Logitech Wireless Headphones review

Much as we love our iPods with the distinctive white earphones, something's missing - or rather, we wish something was missing. It's the earphone cord. It snags, it gets in the way and it's old-fashioned in this modern wireless age. But what if we could cut that cord?

Depending on your personal preference and tolerance for behind-the-neck headphones, Logitech's Wireless Headphones might be your ticket to unwired aural bliss. Or, they could give you a dull pain from having too much weight pressing against your ears. You see, because they are battery-powered, they may be a bit too heavy to sit comfortably on some heads.

On the plus side, these 'phones are simple to operate. A transmitter parks atop your 'Pod, and syncs with the phones on your head when you press both units' sync button - a blue light indicates the connection. This is all very well, except that the new fifth-generation video-capable iPod (see our review on pages 84 and 85) doesn't have the remote port that the headphones rely on anymore, which means you won't be able to use it with these headphones. It's the same story with the iPod nano, but previous iPod models including the iPod mini are fine.

Pleasingly, the controls on the headphones themselves are nicely accessible. On the right-side earpiece are buttons for raising and lowering the volume and skipping between or scrolling through tracks - they're smartly arranged and are simple to use. The transmitter and phones both sport an internal rechargeable battery (charger included), which lasted about as long as our year-old iPod mini's eight-hour charge.

These phones don't crank loud enough or fit securely enough for any decent level of head banging, but for playing nice in the office - without possibly falling off every time you get up - these headphones deliver. And if you're lucky, wearing them won't hurt too much, although you might get some funny looks from passers by who mistake you for an air traffic controller.