Sena 50S-01 Motorcycle Mesh Intercom Bluetooth Headset Communication System (Discontinued)

I have owned headsets from both Sena and Cardo. This deserves a top spot in the considerations.The good:Physical Interface: The wheel and buttons are very tactile and easy to find. Definitely better than the smallish buttons on the Cardo. Not that you need to touch it anymore as the voice commands are very good now.Voice Commands: Hey Sena..."insert command here" works as advertised and does just about anything you would want. I would rate voice commands a bit higher than the Cardo, and that is saying something (no pun intended).Sound Quality: The speakers are very good...right up there IMHO with the JBL on the Cardo Packtalk. Nice balance and absolutely louder than the competition. I can now hear and understand Intercom and music clearly at highway speeds. There are built-in equalizer settings, but it seems to cut down on maximum volume.Mesh 2.0: In a word...pure awesome. It has a public mesh mode for idiot proof intercom. Turn on unit, flip up antenna and push mesh button and you are instantly talking to whoever is nearby on a Sena. If you would rather setup a private group mesh, a 5 second hold on the button or a 'hey sena, group mesh' command has you talking just to your crew. Seriously doesn't get any easier than this. Beats the Cardo in my book for ease of use. The mesh is really robust too. It does have a distinct hit on battery life, which gets me to my first ding...Backward compatible: The clamp is absolutely compatible with earlier 20s/30k models but the gasket has been updated for better water repellency and the speakers on the 50 are heads and tails better previous generations. That said, it is VERY nice that you can use existing mounts so if you have already kitted out multiple helmets you are good to go. Intercom in bluetooth to a 20s seemed to work great too, but I didn't test it a lot.Accessories: They include a little charging cable with a wifi dongle. Once configured, it checks for updates to firmware and automatically applies it. First night I had it, I plugged it in and was greeted the next morning with 1.0.2 software...very nice.Software: The PC/Mac app for updates and config is good and the mobile phone app is well very done and functional. All the configuration and operation you could need right at your fingertips.The 'not so awesome'Battery Life: Decidedly meh. The battery life is not on par with Cardo. I hope maybe a software update will help, but I was only able to eek out 5.5-6 hours with the mesh intercom going and music streaming. This is mitigated somewhat with an EXCELLENT quick charging tho. We stopped for 15 minutes for gas, bio break and a snack and I plugged it into my USB. It went from 17% to 85% in that time, but the Cardo would have gone all day. Something to be aware of but not a show stopper in my book. They can be ridden and used while charging as well.The inaugural run went VERY well, albeit with a few hiccups. About 5 hours into the ride she announced low battery. A little while later she disabled mesh to stretch what was left (bluetooth uses half the battery of mesh), but actually seemed to setup a bluetooth channel with another rider so I could continue talking, which was very nice. After charging up, I needed to power cycle the unit to get the Mesh channel back, otherwise I would get 'mesh disabled, enabling bluetooth'. Probably a software fix in the works. Not perfect, but all in all pretty cool.Waterproof: Or lack thereof. Not 100% sure how much this will matter in real life, but there is no IP rating like on the Cardo units. That said, they improved the gasket on the clamp and reversed the rubber cover on the USBC charging port. Time will tell.Interspecies communication: My squad all have Sena units, and my daughter has my old 20s. Know that they all tout 'universal pairing' but setting up a link between Sena and Cardo is a hot mess and someone is gonna hate it. One set uses universal pairing, but the other needs to be in second mobile phone pairing mode. If you had a phone and GPS paired, you are skunked. On top of that, the range is bad and the quality of voice is crackly. I would not buy a new comm unit from another vendor expecting seamless communications between both worlds. Pick one and stay with it.Hope that helps.

My riding buddies have Sena 30K's, and I could not get my Lexin to pair with them, so I bought this. Checking Youtube reviews I found a lot of negative comments, but I have to say I'm pretty happy with it. After my first day with it, here's my likes and dislikes:Sound Quality: Definitely better than my Lexin. Pretty good bass for such tiny speakers. Mic worked well, my buddies had no trouble hearing me.Mesh: Worked easily on my unit, but one of my buddies couldn't get it to work on his 30K. Could be he needs a firmware upgrade. So we did not use it.Bluetooth Intercom: It took us a while to figure out how to get all 3 of our units talking together, the instructions are a little confusing. But once we did it worked very well. Once we had one guy drop out of range, and when he rejoined us he automatically reconnected, which was nice. We were riding in wooded mountains, and range seemed to be a couple hundred yards, which is all I'd expect in those conditions. With clear line-of-sight it would be better.Voice Commands: I used voice commands to control the music on my Motorola phone, and it worked very well. Also used "hey google" to make a couple phone calls, no issues. It's really nice to be able to keep your hands on the bars.Battery Life: We rode for 8 hours with the unit on for the whole time, battery held up. We did take a break for about an hour, looks like the unit put itself in standby at some point. One push of the big button got it going again. One of my buddies had his battery die after about 5 hours, he was able to charge it while using it, which is handy. I assume that works on the 50S too.Wifi Charger: Getting it set up with my wifi was a bit confusing, but I got it figured out. I updated the firmware on the charger first, then connected the 50S and its firmware got updated automatically.I downloaded the user manual to my phone, I'll never remember all the commands and features, so it's helpful to have that always available. Getting everything set up and connected took a couple hours, make sure to give yourself plenty of time before you first use it.I have to say I'm very happy with it so far. Being able to talk to my buddies made the ride more enjoyable, and safer too, as the leader could let us know what was coming up.

The product is as described, was delivered on schedule, it's more bulky than my Cardio packtalk, sound is not quite as good as my pack talk. Noise cancelling, if they say so??Both my U Clear and my Packtalk bold, I can use earbuds, the UClear not with the Sena, which is a huge issue for me,the Sena is by far the whitest of all them, and having to add earplugs, makes it really,,, no I mean really, quite, with everything set as loud as you can go, it's still a little too quite, sound quality on phone calls is adequate, but not even close to the Packtalk bold, it is on a par with the UClear.Sena app is pretty good, the smart charger, just this side of a huge pain to set up, but once It was working,,,I really like it.Talk time is optimistic,,, I have only riden with it a handful of times, it's out of battery about an hour before both the UClear and Packtalk run out, using the UClear (with the optional extension cord), I can charge it in the ciggy lighter and put the unit in my jacket pocket,.The Packtalk can use earbuds of your choice, the UClear their junky earbuds, but switching helmets is simple,,with the UClear you don't have a microphone or speaker s to mount on the brain bucket, super convenient no matter which of my helmets I wear, the Sena,, had to dedicate one street,and one dual sport helmet, otherwise you're uninstalling from one, moving to the other or buying another headset and mic set up, either way, that's your only for Sena intercom helmets,,,, lastly,,, really?, Sena mesh intercom and Cardo mesh can't mesh with each other??? No way no how,,, come on man!!!