In Use

Using the Arctic Sound P311 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones are very simple thanks to the easy controls and set-up. You quite quickly become accustomed to using the controls blindly as they are quite tactile.

The headphones are quite light in weight (only 71g), but I never felt like the headphones would come off in use, so they could certainly be used while jogging for example. They do however feel a little bit flimsy, but this is more to do with the fact that they can be folded up; while they solidly unfold into place, the band is a little flexible, which isn't always a bad thing (especially if you have a big head).

Charging the headphones from empty took 2-3 hours, but as indicated by Arctic, they lasted over 20 hours before they required recharging. I did in fact get nearly 23 hours of playback before they went quiet and then just cut out, which is brilliant!

Pairing was a simple affair; on the 3 different phones I tried, I was not once asked for the pass code while pairing, but I was asked when pairing with a Windows 7 PC. The Arctic Sound P311 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones support Bluetooth v2.1 +EDR.

During use, if you are listening to music and a call comes in, the headphones will play the ringtone and fade out the music (and then pause the music) so you can take the call. Once the call is finished, the sound fades back in and playback resumes from where you were interrupted.

All in all, the Arctic Sound P311 is simple to set up and easy to get to grips with.

Sound Quality

Sound quality testing is subjective, but I've done my best to explain my experience. The soft cups fit nicely on the ear (not around the ear, unless your 6 months old) and do a decent job of sealing your ears away from the rest of the world.

Sound reproduction is pretty good. Highs are OK, not too high which can lead to hissy trebles, although I do think the upper range is little missing at times. The bass also goes down lower than I expected but of course, considering the cone size, we are not talking sub bass thumping down your ear canal here. Unlike the highs, the lows do seem to reach all the way down. If the headphones are incapable of reproducing the sub bass at a particularly low level, they don't distort or lower the volume or any other equally as distracting issue found on some headphones. The mid's playback quite nicely indeed with no obvious gaps.

Using a graphic equalizer you can smooth out some of the missing highs and increase the bass levels comfortably without any trouble. However as you would expect, if you increase the low frequencies too far and increase the volume level to maximum, you do start to get a hint of bass distortion.

Highs were never tinny, even with an increase using an equalizer.

Microphone quality is helped by a feature dubbed Clear Voice Capture, but to be honest, I found it difficult to tell if it was working or not. Voices were clear, no distortion, even when out and about, but they were a little quieter than I would have liked. This meant that I did need to raise my voice a little to be sure the receiving party could understand me. In use with a PC, this isn't that big an issue as you can generally raise the microphone level either in the system settings and/or in the voice application software you happen to be using. But most phones I've seen don't have a microphone level adjustment, although they do usually have a volume control; I just didn't want to have to turn up the volume on the receiving phone to hear someone talking fully. However, during a particularly windy day, I phoned the wife while walking along a busy road and she was able to clearly hear me without me having to raise my voice; background noises were minimised.

It's not that the microphone level is bad, just quieter than I would have liked, and I'm not trying to make a point here, just including the information for the sake of a complete review, but I would keep it in mind none the less.

Overall, the sound is pretty good; not great, but certainly good enough for their cone size and price point.

Final Words

The are a nice little product. They are very light, weighing in at only 71g, they are USB rechargeable, and simple enough to use blindly.

The padded ear cups fit comfortably on the ear, with the curved neck band fitting over the ear lobe to support the cups. The right cup has all of the controls and the indicator LED's but is balanced nicely with the left cup.

include a hard travel case which the P311's fold up and fit inside, with more than enough room for the included USB cable as well.

Sound quality is pretty good, but you may want to use a graphic equalizer to expand the highs and lows a little to ensure you get the most from them. Microphone quality was good, although a little on the quiet side, so you may find yourself speaking a little louder than with other headsets. The do a good job of cancelling out unwanted noises from the pick up though.

from have an MSRP of $37.95 which is quite low and bordering on bargain status for the features. I've also seen them for sale in a few places lower than this. They are certainly much cheaper than most of the competition and work well enough despite the low price. I like the a lot, and unless you are willing to pay more for higher quality, you'll be happy with them too.

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