Hands-on with Aliph's Jawbone Bluetooth headset

What makes a Bluetooth headset great? Does it need to be so small as to be virtually invisible? Does it need to be a brilliantly-designed fashion accessory? Perhaps easy to use, easy to hear, and easy to be understood? Ultimately, of course, no model is perfect; every headset on the market is a compromise, a reflection of the manufacturer's (and the buyer's) priorities. So we basically went into the review of the Bluetooth variant of Aliph's lauded Jawbone with that same mentality, hoping that it'd prevent us from getting distracted by any miscellaneous shortfalls in the product -- the Jawbone's draw, after all, is its noise reduction circuitry, and that's what we really wanted to report on here. Instead, we came away with a shockingly positive impression of the Jawbone not just as a technological overachiever, but as a legit headset that we could see ourselves using day in and day out. Read on to find out why.

The Jawbone's packaging was about as elaborate as we've seen for any phone-related product. Ever. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to claw our way into its precious contents.

In an age where headsets often use quarters and paperclips as size benchmarks, the Jawbone is by no means "small." That being said, we were pleasantly surprised at how small it seemed on our ear -- we'd gotten the impression from pictures (and from holding it in our hand, for that matter) that it'd be far more conspicuous than it turned out to be. Add in its striking design -- without question one of the best we've seen on a Bluetooth headset -- and a choice of red, gray, and black shells, and we don't think most folks need to be concerned about drawing unwanted attention (unless they want to, in which case the red comes highly recommended).

Design aside, a headset is only good as our ability to wear it with two assurances: 1) that it won't fall off, and 2) that we can wear it for hours without suffering. The Jawbone passes both tests with flying colors. Its somewhat unusual earloop -- with metal outer and soft rubber inner sections -- can be tricky to master the very first time you use it, but slapping it on became second nature for us in no time. Once it's on, it ain't going nowhere (unless you want it to). We could tell after a few minutes of use that it wasn't going to cause any discomfort, either; in fact, we could barely tell it was on, even though the earbud was securely in the entrance of our ear canal. The earloop's design also does a bang-up job of keeping the vibration sensor (a little white nub on the headset's inner side) firmly against your cheek, which is where it needs to be to pick up sound and do its noise cancellation trickery.

So yeah, onto the real draw here: noise reduction. Despite being thoroughly impressed with the Jawbone as a plane ol' Bluetooth headset, we knew we had to put that key feature to the test before declaring an Aliph victory. By default, the circuitry is enabled for all calls (it can be disabled with a button press, though we're not sure why you'd want to do that). On a ten scale, we'd give the feature a six for it's ability to... well, do what it says it's supposed to. Aliph says that the technology works by mixing data from the vibration sensor with that from a traditional microphone to weed out everything but your voice, and callers could definitely tell that's what was going on, too, because loud noises around us would intermittently cut in and out. Sounds like construction equipment, trains, and cars seemed easier for the Jawbone to consistently discard, but strong winds were a major challenge. The good news is that we could almost always be heard even in the face of serious background noise -- the only problem is that callers would occasionally get some of that background noise mixed in. At any rate, we can say with certainty that the Jawbone fared better in every noise test than a traditional headset would have.

Clarity and volume were fantastic on our end as well. It's said that the Jawbone dynamically adjusts volume and tone based on ambient conditions, and seeing how we were able to walk around in a variety of situations without touching the volume even once, we tend to believe it.

Niggles were few and far between. The headset charges via USB -- always a bonus -- and includes an AC adapter with a USB port for those times when the PC is out of reach. One minor complaint was the button configuration; kudos to Aliph for integrating the Jawbone's two buttons in such a way that they're invisibly integrated with the overall design, but they lose some points for failing to include dedicated volume up / volume down buttons (instead, volume is cycled with repeated presses of the secondary button). Another gotcha that might bother some folks is that it can only be paired with one handset at a time, but hey, it just gives you an excuse to order all three colors, right?

So is the Jawbone a buy? Yeah, we'd say so. We think $120 is a pretty reasonable sum to pay for an attractive, ultra comfortable, and highly functional Bluetooth headset of any sort, but when you throw in some fairly functional noise reduction, you've got a winner on your hands.

[dMAYNE @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:29PM]

are there eargels that fit this earpiece

[woos @ Sep 27th 2008 10:43PM]

Yes, try the Jabra eargels. They do not lock on to the body of the jawbone, so you may want to try superglue (I have not glued mine). But they will get the jawbone to stay in your ear without the earhook.

[Ron McLaren @ May 6th 2008 12:12AM]

I have had numerous problems with my jawbone. It has come apart, broken in two, and the piece that covers the charging terminal has fallen off. Each time, super glue has fixed the problem. I have also had two earhooks break from simple wear. I cannot find anywhere online or other place to purchase new ones. You would think that for a premium price, you would get a better product.

