I got the MW600 yesterday and have been using it most of today. So the following thoughts are the initial impressions of the MW600.
For starters, I must say, for those of you who have been listening to music on the go for sometime now, I can say with a lot of certainty that there aren't many other devices that can beat the sound quality of the MW600. I'm sure if we looked far and hard (and had an endless pocket) we could find better sounding headsets. But for it's price, it beats most other Stereo Bluetooth headsets hands down.
Let's look at the different aspects in a bit more detail.
Construction
The main body is plastic and hence is light but fragile too. I'd imagine that if you were to fall down face-first while running and had the MW600 clipped to your shirt in front, there was a good chance that it'd break. On the flip side, since it is lighter, it does not really distort your shirt pocket or collar like the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS200 / 205 may do because of the metal casing.
But the aesthetics are very good. The color, the glossy finish in the middle etc. looks elegant. The buttons are placed in comfortable positions and you would rarely press buttons accidentally. Though I think the touch sensitive volume control is not as responsive as I'd like it to be.
Another point for those considering to buy the MW600, it is a bit smaller than it seems in the promo pics on the Sony Ericsson website. Before this, I had the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS200. For those who might have this or the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS205, the MW600 is slightly smaller than them in length and much lighter (as I have mentioned above).
Sound Quality
This is where the MW 600 surpasses almost all other Stereo Bluetooth Headsets on the market. The first time you hear it, it blows you away. On other headsets, you'd probably need a much higher volume and a bit of jiggling with the equalizers to get the kind of Bass and clarity that the MW600 produces with equalizers set to default. The noise cancellation from the silicone cushions are much better compared to other wired or wireless earphones I have used. I also felt that the Silicone cushions fitted well in my ear as compared to the numerous other Sony Ericsson / Nokia earphones I have used before. In most older ones, they'd usually fall off if I was eating while listening to music with them. But the earphones bundled with the MW600 are a bit larger and also fit much more snugly in my ear. But this is a individual thing and may not be the same for someone else.
The microphone and the ambient noise reduction works very well too. It works amazingly well even if you have the headset pinned to your shirt pocket and are in a very noisy place like a market or a movie theater. This is a bit surprising because the microphone resides on the main unit and if it is pinned to your shirt pocket, there is almost 1 foot of distance between your mouth and the microphone. And yet the person at the other end can hear you loud and clear. This is not something I have experienced with other Bluetooth headsets.
Battery life
It's been well over 9 hours (running time) that I have been listening to music on and off and the battery indicator on the device doesn't seem to have budged a bit. This is a real boon for people like me who spend a lot of time either on lengthy calls or listening to music. With the HBH-DS200, I used barely get 5 hours of listening time. So after a busy day of work (involving numerous phone calls and phone meetings) by the time I hit the gym, the HBH-DS200 would have usually died out. So I'd have to plug in a wired headset during my time at the gym. Given the 11 hour run time of the MW600 I am certain I won't end up in the same situation.
The MW600 uses a USB charger, which means you can charge it from your PC too. This is a good option for busy people like me who do quite a lot of their work on the phone and computer. It is also means, you have to carry one less charger. Not that you would actually need it anyway with the MW600, given the 11 hour talk time.
Connectivity
With almost all the previous Bluetooth headsets I have owned, I have had a consistent problem of random disconnection from the phone. Sometimes it would disconnect during a call or just when I dialed a call, or it would just disconnect if the phone was idling overnight. There was no specific reason for disconnection. This is with different phones I have used (Nokia E90, Nokia 5800 XM and currently Nokia N97). Until I got the MW600, I had almost gotten used (read: insensitive) to the disconnection. Surprisingly with the MW600, I have not had any disconnection thus far. I sincerely hope it stays like that.
Another great feature is the Multipoint Bluetooth connection. That is, the MW600 can stay connected to 3 Bluetooth devices simultaneously. This means you can be connected to your phone (to answer calls) and to your PC (for listening to music) at the same time. In my case, I listen to music from my phone on my way to office and when I am in office I switch over to my PC for the music. It takes a split second to switch the Music mode from Phone to PC.
I must mention though that one short fall with the MW600 is that it disconnects all connections when you plug it into the charger. So in the scenario where you are on a call and the MW600 is running out of steam, you cannot plug in the charger and continue attending the call. This was possible in all the other headsets I have used before. I wonder why they decided to do this with the MW600.
Display
The OLED display is very clear and is probably one of the contributors to the long battery life.
Compatibility
The MW600, like all other Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headsets has very limited compatibility with non-Sony Ericsson mobile phones. So a word of caution for those people who use a non-Sony Ericsson phone (ie. >80% of the mobile user population), you won't be able to use all the Bluetooth AVRCP (Audio Video Remote Control Profile) features. For e.g. you won't be able to see the Song Title or the name of the caller on the headset. But with a Sony Ericsson phone you do get all these features.
Cost
I got the MW600 in India for Rs.3800/- which, compared to other bluetooth headsets I have bought before, is amazingly cheap. Though I had read the initial reviews on the internet, I was a bit skeptical when I saw the low price. But all that they have said in the reviews is true and so is the low price.
Conclusion
All in all, the MW600 surprises you with many new features (e.g. multipoint) and much better performing usual features (e.g. 11 hr talk time, Ambient Noise Cancellation, Sound Quality, etc.). When compared to what I would like in the "ideal" Bluetooth Headset, there is very little that remains (e.g. no disconnection while charging, Bluetooth profile compatibility with non-Sony Ericsson Phones)
Nonetheless, I would strongly recommend the MW600 for anyone on the look out for a Stereo Bluetooth Headset.
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