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Author: panfa1
Categories: Reviews
Published: Saturday, 10 February 2007 2:44 PM
Created: Saturday, 10 February 2007 2:47 PM
Updated: Monday, 12 February 2007 by FredS
Views: 11978
panfa1 buys a new "Jawbone" Headset - Does it really cancel out noise?
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Introduction
The Jawbone - recently released by the Californian company Aliph - is
described by its makers as the "world's first adaptive Bluetooth
headset" for mobile phones. Its main feature is Noise Shield, a
technology supposed not only to virtually eliminate background noise,
but also to automatically enhance incoming audio. The unit comes in a
choice of three colours - black, silver and red.
Buying and shipping
Within a day or so of the Jawbone being released on their website (www.jawbone.com) I ordered a black one and it arrived four working days later via courier. It was well packed inside a cardboard shipping carton with another fitted carton inside that. It was further protected by an inner plastic container which was suspended on polystyrene end wraps. The whole package exuded class and attention to detail. It appears to be made in China, but a lot of good stuff is these days.
What's included
The transparent inner plastic box contained: Jawbone headset unit (shock mounted) with earloop and earbud attached; a multi-voltage power charger; a proprietary USB-to-headset cable; 4 additional earbuds (to fit different ear canal sizes); and an assortment of earloops (left and right, large and small).
Charging and battery
The charger is designed for a US wall socket, but it is multi-voltage. You'll need an adaptor plug to use it in Australia. However, the unit can be charged through the USB port of a PC, laptop or Mac. Just make sure the computer is on! The first charge takes around two hours and the maker claims around six hours of talk time and 120 hours of standby time, depending on how much the Noise Shield is used. The Jawbone automatically goes into standby mode when a call is terminated. The in-built battery is not user-replaceable.
Getting up and running
The instruction manual is concise but complete.
The biggest issue I had was figuring out which earloop to use. It comes with a right earloop attached, but given that we drive on the other side of the road to the Americans - and wind through an open window could affect it - I wanted to change to a left earloop. Changing them is easy enough. Deciding which loop to use and getting it over the ear took a bit of fiddling, but the technique is soon learnt.
There are only two buttons: Talk and Noise Shield. Together they handle just about every function - in fact everything except reset, which is achieved by sticking a thin object into the reset hole (Jawbone recommends the thin end of an earloop). The buttons are not immediately apparent, though, because they are actually below the outer surface and accessed by pressing lightly on that surface. The arrangement works well in practice.
The Talk button turns the unit on and off, begins and ends calls, transfers calls back from the headset to the phone and - according to the manual - will activate 'Last Number Redial' if your mobile has that feature. The Noise Shield button activates the audio enhancement technology and is also used to adjust volume.
So what's the Jawbone like in use?
Bluetooth Pairing
Obviously, the process will vary depending on your phone, but it paired with my new Blackberry Pearl perfectly the first time. You make the phone discoverable, then, with Jawbone switched off, press and hold down the Noise Shield button for around three seconds or until the light begins to flash between red and white. On the Pearl, just about everything else from then on happened automatically, the exceptions being that I had to enter the correct code and click connect. On subsequent connections, it was simply a matter of switching on the phone's Bluetooth and turning on the headset. When in use, the white light flashes, but it's not nearly as obvious as those electric blue ones - a good thing in my opinion!
Elimination of background noise
It would be a long process to test this under all possible environments. Jawbone has a pretty impressive demonstration on their website so I won't attempt to repeat that here. However, I have made a couple of simple tests and the results are pleasing.
My first test was in the car, driving to work with radio and air conditioning on. I did turn the radio down to initiate Voice Dial - mainly so I could hear the Pearl's instructions. Once initiated, I switched on Noise Shield (a 3 second button press) and then turned up the radio. The person I called could not hear the radio at all until I set it to a level I would not find comfortable in practice. Even then, they could hear me loud and clear.
Incoming audio
The Noise Shield does seem to alter the sound of the incoming human voice slightly - it's hard to describe the effect exactly, but it doesn't change it so much that you cannot recognise the voice. And let's face it, mobile phone sound and reception can vary from unit to unit, place to place and day to day.
With Noise Shield on, the unit is susceptible to wind noise. I need to do a little more testing with that.
Voice dialling (requires compatible phone)
Again, no problems with the the Pearl. Simply press the Talk button once and you get the same dialogue I reported in my earlier Pearl review. But I can hear it more clearly than with my previous headset. Time will tell, but I suspect that Jawbone's noise cancelling technology will make Voice Dialling even more reliable and accurate than it already is.
Quality of unit
The body is made of plastic, well put together and looks classy. The plastic on the inner side is smoother so it shouldn't irritate the skin This is important because the inner side must be touching your face to work efficiently. There is a small bump there that acts as the voice pick-up, while a number of directional microphones, hidden under the outer 'skin' of the unit, sense and cancel out background noise.
Conclusion
My initial thoughts, based on the fast response to my order and product presentation, were that this is a first class unit. The performance so far, lives up to those expectations. If you make a lot of phone calls on the move or in noisy environments, the Jawbone is worth considering. Some people won't like the thickness of it, but I am prepared to accept that in return for the performance, which is exceptional. For the time being, the only place you can buy one is overseas. If that's a turn-off, Jawbone is not for you.
Discuss it here
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