Review: Jawbone 2

Posted by: weiganla on Nov 17 2008

If you’ve walked into an electronics store in the past few months, you’ve probably seen a Bluetooth headset display with a Jawbone 2 front and center. The New Jawbone by Aliph is one of the few mobile accessories to hit the mainstream. People who couldn’t name a single headset manufacturer, including Aliph, recognize the Jawbone.

The Jawbone is aspirational earwear, coveted by people who know the $130 price tag. By my count, this makes the Jawbone the first Bluetooth headset to become a popular status symbol. In my time as a reviewer at JAMM I’ve had plenty of people ask me about the latest gadget I’m trying out, but Aliph’s flagship headset is the only product so far that elicits tones of awe before I explain what it does.

When you pull out your credit card for a Jawbone 2, you are not simply buying a Bluetooth headset. If a headset with functional superpowers is what you want, you can skip the rest of this review because there are other products out there doing a more thorough job of playing telephone operator through a small thing that sits in your ear. So is the Jawbone just a pretty face?

Design

Well, you can’t deny it is a pretty face. Aliph wants people to think of the Jawbone as cheek jewelry, and while I think that’s stretching it a bit, the Jawbone is definitely the least aesthetically offensive headset on the market now. With no visible buttons and clean lines, it stands out from all the other headsets like a swan in a gobble of turkeys. (Happy early Thanksgiving!)

From the pictures I had seen I was expecting the face to be metal, but the entire headset is plastic. The back and sides are shiny, smooth, and curved, with the charging terminals by  the ear speaker and the tiny cheekrest at the other end (more on that later). The face is matte with the distinctive Jawbone diamond texture. From the front, the body looks like a long, narrow rectangle. It has more depth than I expected, but that still isn’t much. Overall the Jawbone packs more style into a more compact body than any other headset I’ve used.

If it feels like there was something missing from that description, that’s because there was: buttons. There aren’t any. While a number of headsets are moving toward a big all-in-one button, the Jawbone axed them altogether. Functions are controlled by pressing on areas of the face.

Use

The Jawbone’s design rewrites the rules of the headset game. Not only was Aliph the first manufacturer to make a serious, successful attempt to build an attractive product, they have rethought how a Bluetooth headset should  operate. A key principle that somehow eluded headset makers for years is that when you use one, it’s in your ear. You can’t see it. So the  cool flashing light that indicates you’re connected to a call? Not so helpful. Same goes for the tiny buttons.

To answer a call or control any of the other functions, instead of groping for a button you just jab at one of two general areas. The first area (the Talk Button) is about 3/5 of the way back from the tip, and the second (the NoiseAssassin Button) is at the curved back end. While I did not have much trouble finding the correct areas to press, the buttons occasionally got stiff and harder to use if the headset wasn’t braced just right.

Light-flashing on the Jawbone is thankfully minimal, just to let you know if the headset is on or in pairing mode. It even stops completely during active calls. Turning the Jawbone on and off activates a light briefly, but what’s really nice are the ascending and descending tones that let you know you’ve powered on or off while the device is still in your ear. Aliph have also replaced the usual blue light with white. As a result, you avoid both massively irritating your coworkers and feeling like a colorblind Cylon.

Fit

Bad fit is one of my pet peeves when it comes to Bluetooth headsets. I get that headset makers can’t come up with something that perfectly fits every single ear out there. If you saw Doug’s comment that he hated the Jawbone 2, a major reason was that he couldn’t get a decent fit. Aliph has made a good-faith effort, though: three different-sized earbuds and two sizes of earloops (each in both plain wire and leather-covered) which can be bent at the neck to adjust the angle. After some experimenting, I managed a great fit with the smallest earbud and the smaller leather loop.

Getting a proper fit is even more important with the Jawbone than with most Bluetooth headsets because the noise cancellation technology will not work if the fit is off. In addition,  there’s the comfort factor, and I give the Jawbone high marks on that because once I forgot I had it in. Those two considerations complement each other nicely. The compact design is also very lightweight, so when it’s settled cozily into your ear it’s almost unnoticeable.

Function

Aliph’s patented NoiseAssassin technology uses a mechanical sensor that rests against your cheek to figure out how to filter background noise. According to my callers, it works okay — the background noise is still there, but they can hear and understand me. One drawback of the NoiseAssassin is that if the sensor isn’t physically touching your cheek, the Jawbone will think you are background noise and make your voice too soft to hear, so fit and positioning are absolutely critical (or you could turn NoiseAssassin off). On incoming calls, sound quality is a definite improvement over the phone speaker, and it seems sharper than on the other two headsets I have lying around.

Controlling the Jawbone is simple as far as the basics go, but if you want to do anything more complicated than answer a call, let’s hope you have a good memory for arbitrary button combinations. This problem isn’t unique to the Jawbone, but remembering that redial is triple-tap on the NoiseAssassin button (yes, I had to look that up), and not double-tap on the Talk button like on your last headset, gets to be a pain. Industry-wide standards for these things would be so nice, but I’m not holding my breath.

Conclusion

The Jawbone is unlike any other Bluetooth headset I’ve used. Most headsets go toe to toe with each other based on their feature sets, and we reviewers end up writing long essays on features that are either esoteric or just trying too hard. The Jawbone has one brilliantly distinctive technical feature — the contact-based voice sensor — which may or may not be a great way to filter noise. As long as it works decently, who in real life is going to do gold-standard double-blind testing on a feature that only helps the guy on the other end of the line? Where it really counts, the Jawbone excels: it’s easy to use, supremely wearable, and a model of techie style.

What I Liked: Passes the “Would a Matrix character wear this?” cybercoolness test. Light, compact, and comfortable. Solid basic functions, and bonus points for the non-annoying LED.

What I Didn’t: At $129.99, it’s a bit pricey.

Where To Get One: Like you even have to ask. Anywhere.

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