We got a look at i.Tech Dynamic’s product line at CES this year and we walked away pretty impressed. Price points were just a little bit under higher end product like those Plantronics and performance was comparable if not just slightly under.

Don’t let the name confuse you, though. There are tons of ITECH’s out there, but this ITECH is properly called i.Tech Dynamic (notice the dot?). Most folks just leave out the dot and call it ITECH, but make that mistake and you’re going to end up buying hockey or hair styling gear. Yup. So be careful.

We recently got to go hands-on with i.Tech Dyanmic’s bluetooth headsets, the i.VoicePRO 901. It’s prominent feature is noise killing as it says right on the box…”Kill Noise”. The design and shape is that of a traditional over the ear headset and it’ll definitely remind you of a Jawbone Headset, but without the sticker shock of one.

i.Tech’s unit carries an MSRP of $79.99, but you’ll be able to score it on Amazon.com for a little more than $56 and some change. Consider the street price and you’ve got a great bang for the buck unit, in our opinion.

Package includes lots of little accessories, including extra ear-hooks and a neatly designed lanyard for carrying your headset on the go. The lanyard has two openings and you simply slot your headset’s earpiece into the larger eye and slide down to lock in. The effect is simple and a unique way of carrying around your headset around your neck rather than in your ear all the time. We like it.

The unit is light. Very very light. The design and it’s weight really remind you of a Jawbone headset especially when you put it on and to using it. While not part of the manufacturer’s specs, we actually found that ear-hooks were unnecessary in some cases. A few of our testers simply popped the ear-hook out and used it as a simple in-ear headset. All functions, voice and call clarity were exactly the same as using an ear-hook. The bonus here is if you wear glasses, ear-hooks can be a pain to put on and take off. However, using the 901 in straight to ear form worked without a hitch and we recommend it if you ear can accommodate it. It fits in most cases snugly and won’t pop out unless you get smacked in the face.

We tested the headset in our make-shift wind tunnel (car, all windows open, going 65 MPH on our local freeway), and we have to say we were impressed. The wind screen quality was not exactly as good as Plantronic’s Voyager Pro headset, but better than the more expensive Jawbone and certainly better than most headsets without a noise killing feature.

People we called reported slight wind noise, a just a little bit of the “voice-through-a-can” of a bluetooth headset, but they had no idea the windows were full open until we told them. All of our testing indicated you can hear wind noise, but only just slightly.

Other background noise killing was pretty good. In a crowded MacWorld Expo floor, folks we called could hear us loud and clear over the hustle bustle of hundreds of people talking. In fact, one tester reported that it was like getting a phone call from a phone booth on a noisy street corner. You knew people were around the person calling you, but you had no idea that it was so many people.

In a normal crowded room, i.Tech’s unit did perfectly fine. It killed all ambient noises and callers couldn’t tell if we were using a bluetooth or no-headset at all.

The one test that the 901 didn’t do so well on is with a loud San Francisco Muni bus about 2 feet away. But, even a phone in that case would fail pretty hard.

On i.Tech’s part, there’s some serious noise canceling going on. You’ll hear a whispy sound sometimes when you turn the headset on and this sound will quickly dissipate. Our testers admitted that most people would just not hear this sound at all, so keep in mind, we’re being real nit-picky here. Sometimes though, this initial whisp would get slightly louder and you’d get some feedback. All things we’ve experienced on headsets like Jawbone before, so nothing really out of the ordinary. Still, it’s note worthy to mention that it’s not a broken headset you’re dealing with, but something that’s inherent in this type of design.

Multipoint support and bluetooth 2.1 with 100 hours of standby time and 5 hours of talk time. Our results were a little bit better though coming in at just over 6 hours. Standby time also was excellent, as we went almost a week without charging, and still got about 2 hours out of the unit in use.

Lightweight, priced aggressively, and designed really well, it’s hard not to recommend it if you’re looking for a quality noise canceling bluetooth headset. Keep in mind though, we stressed it pretty hard. i.Tech VoicePRO 901 never claims to have “wind shields” or anything like that, so we were surprised to find that it did well in our windy test.

Voting on this unit was tough. We couldn’t give it a full Golden Bucket based on it’s MSRP of $79.99. However, if you buy it on Amazon.com or elsewhere for around $56, then you’ve got a real winner.

So, we’re still going to award it a Golden Bucket Award though, but we’re adding a first. The Golden Bucket with an Asterisk award. If you get it for our recommend price, then it’s a winner. So start looking already!

More information on i.Tech’s products is available here.

(Legal Note: Our lawyer wants us to tell everyone that this is an independent review of i.Tech i.VoicePRO 901. Tech Bucket Blog LLC did not pay for the product being reviewed. We requested and received this item from representatives of i.Tech. We are never and were not compensated for our opinions or recommendation of this or any other product we review. We offer our opinions based upon our own independent testing and offer no express or implied warranties on any statement that we make. It is simply our opinion. Your experience may differ. As our policy is not to be compensated for our reviews, we are never directed in one direction (positive or negative) about this or any product we review.)

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