"Are you calling from the bottom of a swimming pool?" the airline reservation agent patiently asked me. No, in fact, I was using Motorola's new MOTOPURE H12 Bluetooth headset, the company's first headset with CrystalTalk noise cancellation and voice improvement technology. Sadly, the H12 is a MOTOMISFIRE, whose muddy sound quality and lack of any perceptible noise cancellation gets a decisive thumbs-down from me.

It's cute and compact, however, and very comfortable. The H12 is a little rounded rectangle with a stippled metal front, a large pick-up/hang-up button and an easy-to-reach volume rocker key. The headset comes with three rubber buds for different-size ears, and it clips on with a cozy, flexible plastic clip that can rotate for the right or left ear. I found it very easy to put on. It's light (0.4 ounces) and pleasing to wear—as a matter of fact, I occasionally forgot I had it on. The H12 comes with both a desktop charger and a convenient, compact charging cradle that also serves as a carrying case. If you have other recent Motorola products, the device uses the same micro-USB jack as the RAZR² phones. The headset achieved good range on my tests: Voice quality started to degrade at about 20 feet, but the connection continued with varying levels of quality to 50 feet. The 5 hours, 10 minutes of talk time per battery charge is mediocre—several hours less than our Editors' Choice-winning Plantronics 520 headset.

Despite its superb ergonomics, the H12 just doesn't sound very good. I tested it with Samsung's SCH-i760 and the Motorola MOTORIZR Z6tv on the Verizon Wireless network with both indoor and outdoor conversations. During testing, I exposed the headset to various trials such as traffic noise, loud music, and passing subway trains. I also stood next to a gas-powered compressor and swung through a loud revolving door. Motorola claims that the H12's dual microphones should analyze external noise and cancel it out. That didn't happen. In a quiet indoor setting, audio was mediocre at best, with occasional pops, clicks, and hisses. But in noisy areas, with both handsets, the H12 let the background noise through without blocking it, creating a sonic mess. On the other side of the call, my voice sounded muddled, mixed with noise, and compressed. Over subway din, I couldn't hear my own voice at all: That's a test that a competitor, the Aliph Jawbone, aces. At least wind noise wasn't a problem.

In my own ear, the H12 did have plenty of volume, but its idea of overcoming noise just seemed to be pumping up the gain, creating a scratchy, trebly sound. With the Samsung phone, I got a lot of Bluetooth connection pops and clicks, too. Using the Motorola handset, the pops went away, but I heard a subtle background hiss.

The H12's poor performance is perplexing because Motorola makes some excellent voice phones. CrystalTalk helped the RAZR2 V9 become AT&T's best-sounding voice phone, and Motorola has a history of excellent voice quality on Verizon with the V710, the E815, and now the RAZR2 and Z6tv. The H12 shows none of that voice quality expertise. If you're looking for an excellent Bluetooth headset, turn to the Plantronics Voyager 520 for all-around performance, or the Aliph Jawbone if you spend a lot of time around rumbling trucks or pounding jackhammers.

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