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Jabra Stone Bluetooth headset review
Finally, the teaser's over. The latest delivery to Engadget's UK penthouse is the Jabra Stone Bluetooth headset due out in the US on 8th November, and we took no time to extract the pebble from the transparent cylinder. In front of us are the two parts of the Stone: an earpiece of a breakthrough form factor that instantly makes you pity its rivals, and behind it is the accompanying portable charging base which serves as an external battery. The latter is equipped with a micro-USB port and an LED indicator -- simply green or red -- to show whether there's enough battery juice for one full charge. It's a pretty neat idea as this is the only feasible way to fit eight hours of talk time (or twelve days of standby time) into such tiny package: two on the earpiece and an extra six from the surprisingly light battery base -- our scale reckons it is just under one ounce. We also dig the auto-off function when you dock the earpiece and vice versa. Docking and undocking are pretty straight forward too: just snap in for the former, and poke your thumb through the bottom hole of the base to push the earpiece out. The generic click button hidden under the Jabra badge is easy to access and responds well. Above that is the invisible vertical touch strip for volume control and similarly it responded nicely to our strokes. What's left on the earpiece are the two LED indicators on the underside for Bluetooth connectivity and battery. So far so good, but what really matters is the ear-on experience and the audio quality -- listen for yourself after the break. %Gallery-76023%
Jabra STONE Bluetooth headset brings extreme noise blocking, $130 price tag
Okay, so this thing is way more "traditional Bluetooth headset" than "a round object that looks nothing like a Bluetooth headset," but we'll give the marketing team credit -- STONE sure got us looking. Jabra's newest Bluetooth headset has just become official, bringing with it a behind-the-ear design, a wireless portable charger (which doubles as a carrying case) and Noise Blackout Extreme technology to keep things quiet when your yammering. There's also a "nearly invisible touch-controlled volume pad" on the outside of the headset, a battery good for 8 hours of talk time (or 12 days in standby), dual BT pairing support and A2DP compatibility. Unfortunately, you'll have to waltz into an AT&T retail store starting on November 8th to get one, and worse still, you'll walk out $129.99 poorer. But hey, you'll leave Stoned. (Sorry.)
GN Netcom 9350 dual-function wireless headset now shipping
If you've been looking for a headset that'll work with your plain old phone service and also let you do that VoIP thing, you might want to take a peep at GN Netcom's new 9350 dual-function headset (or just look past it if you're on a budget). While GN's "future-proof" claim seems a little dubious, for $349 you do get a 300 foot range on 1.9GHz (think: "WiFi-friendly") with DECT 6.0 technology, as well as promised sound enhancements from the headset's noise-canceling microphone and DSP and IntelliTone capabilities. Expect to get about six hours of talk time when using it with a PC, or nine hours on regular phone duties, with a recharge time of three hours and forty-three hour standby time. If you really want to blow things out, you can also sync up to four headsets to a single base station for conference calls, which kinda negates the whole VoIP cost savings thing, but do your thing.