[Nathan @ Jun 25th 2008 9:05AM]

I might get labeled an "Eco-Nut" but the packaging turned me off. Too much hard plastic for something that's just going to be tossed. Aren't we all supposed to be reducing waste? I know this doesn't have anything to do with the headset's performance, and yes I still want one, but it really shades my purchase decision.

[Matt @ Jul 7th 2008 9:01PM]

Does anyone know what is wrong with the Original Jawbone when you turn it on and it blinks red constantly and beeps 3 times every 5-10 seconds. After about 5 minutes, it completely shuts off. I fully charged it. Reset it. What else could it be? Jawbone's support has NOT returned repeated emails. Horrible...horrible support. I tried it with multiple phones too.

Any help?

[tony @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:45AM]

I have the same problem, have you found a solution yet?

T

[Richard @ Oct 24th 2008 3:26PM]

NEVER buy Jawbone online! I bought the Jawbone on eBay and, when it stopped charging after a few weeks, I called Jawbone and they refused to honor their warranty. Because I bought online from a "wholesaler," which I didn't know there was a difference, Jawbone refuses to warranty it.

I bought the entire Jawbone w/ charger for about $100 on eBay. Just the earpiece itself from Jawbone was over $100. I thought I got a bargain but I really got ripped off and hence, I will NEVER buy Jawbone again and my own company will NOT pay for any Jawbone device!

Frankly, I didn't like the feel and it was very hard to put on and keep on when moving at all. The wind noise factor was also an issue. You must also keep the earpiece close to your face to work properly, which I see as a flaw. To have to pay over $140 for Jawbone, I will stay with my Motorola!!!

I would recommend a NO BUY on Jawbone, unless you like experimenting. But, there will be reasons you will eventually not like Jawbone and all the cognitive consonance in the world will not make it comfortable!!! And, you won't like their "customer service!" Actually quite arrogant!

[Denise @ Oct 20th 2008 1:39PM]

I too bit off on the advertisement for the noise cancelling feature and like most in this blog, have found it to be adequate to poor at best. Certainly not worth the price. The ear piece is downright painful and despite trying each ear loop and ear bud, none fit my ear properly (apparently I have a small face and small ears). The biggest complaint I have received is the “you sound like you are in a tunnel” or “your voice is echoing” and on occasion I can hear myself talk . . . which is extremely unnerving. The unit constantly loses its connection with my phone and has to be re-synched on a regular basis. I wouldn’t buy another nor would I recommend . . .

[Mike @ Apr 1st 2007 11:24AM]

I was pretty disappointed...so much so, that I returned it to AT&T two weeks after the original purchase.

I had the same problems with loud noises cutting in and out for callers on the other end. Think of it this way, if you bought the headset for this function and it doesn't work consistently, you basically end up never taking the chance of talking whilst in noisy environments.

The second biggest problem was definitely the wind. I found it utterly useless in windy conditions, an environment I had hoped would be much better.

That said, they're on the right track - maybe v2.0 will do the trick but v1.0 was barely better than all the other headsets you pay 29.99 for. Save your cash.

[Xultar @ Apr 1st 2007 11:50AM]

Windnoise is almost impossible to cure as it relates to devices such as this.

With that said I love my Jawbone. The only problem I have with it is the pain it causes my ear. OUCH!!!!

[Chris Gutierrez @ Oct 23rd 2008 1:47PM]

I also love my Jawbone but, the pain is excruciating. Make it stop! Did your pain go away?

[Shaun McLane @ Apr 1st 2007 12:54PM]

I own it and love it...although, I'm not getting the part about it being small on the ear. It does draw attention, but not always bad attention. I wasn't so lucky with the sound on my end either. I have trouble hearing while I'm in my very noisy car. Other than that, it's an amazing piece of equipment.

[Peter @ Apr 1st 2007 1:23PM]

My Jawbone broke after having it just for a week. The ear bud is attached to the main body with flimsy internal plastic clips that snapped off, rendering the headset unwearable.

Although Aliph support was very polite and quick to offer me an RMA number to exchange my unit, I've still been without my Jawbone for a month waiting for the replacement to come (my color was backordered and they had none reserved for warranty replacements).

Ultimately, for a product with such a premium price tag, I'm unimpressed with the build quality and their customer service.

[ObliteRon @ Apr 1st 2007 1:24PM]

I picked up the Jawbone and found it worth every penny. (In fact, I picked up a second one for my wife.) The Jawbone really shines in places I've tested like our datacenter and the car with music playing. I compared it head-to-head with my previous headset, a Motorola H700, and it was no comparison. The Jawbone with its noise cancellation OFF was still better than the H700 in the car with music playing. The volume is also higher than the Motorola headsets. (Which was lacking in the H700, and the HS810 I had before it.) I admit that I haven't used it in a windy situation yet.

