Aliph Jawbone Noise Shield Bluetooth Headset Black Retail Packaged

These days, it seems that wireless Bluetooth headsets are a dime a dozen, but Aliph’s Jawbone stands apart from the pack due to its unique look and some seriously amazing noise canceling technology. Originally developed for DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to create a communication headset that would pick up voice in hostile environments, the Jawbone offers some of the best clarity from a Bluetooth headset we’ve experienced. This version comes in black, but it’s also available in red and gray.

Sophisticated modern industrial style meets the next step in audio technology with the Jawbone Bluetooth headset.

It can be worn on either ear, and you can customize your fit by choosing from one of the included earloops and earbuds.

The first thing you notice about this headset is its rather chunky size and cheese grater-like texturing on the exterior. Designed by Yves Behar, an award-winning industrial designer who also contributed to the design of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child, aka the $100 Laptop), the Jawbone certainly has that iconic modern look that will be copied for years to come. It’s also a bit large on the face (due to the embedded technology and speech sensor), which reminded us of Lando Calrissian’s assistant, Lobot. But then there’s no easy way to disguise a Bluetooth headset, and it’s probably an advantage as passersby won’t think you’re just muttering crazily to yourself.

The Jawbone can be worn on either ear, and it comes with four earloops of varying sizes to fit your lobe. Made of solid metal with a rubber cover, they’re fairly comfortable around the ear. The trick, however, is getting it on over the ear, and this is the Jawbone’s biggest disappointment. Because it’s so stiff, you literally have to use both hands to try to slip it on over your ear. And since we don’t wear our headset constantly, we missed a few calls while performing this dance. Also, the metal frame does bend (as we found after carrying it in our pocket), which can be viewed as an annoyance or as a feature–enabling you to form-fit the frame to your ear. It also comes with five ear pads of varying shapes and sizes, and we tried one of the teardrop shaped pads to secure the Jawbone inside our ear sans metal frame–it was comfortable and worked for awhile, but isn’t a solution if you’re moving around a lot.

As with Steve Jobs, Behar is not a fan of protruding buttons. Thus, the Jawbone’s two controls are hidden within the headset, requiring you to press either the front or back of the unit to answer calls, adjust volume, or turn on/off the noise cancellation function. While we’ve read some reviews that complained about these hidden controls, we had no problem in accessing them and appreciated their tactile response. The Jawbone also comes with a custom-fit recharging cable that can either plug into a PC’s USB port or into the included wall jack. We enjoyed the flexibility of the USB charging, but wished the cable could have been a more standard USB mini-jack (for those times when you forget to bring the cable along).

But the true test of the Jawbone is how its “noise shield” performed. First, a little about this technology. The Jawbone has a small piece of rubbery plastic that protrudes from the bulbous microphone and sits flush against your face, and this sensor tells the Jawbone whether or not you’re speaking and can remove background noise from your ongoing speech signal. It can also dynamically adjust the volume of the incoming audio from your call.

We tried the Jawbone in a number of different situations, and for the most part it worked flawlessly. Sitting at our desk with the stereo volume cranked up while playing The Chemical Brothers, our call partner was none the wiser. She didn’t hear any of the music coming through, and our voice came through strong on her end. While standing on a street corner, the undulations of traffic noise never made it through to our caller, while we noticed an uptick in volume with an increase in traffic noise.

However, the Jawbone wasn’t perfect, as it doesn’t do a great job in windy situations. Still, for the good majority of situations you’ll find yourself in–from busy airports to talk-heavy coffeehouses to traffic-laden city streets–the Jawbone should perform very well, masking the surroundings to improve fidelity for you call partner as well adapting your ear volume to the surrounding environment. We just wish the ear frame was a bit more flexible.

Pros:

• Amazing background noise masking capabilities–even when faced with loud, thumping music
• Outstanding adaptive volume as the environment around you changes
• Options for customizing the fit

Cons:

• Metal earloop frames are hard to quickly put on
• Non-standard USB connection is a bummer if you forget the cable at home

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Making it fit your ear
I out it on and try calling from outdoors on a very windy day. The person on the other end couldn’t hear me. I was very down thinking I bought another piece of garbage. I read the directions and found out that there is a white knob on the end that has to be in contact with your face. So after 4 trys and finally bending one of the supplied ear loops to fit my ear properly i got it perfect. I then made a call again from a noisy place and it was amazing. The noise reduction was awesome and I had no problem hearing even in a crowded noisy environment. And on the other end my friend was so impressed he bought one to. So the moral to the story is it’s worth the fight to get it to fit the end result justifies the struggle.

2 Stars hard to get a good fit
The over-the-ear piece is a not a good fit for my ears. Moreover, they are extremely fragile and prone to breaking. Within 5 minutes of getting the phone out of the box, I broke the ear piece just trying to get the headset over my ear. I put the headset in my piece and bent the second piece. The plastic piece covering the control buttons seemed very cheap also, and I think it would be a matter of time before that broke as well. I generally take good care of my headsets and electronic equipment, so if the headset seemed fragile to me, it probably will for most. Also, as a woman with a small head, the headset just felt clumsy and big. On the upside, the acoustics seemed decent, but then I only used the headset once and decided to return it.

1 Star It did not sit on my ears at all
Even though, personally I think it’s look is the best, I bought this blue tooth headset since it was rated best and importantly it had noise canceling feature. However when I received it I could not make it sit on my ears (I have normal ears, in case if you are wondering). I felt like it is always dangling from my ears and can fall off any moment. I returned it with in a day. I wish this one worked out for me.

5 Stars What a great Bluetooth headset!
Clear reception, loud, and ease to intialize with your cell phone. Not as easy to slip on your ear as most Motorola headsets I have used. I would recommend it to anyone and buy it again myself.

3 Stars Jawbone Bluetooth Headset
The Jawbone bluetooth instantly connected with my iPhone and has worked reaonably well, allowing me to talk and be understood when there is background noise. It has some disturbing features which is the reason for the low score. The ear pieces are likely to fall off due to activity such as running because they fit so loosely on my ear. In addition, on occasion the pin has slipped out of the retainer hole allowing the Jawbone to drop on the ground. This is due to the retainer hole in Jawbone that is apparently too big to retain the pin at the end of the earpiece if it is knocked. In addition, the wire that connects the ear piece to the Jawbone easily snaps. Fortunately, four ear pieces came with the Jawbone. Of these, three pins have snapped, making them useless. I now have one earpiece left and only use the Jawbone in my car to save it for as long as I can before it too snaps and I need to make other arrangements. I am hoping that the ear pieces can be purchased separately when this time comes.

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