Argard M10 Review

Introduction:

Before, Bluetooth handsfrees were a luxury, nowadays they are a necessity. On the market, there are a lot of such products to choose from, different in shape and functionality. The Thai company Argard offers a quite small, light, and interesting solution - the M10. It will suit everybody and its unique design and small size make it very attractive. It fits in the ultra-small class, competing with Invisio G5 by Nextlink, H5 by Motorola and others.

In the box you will find:

• ARGARD M10 Headset
• Charging cradle 6V
• AC Adaptor 6V 250 mAh
• 3 sizes of Earpieces

Design and Comfort:

At first sight, you can see that the design is very different from most of the other headsets. М10 looks like a piece of equipment from a futuristic war movie, mostly because of its strange shape and dark grey color. Its small dimensions of 0.90 x 0.87 x 1.24 inches (23 mm x 22 mm x 31.5 mm) and weighing at only 0.18 oz (5 grams) make it one of the smallest and lightest Bluetooth handsfrees in the world.



The big Multifunctional (Call) button is located on its front, and when M10 is in your ear, you will have to hold it by the rubber-coated sides before accepting or rejecting a call. That is because the device enters the cochlear channel and there is no earhook to support it. If you press the main button without supporting it, the Argard will go deep into your ear, leaving you with a quite unpleasant feeling.

The volume keys are on the top side of the device and they are small and hard to press. Underneath is the microphone whole, which actually is pretty big, for a better speech reception.

The indicator light is a circle, surrounding the call button and it doesn’t catch the eye like in some other handsfrees.

The back part of the M10 looks like an engine crankshaft. This strange shape keeps the device stable in your ear with minimal chance for it to fall down. There are 3 different sized earpieces in the box for the best noise isolation possible. We used every one of them and at all times we felt like the ear had gone deaf.

Despite the fact that it only weighs 5 grams, Argard is not very comfortable if worn continuously for more than 1.5 hours. The reason for that is probably the mode, in which it attaches to the ear.

Functionality:

Aside for the tree-way calling option, functionality wise, Argard M10 does not offer anything more than the rest of the handsfree devices. It is activated when you are having more than one conversation and you hold the multifunctional button pressed for 10 seconds. The rest of the commands, such as power on/off, start/end call, voice dialing, switch between calls, are executed by using the same key. To activate each one of them, you have to keep the button pressed for a differed period of time.


Performance:

Overall, we are not happy of Argard M10’s performance. The official data provided by the manufacturer indicates a 3 hour TalkTime, which came out to be only 2,5 hours. Not a big deal, but in contrast, you can talk twice as much with the Invisio G5. We are disappointed by the Bluetooth range; crackling noises can be heard when you are having a conversation and the little device is in your ear with the phone in your pocket. In some instances, there whole words were skipped.

Things are way better when we are talking about sound quality. The incoming voice is heard loud and clear, but somewhat sharp and with an unpleasant background noise. The outgoing sound has a very good quality, but not enough volume. You will manage to have a conversation if you are at a noisy place, but due to the lack of a DSP system, you might have some difficulties. You can still talk when there is light or moderate wind, which is a pleasant surprise for such as mall device.

Even though Argard performed well sound wise, that cannot compensate for its other weaknesses. The main problem is the insufficient power of the Bluetooth, which forces you to keep the phone close by.

Conclusion:

Argard M10 is a small, good-looking handsfree and it is definitely impressive at first sight. This however, was not enough to distract us from the extremely poor range and battery performance. If you don’t really care about the design, take a look at Nextlink Invisio G5, which according to us is a better solution.