Aliph Jawbone 2 Wireless Headset

Although my state doesn't have a hands-free-while-driving law yet, I'm sure it's a matter of time, and there have already been other occasions when I've wanted to use my phone but needed my hands for other things. Now that I have this device and am happy with with it, I find that I put it on any time I'm going to be driving. It's so much more convenient to just tap by your ear instead of fumbling to get the phone out of the holster, a purse, your pocket, etc.

After trying, and being disappointed in, three other brand name Bluetooth headsets, I finally broke down and got a Jawbone 2. Should have done it in the first place. On the other hand, if I had, I wouldn't realize how much better this thing is than its competition.

Fit: It comes with small, medium, and large ear hooks and small, medium, and large earbuds. Out of the box, the medium ear hook and earbud are attached, but both are easy to switch out. I tried a couple of different combinations but found that the medium/medium is what works best for me. If you're the kind of person who goes through things like that, you can buy replacements on the Jawbone (.com) website and occasionally on Ebay.

I've found it to be very secure in my ear and have worn it for several hours at a time. Once in a while, if I feel it might not be seated as well as it had been, it's easy to just pinch the sides very lightly and push in a tiny bit. The tiny nub that has to make contact with your face for the "noise assassin" (see below) to work is completely unnoticeable.

Looks: At the time of this writing, it comes in black, silver, and gold. I got the gold, hoping it would be a little less obtrusive with my skin and hair color. It actually works well for that because it's a matte gold, not a polished gold. The "quilted" look isn't my favorite texture, but it's the only look they offer, and it certainly wasn't going to be a deal-breaker for me. The black, silver, or gold "quilting" is only on the outer/top surface; the rest is shiny black, but when worn, the black part recedes visually.

The LED is extremely inconspicuous. It doesn't have a lens per se, just a short razor-thin slit that's hard to see even when you know it's there unless the light comes on. The "stand-by" light is white, not the standard blue, and blinks about once every 8-10 seconds, and there's an option to turn it off completely; there's a red light that indicates charging, etc.

There are no visible buttons. You push the surface to activate certain things and the end away from your face to activate others. Although there's nothing to see, there is a very definite tactile response; you know you've pushed the button beneath the surface, out of sight.

The most important part - how well it works: I'm very pleased. The "noise assassin" feature really does work as advertised, by cutting way way down on ambient or background noise. I tested it by calling someone from a moving car and turning that feature on and off, and she reported a very definite difference. The noise assassin is on by default; it can be turned of but I've never had any reason to do that.
A few times I've asked people I was talking to whether they could hear me alright, and without exception they've answered that they could hear me just fine.

The biggest test was when I used it to call a particular person from my car with the engine running and we talked for an hour. When testing earlier Bluetooth devices she's been very up-front at the beginning of any call about how hard it was to hear me but this time, zero problems.

Battery and charging: I haven't really put it through any stress tests. I tend to re-charge things like this nightly rather than go into another day with a partial charge. So I can't really address how long a charge lasts in stand-by, with conversations, etc., but I can say that it charges quickly. I left it on in standby too long once (by accident) so it was totally dead, and it was fully recharged in about 45 minutes.

The charger itself is good news/bad news. The good news is that it can be charged in a standard electric outlet or via USB. The bad news is that it's got a proprietary connection, so not just any USB cable will work. The connection itself is secure; although it doesn't snap or click into the charger, the charger "grabs" the device with magnets.

It did not come with a car charger and I haven't seen one on the Jawbone site. There are sellers on Ebay selling what they claim are Jawbone car chargers, so just caveat emptor.

Pairing up: I have a Motorola phone so expected it to pair up quickly and it did. It's paired up within seconds each time I've turned it on. The only time it was slow to pair up was that time when I hadn't realized the battery was very low.

Carrying case: There isn't one, not with it and not offered separately by Aliph (the people who are selling it). I've got a small jewelry (cloth) pouch with a pull-tie that I use to carry it in my pocket and am on the lookout for something a little more substantial but still small, but so far the device is doing fine in the pouch in my pocket.

Documentation: Minimal but plenty. In other words, what little you need to know -- how to do different things by tapping different areas of the device, how to charge it, etc. -- are very brief and easy so they don't need a voluminous booklet. All the instructions fit on a fold-out strip. There's also a pretty extensive Support section with FAQs, etc., on the Jawbone website.

Price: Steep -- in fact, maybe the most expensive one out there right now. Retail, it was $149 when I was shopping. I found it on Ebay for $103 in September 2008 from a seller with a 100% positive rating, and received a clearly brand new unit in full sealed retail packaging. I'm sure the prices will continue to fall, but I consider this money well spent.

I'm giving the Jawbone 2 four stars out of five only because of the proprietary charging cable, the lack of an optional carrying case, and the fact that there's more to the retail packaging than there really needs to be. I'm sure the "showcase" packaging is to make us feel better about the cost as well as to make it stand out from all the other sets. The device itself is great. Epinions wants to know whether I'd recommend it to a friend -- the answer is yes, I already have.