Aliph Jawbone II Bluetooth Headset with NoiseAssassin

Tagged with: Aliph Jawbone

Aliph Jawbone II Bluetooth Headset_two First off, let me say that my review on this product doesn’t take into account any comparison to other Bluetooth sets. I bought this headset because of the new law in California coming up where it becomes illegal to talk on the phone while driving without a hands free device. It is the first Bluetooth headset I have owned and I’ll just give you my opinion from my experience thus far. I also want to let you know that I am using this with an iPhone. So here we go!

First things first: the design. When i first started in looking at headsets I was disappointed at how ugly and bulky the majority of Bluetooth headsets were. Even looking at the old jawbone, I don’t know how people use them without dying of embarrassment . The Jawbone 2 is by far the nicest looking headset on the market today and was well worth the extra money for its light and compact form factor. The outside portion has a chic, designer styling with a great looking, low profile ear-loop wrapped in leather. If you look back at the old ear-loop design you can see how much of an improvement this is. Even looking at the Jawbone 2 picture here on Amazon doesn’t do it justice. I actually don’t mind wearing it away from the home or car. There is a 2 color led light (red & white) hidden on the ridge of one of the little diamonds on the face and all of the buttons are hidden underneath the casing. Someone noted that they didn’t like the hidden buttons because when they placed it in their ear the headset turns off. I have never had this problem once. It takes all of a second to put the headset in my ear – to turn the headset off you have to hold the button down for a couple of seconds. I usually place it in my ear from the sides anyways and maybe push inwards only for second to ensure a snug fit. The button commands were very easy to learn. Overall this is the best looking headset around.

Next up, looking at the fit: A lot of people seem to have problems with getting the headset to fit correctly. Maybe it’s just a case by case basis where problems occur, because after choosing the correct earpiece, not only does the earpiece stay firmly in place, but I don’t even need to use the ear-loop! I was looking into the whole deal where people are apparently using Jabra ear gels with their sets, but I don’t feel like its necessary. The fit is so snug that I can shake my head from side to side vigorously and it doesn’t move at all. And again, that’s without the ear-loop! It doesn’t hurt or anything but I don’t know if I would forget that it was in my ear. The longest conversation that I have had on it was 90 minutes and comfort wasn’t really an issue. Sometimes I put the ear-loop on if I’m walking for extended periods of time just as a safety precaution. I spent too much to risk letting it drop. The ear loop makes things a little less comfortable, but mainly because I’m in between the two sizes they give you. Why do they give you a medium size and an XL size but nothing in between? No idea, but I don’t use it often enough to need to worry about it. Fit is important to keep the vibration sensor pressed against your cheeck. If you don’t keep the sensor against your face the device won’t work properly. Sorry to the people with long side burns or beards, this product probably won’t work for you. Because everyone has different sized ears, I would recommend buying this product from a place like Best Buy so you can return it, no questions asked, if it doesnt fit properly. Overall I would give the comfort a 7/10.

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Aliph Jawbone II Bluetooth Headset with NoiseAssassin (Black) [Retail Packaging] (Wireless Phone Accessory)

List Price:	$129.99 USD
New From:	$49.99 In Stock
Used from:	$19.95 In Stock
Release date June 28, 2008.

Now the sound quality. I actually just took a 30 min break from writing this review to make a call and make sure I write an accurate review. I checked with the other person multiple times through out the conversation if they were hearing me ok, they said “perfectly clear” each time. My volume was at a little less than half way which was more than enough to hear the other person perfectly clearl. No muffled sound, just crystal clear sound quality. Perhaps those people with problems have a defective unit. I’ve never had anyone complain, nor have I had any complaints, about the sound quality. One thing that I don’t necessarily like is how you change the volume. To change the volume, you press the noise assassin button to cycle up through the different levels. Once it reaches max volume it goes back to the lowest setting. My friend told me that when I pressed it a few times, from his side it sounded like aliens were invading — which is what it sounds like from my side too (think Space Invaders). The ringing sound and volume chime are pretty ugly sounding but aren’t really anything to get upset about. It’s just too bad you can’t hear your cell phone’s ringtone through the headset. One thing to note is that when you cycle through the volume levels, it’s not making a change within the headset hardware, but actually changing to volume on the cell phone itself. I don’t know if that’s how all Bluetooth headsets are, but I just thought it was worth a mention. Because my phone has a volume rocker on the side, I just click that if I need to change the volume. It’s usually set at the right volume anyways. One other minor thing is that the Noise Assassin seems to work from both sides. If the other person is in a noisy room, it will be really quiet when they aren’t talking, but when they are talking you can hear some of the background noise on their end. It’s hard to describe, but there’s something about going from noise…to perfectly quiet… constantly…that got a little annoying over time. Quick fix, I just turned off the Noise Assassin by pressing the back of the headset for a couple of seconds (it’s on by default). The Noise Assassin, by the way, makes it so quiet that if the person doesn’t talk for a couple of seconds I’m tempted to say “uhh…hello? Are you still there?” It’s dead quiet. As if they hung up the phone and you are no longer connected. I guess this could be considered good and bad in different ways, and Aliph probably designed the Jawbone that way, but again this can always be turned off.

A few other things worth mentioning: The headset comes with small, medium, and large ear pieces and 2 sets of ear-loops (2 sizes, 2 plastic and 2 leather covered). Make sure you try them all out to get the best fit. For me, the medium earpiece was more comfortable, but large gave me a more snug fit (important for keeping the sensor on your check) and better sound. If I’m just sitting at a desk or driving, the medium ear piece works fine and I forget that its even there. Too much movement causes problems in quality from the other end though. People with problems might want to try going up an earpiece size. It also comes with a nice charger that has a plug with USB input, and a USB cable with a magnetic charging head. When you plug the headset in you lose the Bluetooth connection and the jawbone turns off. This means that when you receive a call you have to unplug the jawbone, hold the outside button for 2 seconds until it turns on and wait another second or two for the connection to be made. I’ve missed calls this way and usually just answer the phone and tell the person to hold on for a sec.
The Bluetooth signal is pretty strong. Some people mentioned that they had problems with dropped Bluetooth signals, but I havent had one yet. I live in a studio apartment and usually just keep the phone docked, headset in my ear, and even walk around the studio while on a call without any signal loss.

Price wasn’t really an issue for me, but might be for others. Even with its high price, I feel like it was well worth it. Other than price, and a few other minor dislikes (nothing worth lowering score for), I’m very happy with this headset and would recommend it to anyone.