The stigma with Bluetooth earbuds continues mostly unabated; being seen with one in your ear is still a surefire way to declare yourself as a somewhat of a pompous nerd. But the Motorola Hint has a design aesthetic that makes it tempting to believe you could be forgiven for wearing it in public. It’s tiny, and doesn’t have a boom mic that wraps around your cheek, nor a plastic hook to hold on to your ear. It’s just a tiny bud that inserts in your ear and looks like a stylish hearing aid. Due to its small size, the battery doesn’t last very long, but the cool carrying case it comes in features a battery of its own that tops the Hint back up, up to twice, before needing a charge of its own. Pass-through audio also means you don’t have to sacrifice hearing in one ear when you’re not using it. It’s also not device specific, and will work with anything that has Bluetooth. It’s $149, but isn’t available yet. You can visit the website to sign up to be notified of its availability.
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I currently wear a pair of Jabra Rox that have about six hours of battery life (about 2.5 days under my typical usage), so the answer actually depends more on function than form. While I would love to down-size to something like the Hint, I would really like to see some hard, real-life figures on just what constitutes “the battery doesn’t last very long”.