BlueAnt Z9 headset - awesome with iPhone!

Question

I picked up an Apple Bluetooth Headset for the iPhone and found it to be absolutely terrible, a waste of $129. It was staticy, it had poor range, it had weird background noise...I was completely unsatisfied with it other than the tiny size. I've had several other Bluetooth headsets before but I was still on the lookout for a better one. The Jawbone was excellent, but had some minor issues that I didn't care for (issues with the noise cancellation feature, fit issues, etc.). Then I read this review on the BlueAnt Z9 headset over at MyiTablet:
http://www.myitablet.com/my-itablet-review-blueant-z9-bluetooth-headset-151384.p hp
I decided to pick one up. MyiTablet sells them for $99, a full $30 less than the iPhone headset. It's not quite as sleek or simple as the iPhone's headset, but it's still quite small. I found I actually really liked the size because the buttons are really easily accessible, moreso than on any other headset I've used in the past. The volume adjustment works fine with the iPhone and it paired very easily. One feature I really like is that you can pair up to 3 devices to the Z9 headset, then press the multi-function button to switch over to them. That way if you wanted to swap the headset from using it with your iPhone to using it with, say, your Mac laptop over Bluetooth to chat on Skype or iChat, you don't have to do the whole pairing dance every time. It has a lot of other nice little features, just read the review linked above for more info on those. Oh, it also has great range - I could walk all over my room without any static at all.
Overall I really like it. If you need a new Bluetooth headset or are frustrated with the one you have, you'll probably really enjoy the Z9 headset. It's loads better than the iPhone headset in terms of quality, you can adjust the volume easily, you can swap between Bluetooth sources quickly, and it has great range.

Answer 1

Michael Mehlhorn wrote:
Windows is required to update the firmware in the Headset. I tried unsuccessfully performing the firmware update with Windows XP Pro on my MBP running Parrallels VM. The unit firmware updated without a hitch using an old Wndows machine that I had laying around collecting dust. I did not try the update with Bootcamp, as I do not have my MBP configured to run Windows that way.
I was orginally going to purchase the Apple Headset with my iPhone "iShill" store credit, but have read many reports that the unit was overpriced and had poor performance.
What you wrote solved a question I had. I'm also deciding between the Jawbone and Blueant Z9 but the fact that I have to use a proper Windows machine to do firmware upgrades is a no-go for me unless I can do it via Parallels which according to you experience is negative. I don't have access to a Windows Mac, that is unless I decide to make my MacBook Pro a boot-camp-able machine which would be silly because the only reason to do that would be for the Blueant firmware upgrade.
Alas!