The awesome folks at Creative sent me a set of Creative Hitz WP380 Bluetooth Headphones to try. I’ve used Bluetooth Headphones before now and not been overly impressed with the way they work. Can these brand new, and very fairly priced headphones, crammed with all sorts of tech really be any good?
In the box you’ll find the headphones, a cloth carrying bag, a Micro USB to USB charging cable and 1.3m ‘tangle free’ cable to use the headphones in ‘wired’ mode if you’re not using a Bluetooth device.
First impressions are how small they are, I’ve rocked my JBL Syncros S700 for a while now, and they are BIG, the Creative Hitz WP380 look tiny in comparison. This is a positive as they fit nicely on my head, and 10 year old G, and even on 2 year old J!
The small size is incredible especially when you consider that they are full of fantastic gubbins, the most interesting and unique is Creative’s new ‘ShareMe’ facility. This enables you to pair another set of compatible Creative Headphones to you Hitz WP380 and it’ll share the music from one device. This is fantastic idea, a good example would be if you’ve got two kids in the car watching a movie on one tablet, no messy wires or adaptors, it’s all wireless. Genius!
As well as this, the Creative Hitz WP380 are NFC enabled, so put simply to pair the headphones to your phone (if it’s got NFC) you just tap the back of your phone to the NFC pad on the Hitz and it’ll pair up automatically. Of course if you’re using an ‘i’ Device that doesn’t support NFC, you can pair them up in the ‘traditional’ manner by holding the ‘call’ button for 5 seconds.
On the subject of buttons, on the right ear piece you have buttons to increase / decrease the volume, the aforementioned ‘call’ button and buttons to skip forward and back through your tracks. It’s worth noting that these buttons don’t work when you’re using the headset in wired mode. The left ear piece has the 2.5mm headphone socket and the Micro USB socket for charging.
The Creative Hitz WP380 use high-definition aptX and AAC audio codecs to make sure that the sound quality is as good as it can be, and you know what? Considering the price, it actually produces a decent sound, the bass response is very good and has a bit of punch. The mid range is sharp and balanced, and there is no sign of any hiss or crackle that can plague other Bluetooth Headphones – these are definitely a decent all rounder! Also a complaint I have with Bluetooth headphones is the range can be a bit rubbish, especially running with the phone in a pocket. No such problems here, I suffered no break ups or stuttering, the range is very good.
The in-built ClearSpeech Engine is designed to cut external noises through the in-built microphone and will digitally enhance the voice to improve clarity. The headphones also support HD Voice, which, placing a call to another Three UK user with an HD Voice enabled user sounds absolutely crystal clear. HD Voice is still not massively supported, but it’s good the Hitz WP380 are ‘future proof’.
The battery life on the Creative Hitz WP380 is rated at around 12 hours, this is obviously very dependant on the volume you listen at etc, but my testing showed it’s a pretty fair approximation. Also the fact you can run in wired mode will mean even if you do run out of battery, you won’t be without your headphones.
I really do love the Creative Hitz WP380, they are a fantastic set of Bluetooth Headphones, and whilst not as high end as you’ll ever hear, they produce a fantastic sound at a fair price. The size makes them perfect for all the family, and the ‘ShareMe’ facility is an amazing idea, and makes them even more family friendly. If you’re in the market for some Bluetooth headphones, I’d definitely recommend these.
I think my husband could do with a pair of these for watching tv whilst I am using my sewing machine, he did try to banish me to the outside office but I don’t do spiders!