[zkv @ Apr 1st 2007 2:51PM]

I own two of these and have not found any better Bluetooth. They are far better than the Plantronics Discovery at noise reduction. Sudden loud noises get through and so does wind but I do not know of any blue tooth that suppresses these noises except the wired and heavy headphones Boom O.

[Jonathan Sundy @ Apr 2nd 2007 3:43PM]

Has anyone tried it in a convertible at 65 mph??

And what ever happened to the invisio bone conduction bluetooth headset that was supposed to be out at radio shack by x-mas 2006??

[DeKay @ Apr 2nd 2007 4:21PM]

I've had the Jawbone for 3 months, and give it a "B-".

On the plus side, it performs reasonably well in noisier environments other than those with wind, and is more comfortable than it looks.

On the negative side for design, it tends to slip off and the metal earloop broke off where it joins the body after having been bent just once. If you put the earpiece in your pocket or your work bag, this is bound to happen. I now treat it much more gingerly.

On the negative side for sound quality, noise reduction doesn't help much for YOUR hearing in a noisy environment, and it suffers from static more easily than some other ear phones, if you are in a moderately heavy RF environment. You have to switch back to the handset in those environments.

[Rayson @ Apr 6th 2007 4:44AM]

I am interested in getting the jawbone but am unsure whether its the right headset for me not being to test the headset as I live outside the US.

As important is the noise reduction ability, it is probably more important to me that the headset volume can get high enough as I am a little hard of hearing from my high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus.

In that regard, would someone recommend the Jawbone and if not, any other bluetooth headset that might fit the bill?

[Jeff @ Apr 6th 2007 7:50AM]

I like the design but for $120 there should not be any complaints. (except for the wind issue)

[McBain @ Apr 7th 2007 10:01PM]

I found the Jawbone to be an ok device considering the price. Noise cancelling was good outside of the wind as reported by others. Incoming was clear albeit being told that I sounded "far away but clear" to listeners.

My biggest complaint, and why I returned it after 2 weeks was that the time to recharge was very poor....under 5 hrs even with only moderate use. My Moto H800 can go a full day on one charge with much heavier use so I found myself bringing both with me each day. A $129 unit is hardly worth it if I have to do that.

Perhaps v 2.0 will be better but I did not find it was worth the price for how I need to use the device.

[Cindy Zeddies @ May 8th 2007 3:58PM]

I cannot get the jawbone to stay on my ear. I have tried all the ear pieces and changed the wire piece as well. The ear piece does not seem to be made for everyone. I am constantly fidgeting with it in my ear. I cannot look over my shoulder while driving without it falling off my ear. Any suggestions?

[Bob @ Mar 7th 2008 12:12PM]

So what is the best bluetooth to get?

[jdog @ Nov 11th 2007 1:22PM]

The hype got me to buy one. Then reality set in.

I loved the noise cancelling of this headset, I've not found anything that beats it. Even wind wasn't so much an issue for me as it seems it is for other users, but maybe I was lucky.

The earhook design needs some help - it's uncomfortable and a pure pain in whatever-organ-you-like for putting on. The various ear "buds" work okay, but don't really fit. Some kind of in-canal option would be far better - I constantly got noise around the earbud, so would have to press the jawbone to my ear to hear - hardly the point of a handsfree device.

I had two earhooks break when placing the jawbone in my jacket pocket. After not sitting on it or doing any other kind of significant trauma, I found they would break with minimal time. Repeated contacts to Aliph went ignored, and when I finally got return mail they said they'd send me new earhooks....which have never arrived.

Last I looked at the website there is no way to reach them by phone, only email - ironic for a phone related company.

The technology is great. The fit needs work. There are design flaws, and customer support is next to nonexistent. This represents a great chance for improvement on behalf of the company.

[Barry Barash @ Dec 1st 2007 10:49AM]

The electrical charging connection between the Jawbone earpiece and the charger is intermittent. Sometimes I can get the headpiece to charge by rocking the unit in the charging cradle, but lately, even that doesn't work. Has anyone else had this problem and does anyone know a fix?

[ELM @ Dec 20th 2007 12:40PM]

My Jawbone headset broke this morning. I was removing the charging connector from the headset. The portion of the headset case that interfaces with the charger connector pulled off of the headset.

Bummer.

I expected better having paid a premium price for the device.

[fenacv @ Dec 20th 2007 6:11PM]

hey, I found that is on sale here! just $78 compare the prices but canada...
http://www.pricebat.ca/Jawbone-Red-Noise-Shield-Bluetooth-Headset.p_10062809/
It's good time to go get one.