Sony Ericsson HBH-PV740

The HBH-PV740 has been in the Sony Ericsson catalogue for over a year, but has yet to be replaced by a new model.  maybe now is the time to get a deal on one ...

Design: Pro design, plenty of comfort

The PV740 was aimed at a business market when it was launched and needed a serious-looking visual design. No questionable decoration, no loud colours – just very restrained, businesslike looks. It does have a rather blocky, uncompromising quality quality about it, however

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On your ear, the PV740 is comfortable, and we like the two different sizes of ear clips that come with it. We can’t understand why headset makers don’t model their products on in-ear headphones, which have flexible ear clips you can shape to fit your ear. The PV740 doesn’t come with different sizes of tips for the headphone itself, though, which a shame.



For charging, the compact, handsome dock simplifies connecting the headset. The headset itself has a cute little LCD display that shows the battery charge level. The battery life is very long, as is customary with Sony Ericsson.

Audio Quality: Digital sound

Much of the audio processing is done digitally, starting with amplification and volume adjustment. That choice was dictated by one of the headset’s functions (see inset), but it has the advantage of limiting parasitical noise considerably. The result is really good sound.

 

We’d have appreciated more of an effort from Sony on the microphone, and in particular a true active filtering system like the one offered by Plantronics. Here we have a simple band-pass filter – it works, but no doesn't go any further.  Still, people shouldn’t have too much difficulty hearing you.  This is a good time to mention one very handy function: you can re-dial the number you last called just by pressing the control button if your call is cut off. It might be just a detail, but it makes using the headset on the go just that little bit easier.

The HBH-PV740 may be a year old, but it still stands up well to its competitors, in particular because of its very good battery life. We just wish Sony Ericsson would put a little more work into processing the sound from the microphone for its next generation of headsets.