Moto Hint is a discreet wireless earbud.

Background
I was in the market for a new bluetooth headset to pair with my iPhone 6 and after a bit of research I chose the Moto Hint. This might seem an odd choice for someone living in an all Apple world, but I was looking for a low profile headset that also offered hands free operation to replace my aging Jawbone ERA.

The Jawbone ERA is an excellent headset, but after a day of continuos use, I found my ear getting sore from the over the ear support. Having previously owned three Jawbone ERA’s, I was used to excellent sound quality and long battery life, so I knew going in that I would likely have to trade battery life for a smaller profile headset.

The Moto Hint seemed like a logical choice for small form factor and the reviews I read online seemed to agree that the call quality was excellent. I also liked the idea of having hands free voice operation for use with Hey Siri and general call answer / ignore. With an advertised talk time of up to 3.3 hours verses the 5 I was used to, talk time was the only real sacrifice I was making in terms of overall specs.

First Impressions
My first thought when I opened the packaging was that the Moto Hint seemed very small. Almost too small to possibly fit comfortably in the ear. However, after fiddling with it for a brief time, I found it perfect for my ear and very snug and secure. Basically, slight pressure on your ear holds it in place and I found it comfortable even after several hours of continuos wear.

Pairing was s snap with my iPhone 6 as the headset was easily detected and added once it had a full charge. I did notice that the unit I received had zero battery charge out of the box. The charging unit uses a cordless system with the provided charging cradle which charges the unit quickly. When you do decide to take the Moto Hint out of your ear, there is no power button and the unit uses a light sensor to detect if it is in your ear or out. I found this to work perfectly and did not have issues with the unit attempting to pair even it the headset was placed inside a dark pocket.

Call quality was comparable to my old Jawbone ERA and integration with Hey Siri worked flawlessly when my iPhone was plugged in. I quickly got used to voice dialing while driving and sitting my desk at work.

Overall Experience
At this point, you’re probably thinking that this is a very positive review and had I not actually purchased this headset to be my daily driver, it would likely remain that way. However, after three weeks of daily use problems began to develop.

First, I noticed that my overall call quality dropped dramatically after the first week of use. I can not really determine the cause of this as the unit seems physically fine. Also, after about an hour of use without intermittent charging in between, noticeable static began occurring when my iPhone was on the opposite side of my body from the headset. Moving the iPhone did not resolve this once this issue occurred, I could find no way to resolve it without ending the phone call. Also, sometimes very low volume would occur in the middle of a call with no obvious cause. I also noticed around the end of week three that I seemed to be getting an average of two hours talk time rather than the three I had initially been getting.

I ultimately decided to return this unit rather than exchange it so I cannot say for certain if my experiences are common or if I had a defective unit. Also, in the Moto Hint’s defense it is designed to be used primarily with the Moto X flagship phone and not an iPhone, however that is not much of an excuse since most people will not be using this headset with a Moto X.