Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

May 31, 2009

Overall, Bluetooth wireless headsets have improved in the last few years. This is our conclusion, after we tested four of them.

However, a key problem has always remained. If you're in a windy place, it's hard to make yourself heard above the sound of the wind whistling over the microscopic microphone.

With average prices ranging from $100 to about $150 or so, today's latest generation of high-end Bluetooth headsets promise to do a better job at overall wind suppression.

The most telling place for the test actually was an interior staircase that, because of the ventilation system, had a steady light breeze of a few miles an hour. That doesn't sound like much, but it's enough for conversation to be impossible with a Motorola H-350, a 3-year-old headset that Motorola still makes.

With today's better headsets, the stairwell breeze was still noticeable, but I could still make myself heard. In fact, the last Bluetooth headset we tested, the Jabra JX-10 didn't give us any problem in the stairwell.

Outdoors, in very gusty weather, even the best headsets were occasionally overcome by the wind.

The four units we tested
The first unit we tested was the Jawbone Prime, from San Francisco-based Aliph. It costs $130, and Aliph has built a reputation for making headsets with fairly good noise cancellation. They do this by sensing vibrations in your jawbone to figure out when you're saying something! Aliph's latest model is slimmer and has noticeably better incoming audio quality and wind suppression than the first Jawbone the company made.

But overall, the other two headsets in the test did better in the wind, and especially with street noise. However, the user interface on the Jawbone is particularly difficult to master. For instance, you redial your last outgoing call by triple-tapping a button. Worse, this is a button that does other things if you tap it once, or if you hold it for two seconds, and it reacts totally differently to those actions depending on whether you're on a call or not. For those reasons, overall, we didn't like it as much as the other three we tested.

The second unit we tried was the Voyager PRO from Plantronics of Santa Cruz, Calif. This model costs $100 and is sort of a throwback, bucking the trend toward smaller headsets. Most of its bulk sits behind the ear, like a hearing aid. A long boom brings the microphone close to your mouth. That helps with the audio pickup but makes you look a bit too 'geeky' in our opinion.

Worse, the Voyager is even heavier than all the other headsets, but sits comfortably on the ear. General noise suppression is average. Wind suppression is not that good, but the Voyager has a smart feature that makes up for that: It connects the microphone to the earbud, so the wearer can hear when the microphone is picking up some wind.

Simply turning your head away from the wind will generally get rid of most of the noise, and the Voyager lets you figure out how to do that. The Voyager provides about six hours of talk time before needing to be recharged, compared to about 4.5 to 5 hours for the other models.

The third we tested was the "Q1" from BlueAnt Wireless of Australia. It costs $130 and looks very ordinary, but it does hide a lot of smart features. For example, it takes voice commands and even talks back to you. If you want to redial a call, you push a button and say "Redial." If you want to connect the headset to a new phone, you say "Pair me," and it walks you through the process in a patient male voice.

If you simply can't remember the keywords, push the button and ask "What can I say?" BlueAnt's V1, which came out last year, was the first headset with built-in voice recognition. The Q1 now improves on it with a sleeker look and sharper audio quality. In fact, the Q1 did very well both in noisy environments and in the wind, despite lacking an extended boom or a jawbone sensor.

The voice-controlled interface alone makes it stand out, and the audio performance makes it even more attractive. Like other headsets, it works with Bluetooth-equipped phones from any wireless carrier. But the Q1 is sold only through Sprint stores until about June 7, when it will be available in other stores and online as well.

The last one we tested is our favorite and the one we liked the most. It's the Jabra JX-10 which is also popular, especially in Canada. The model we had in fact worked remarkably well and only at one time did we notice that the wind would cause a slight whistling sound at the other end of the phone conversation.

At $150, the JX-10 is the most expensive of all 4, but we think it's well worth the price considering that it's actually the smallest unit we tested and also the lightest, and that it's quality is rather exceptional. We also liked the JX-10 since it was also the easiest to setup and "pair" with any cell phone, even a three-year old Motorola V-551. On other units such as the Jawbone Prime, it took us a second try until the unit was paired with the cell phone, but not on the JX-10. It worked right away.

The JX-10's average battery life is almost six hours, the highest of the range when compared with the other three we tested. The Jabra is sold in Best Buy stores as well as Future Shop, or you can buy it on the company's website.

And oh yes, while doing our testing in the interior stairway, we accidently dropped the JX-10 and if fell about 18 feet down to the other story and then it hit the concrete floor. But that didn't appear to bother it, as it continued to work as well as before.

So if you're looking for the best Bluetooth headset, get a Jabra JX-10.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.