Review: Altec Backbeat 903

With the arrival of iPhone 3.0 comes stereo bluetooth, which means that you can now listen to music wirelessly through both ears without having to attach a snap-on bluetooth component to the bottom of your iPhone. With regards to Altec Lansing’s Backbeat line, it means that iPhone users can now skip the Backbeat 906 and its $129 price tag in favor of the Backbeat 903, which is just the 906 minus the snap-on piece and minus thirty dollars in price, plus the same wall charger.



At the risk of oversimplifying things, the 903 almost like having a pair of Voyager PRO bluetooth earpieces for phone calls (made by Altec Lansing’s parent company Plantronics), minus the boom mic, with a soft rubber cable connecting the two behind your head. And that’s mostly a good thing, as the Voyager PRO is our highest-rated bluetooth earpiece on the market: good audio, stylish (at least compared to a lot of other bluetooth headphone products on the market), and comfortable all at the same time.



While the 903 is clearly intended primarily for audio playback, you can of course take phone calls on it as well. A button on one ear allows you to answer phone calls or hang up, and the button on the other ear allows you to play or pause your music. The controls for next and previous track don’t work, but that’s Apple’s fault for limiting the stereo bluetooth controls internally (you’d need to buy the 906 and live with the snap-on piece for that). Of more concern is that the volume controls, which increase or lower the volume in single steps, just aren’t that intuitive if you’re turning the volume up or down several increments at a time.



The audio quality won’t be mistaken for wired, in-ear earbuds in the same price range, but it’s strong as far as bluetooth earbuds go. I think I’ll stick with my iMuffs for now, but for those who don’t want the kind of relative bulk that comes with the iMuffs, the Backbeat 903 is a strong option. But as with all wireless audio products, the compromises are such that it’s only worth buying if you plan to take advantage of the wireless functionality on a regular basis and really want to eliminate the cabling.

Learn more at AltecLansing.com or buy now.