kfj001's Full Review: Aliph Jawbone 2 Wireless Headset
Behold the Jawbone! The Jawbone is a Bluetooth headset featuring a tactile vibration sensor which serves to filter out all background noise from your speech, leaving only the crisp sound of your own voice when you're using this headset.
By detecting vibrations in your face, the unit detects when sounds it picks up are from the world around you, or coming from you when you talk (or chew.)
This is a revolutionary technology that makes the jawbone compact, easy to use, and very effective at what it does. Well, except for the fact that it's not as effective as the price tag might suggest...
The right stuff? Try the right face. The jawbone sits on your ear like any other Bluetooth headset. It features an ear loop to keep it perched on your ear and then rests its VAS (the vibration sensor) against your face.
There are litanies of problems with this thing already. First of all, it doesn't stay on your ear. The unit comes with 6 (count em, 6) different sizes and types of ear loop attachment, but they all stink. They're all half-size over-the-ear loops. 3 are a fabric finish while 3 are a rubberized finish. Neither are effective at keeping the thing on your head when you turn, look, angle your head, or otherwise are not in a perfect Barbie-doll posture.
The fabric-finished loops are ideally for bare-ears, while the rubberized ones are for people with glasses, oily skin, or any other conditions which might make the fabric finish loops not adhere. The unit also comes with 3 different sizes of ear bud padding. Small, medium and large, depending on the size of your ears. The idea here is that a snug fit in the ear canal improves placement on your face, and hearing out of the thing.
Sure, the right size ear bud fitting makes it easier to hear, but it does nothing to keep the damn thing on your face.
Audio Quality The VAS doesn't work well for people who don't have round, perfectly shaven faces. Even stubble can drive this thing NUTS.So, if you're a chubby woman aged around 30, this is your headset. Oh, and you'd better not wear glasses. Otherwise? You will probably run afoul of the VAS and the audio detection on this thing.
When the VAS isn't making proper contact, your own voice may get squelched out as background noise, which means your voice might fade out into obscurity.
You can disable VAS based audio filtering, but then this thing becomes like every other headset on the market, and you did NOT just pay over $100 for one of THOSE.
When the VAS is working properly, there is a tiny bit of dampened audio right at the beginning of your conversation, but thereafter, your listeners are oblivious that you're talking to them over a Bluetooth headset, in a potentially crowded or noisy area. It's very effective at audio filtering.
Again, when it works. In order for the VAS to be effective, it has to make constant, soft contact with your face.
As we read above, it has problems even staying on your ear, let alone pressing its tip (where the VAS lies) up against your face.
Operation This thing is kind of awkward to operate. It's got two buttons. One to control your call (answer, hang-up, power) and one to invoke voice dial, turn the VAS on and off, and control call volume. The two buttons are on a kind of rocker switch that makes it very awkward to push the "rear end button" (VAS, volume and dialing) without popping the headset of your head.
Pushing the call control button is, thankfully, as easy as sticking your finger in your ear.
But when pairing the unit with a phone, you're required to push BOTH buttons, and this is very hard given their orientation on the device. It feels like in order to push one of the two buttons, you can't push the other at the same time...
You can, but it's awkward.
Once you get the basics of using this thing down, it's pretty much down to two button operation. Initiate a call using voice dial, or pick your mobile phone up, and end the call by jamming your finger in your ear. That's pretty much it.
I mean, who wants to turn the VAS off?
Fashion Hey, I get that Bluetooth is fashionable. Sometimes. The jawbone 2 is a fashionable piece of headware. It's sleek, but modest. It comes in many colors, although they aren't changeable. Thankfully, black will always be the new black.
Summary The jawbone is a cute accessory with really advanced technology designed to make Bluetooth calling easier and more useful (by making your actually audible in your conversations!)
But sadly, given the fact the thing must make good contact with your face, coupled with the terrible design of the ear loops (which is what actually KEEPS it on your face...) means the quality of this device really falls flat. Given its cost, I have to say, look elsewhere.
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