression and echo cancellation muscle, it could not handle the noise in the canteen at lunchtime.

Some other grouses: while the BT101 felt comfortable on my head, it had a loose fit and I was perpetually worried about it dropping off.

Also, while I liked the playback controls, I found the switch too soft. At times, I would accidentally brush against it while putting on or taking off the headphones, with unintended results.

The call-answer button is also too stiff.

Final say

If you are looking for a pair of wireless headphones for use at home or in the office, the BT101 is a great choice.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.