Is it time for a new Jawbone?
My Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset arrived today, and after letting it charge up for a few hours, I put it through some basic tests. First of all, let me mention that the packaging is just gorgeous. Amazing package design work, guys. It reminds me of an Apple product, to be honest.
I currently use a Plantronics Discovery 645, which I have grown quite fond of over the past 6 months.
Some thoughts:
* I like the color choice – silver, black, or red. I went with black.
* The Jawbone is larger than my previous BT headset, but within reason.
* The selection of earloops and earbuds made it easy to find the right fit for me. Although, I still don’t feel like the earbud is fully settled in the ear. It feels a bit like it’s floating, but I guess that is by design. This is the most comfortable BT headset I’ve tried. I can imagine wearing it all day with no irritation. If I shake my head, the Jawbone does not move. Unlike my Plantronics, which felt like it was always on the verge of falling out, the Jawbone isn’t going anywhere!
* I love the portability of the charger cable, and the multi-purpose for USB to computer or wall socket.
* Aliph does not provide a portable case for the Jawbone. I don’t wear my BT headset all day long, making we wonder where I am going to put this thing during downtime. The Plantronics came with a great carrying case, and this is something I will miss with the Jawbone.
* Pairing was easy and it came right up on my Sony Ericsson K790a. I also tried pairing with my Mac Book Pro running Mac OS X 10.4.8 – worked great.
* The controls are simple to use – limited buttons and easy to reach without feeling around for the right spot.
* The sound quality is lacking compared to my Plantronics Discovery 645. Everything sounds tinny. This is a disappointment. The Plantronics seems to do a better job at balancing out the range of sound, while the Jawbone seems to have the treble turned up too high, sacrificing the bass and the full range of sound. Listening to music through my Jawbone while paired with my Mac was like listening to a 24 kbps audio steam. In fact, when testing a 24 kbps and a 192 kbps audio steam, I could not make out any difference in the quality. The Plantronics was a bit better when testing this.
* There was a noticeable amount of background interference, although it did not negatively impact the call. I had no such interference with my other Bluetooth headset. I’m not sure why this is happening. It seems to be audio artifacts when there is sound coming into the Jawbone from the phone. During periods of silence, there is no background interference. The interference was not present when paired with my Mac, so there is something going on with my phone (SE K790a) and the Jawbone.
* The lowest sound setting on the Jawbone is actually a tad too loud for me, even when I also reduce the volume on the phone side. I was able to reduce the sound level further on my other BT headset. On the lowest sound setting, the call hang-up tone is beyond my dB comfort level.
* The noise shield, the main selling point of the Jawbone, seemed to work as advertised, but not as impressive as the video demos on the Aliph website. I tested with iTunes cranked on my Mac Book Pro and the TV at two volume settings. While the noise guard did noticeably reduce the background noise, it was not reduced to the point where I would feel comfortable taking a business call in the same room as my television or my computer playing music (although, who would?!). I did not have the opportunity to test in my car with road noise, which is the place I need noise guard most of all (or from an airport terminal).
The verdict? Good, but not up to my expectations. Will the Jawbone replace my Plantronics Discovery 645? Possibly. It may be that comfort and a bit of noise guard in key situations ends up being more important to me than audio quality – a surprising thing for me to say.
I really hope that some of the problems described above are either user error, the way I have the Jawbone fitted, or issues that can be corrected by firmware updates. The one problem I don’t suspect can be addressed is the audio quality and range of sound. This is the big disappointment for me.
In the end, reviewing a Bluetooth headset is entirely subjective – the look, the fit, the sound, the ease of use – so many factors at play that are dependent upon one’s own style, personality, and preferences. Don’t let this review turn you off to the Jawbone – take a look at additional user reviews out there before making up your mind.
UPDATE 02/06/07: My road test today was mostly a success – the two people I called were both impressed by the level of sound filtering going when I switched the noise guard on and off. However, one person complained about the quality of my voice. I also left myself a voicemail with noise guard both on and off – I can definitely tell the difference. With the sound guard on, my voice quality was higher when I dropped my speaking volume to a normal conversation voice.
Also – Aliph is offering free ground shipping until Feb 14th when using the coupon code JBAFS1819 on www.jawbone.com. I found this on an Engadget Mobile posting.
UPDATE 02/09/07: I’m keeping the Jawbone – even though I don’t like the output sound that much – it’s tinny. However, the comfort of the headset coupled with the amazing noise cancellation capabilities is more important to me the sound output quality. I can walk from my office, into an elevator, across the parking lot, into my car, and drive home all on the same call with no background sound issues.
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