The most obvious difference between this and other headsets is the WEP430’s ear-ring — essentially an earhook forming a closed loop from one end of the headset’s body (or “fuselage”?) to its opposite. The symmetry allows it to be worn on either ear equally well without requiring hinges, and also makes it more comfortably pocketable with most other headsets despite its larger-than-average size. The ear-ring is composed of black plastic inset with grey. I’m not fond of the grey: a solid black loop would have been more discreet, especially for those with dark hair.
The unit’s black body is contrasted by the metallic orange of its three buttons: a multifunction button between a pair of volume controls. The orange inlay continues to the speaker side. As you can imagine, the orange is beyond not discreet. I find it visually distracting, but it might be more appealing to the youth market for which the product seems to be targeted.
The WEP is designed to be oriented with the ear-ring parallel to the ear, rather than perpendicular to it like other headsets. The reason this was hard to visualize in the product photo is that the Samsung logo and the multifunction button’s icon are parallel to the ear-ring, which means that they’re on their side while you’re wearing the headset — not very elegant.
Putting on the headset for the first time and fitting it properly might require some fiddling in front of the mirror before getting used to it. If it hangs when you pitch your head sideways, it’s not on right. When seated properly, it’s more secure than most headsets, since it braces the outer ear between the ear-ring and the headset’s body.
Included in the product package is a wall charger. Thankfully, Samsung has embossed its logo on the charger, which helps avoid getting it confused with the other chargers we have to contend with at home or in the office. Unfortunately, this unit appears to be the only charging option. The power jack on the headset is a proprietary type, rather than a more standard connection like mini-USB or micro-USB. That would be less of a problem if Samsung included a cable with a USB connector on one end to charge the headset from a PC. If you don’t have your charger with you, you’re out of luck. A full charge takes about 2.5 hours, and is rated at five hours of talk time and 130 hours of standby time.
I’ve always admired food and wine critics’ ability to describe the infinite variety of flavors they enjoy with a finite number of adjectives. With headsets, there’s only so much nuance to articulate, so I’m stuck with reporting that the overall inbound and outbound sound quality on the WEP is very good. The voice mail headset/handset comparison tests I used indicated that listening to the playback of messages left via headset were roughly comparable in quality to handset. Of the headsets I’ve tested, this one’s sound quality is only second to the Jabra JX10 Series II that I reviewed last year.
The WEP sounds great at high volumes, correcting for the Treo’s and Centro’s weak maximums. The echo cancellation works so well that I forgot that my Centro’s (inbound) echo was a problem in the first place. The outbound noise reduction is noticeably effective, making the background noise fairly inaudible during pauses in the caller’s speech.
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Samsung WEP 430
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