I'm not a fan of Bluetooth headsets. It's not because they are small, and that I couldn't find it just before I started to write this review, but because they are simply annoying: I have to keep on adjusting them, they irritate my ear, and I'm always scared of loosing them, and yes, because they are way too small!

I like to have a phone attached to my ear when I'm in a telephonic call, thank you very much, doesn't matter how stylish the Jawbone looks. But for some people, it's different, for them, it's earwear, part of their clothing, and very important.

I do not drive, but if I did, I rather pair my phone to the Bluetooth car kit, than a small headset, which I will have to adjust anyway, but that's just me.

Bluetooth connectivity technology helped to put forward Bluetooth headsets, as it was a wireless technology that didn't need line of sight and uses very small amounts of electricity, which is perfect for mobility.

Not always were headsets nice and stylish, they were first ugly heavy cubes that were usually worn by people who liked being the centre of attention. Today they are either used by those kind of people, or actually by people who need them, and used wired headsets before.

Aliph, the company founded by two Stanford University graduates, is a privately-owned company from San Francisco which is making its way up the world rankings as the number one Bluetooth headset manufacturer, thanks to its award-winning (22 awards if I'm not mistaken) Jawbone Bluetooth Headset with NoiseAssassin technology.

Design

I still can't believe it, but the Jawbone weighs only 10g, which is 12 times lighter than my current mobile phone (Nokia N95).

You have a very small piece of equipment with great technology and design, but in terms of ergonomics, all Bluetooth headsets receive a zero! Want to see what I call comfortable, check my Bose QuietComfort3 review.

The headset's frontal housing has triangular patterns which remind you of a diamond. These patterns are in 3D, and not only drawn, so that you can feel the design, other than just looking at it. This is also adds to the design as light reflects and shines differently on each triangle, making it a beautiful, yet simple style. I wonder what would the silver, and rose gold colours look...

When standing, the Jawbone has the shape of a shoe. There are many holes throughout the device, two are for the ear support, which can also be customized, while the other two are microphone arrays which reduce wind noise.

The charging connection is placed right at the top of the device, almost at the back, and has four connectors, which allow it to be compatible with its USB charger.

Two buttons are all you need to operate the Jawbone. You cannot see them, one is at the middle section, while the other is at the very top, which complicates your life if you want to adjust the headset. The light is invisible as well, and it's hidden between the triangles right in the middle of the frontal piece. It shines red or white, depending on the status.

The Voice Activity Sensor (VAS) which is the main piece of the NoiseAssassin technology, is a small transparent/white-ish piece at the bottom of the device, and it's supposed to touch your jaw to differentiate your speech from background noises.

That isn't all, the Jawbone NoiseAssassin comes with a set of earloops and earbuds. The earbuds are pretty comfortable, unlike the ones found on usual earphones, while the earloops are crafted either in fine leather or in ultra-smooth medical grade plastic, and are really really difficult to insert. They are very fragile though, so please do not keep them in your pockets like I did.

I haven't gone through the unboxing, but I can tell you that the boxes are pretty fragile as well, even though the style is always there. They used black school-type cardboard, which rips apart when you open it.

The charger cable has a USB port which plugs into an AC charger, which is actually in a cheap plastic housing with no adaptive plugs whatsoever, as it's only supposed to retail in the US. Aliph should have included few plug adaptors in case the consumers wanted to travel aboard and didn't have a computer to plug the Jawbone to.

You're probably asking yourself if there's anything could play with once you connect your Jawbone to your PC, but unfortunately, there's nothing.

Usability

You know that I can't stand Bluetooth headsets, it's just not comfortable for me. I'm the kind of guy that likes to hang around in a T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, not with things hanging on my ear.

The Jawbone is the first Bluetooth headset that I have tested that needs an earloop to support it. Without the earloop, it will fall.

Besides having the earloop in, you must make sure that the VAS touches your jaw, or some place in your face. What I've noticed is that there can be audio problems if you haven't shaved literally, as your facial hair touches the microphone. Our female readers won't have to worry much about this (I hope).

So, let's get the Jawbone started and paired. Unlike most gadgets, I had need to actually read the manual as I had no idea where the buttons were, or what they did, even though I tried to unsuccessfully find out.

The Noise Assassin button is at the top, while the Talk Button is in the middle. Couldn't they have named it a fancy name such as Talk Murder button or something?

Before starting, you should charge your headset until it's full. It will flash white when it gets full, and it took about 10 minutes for me, although from empty to 80% it takes 35 minutes according to the book. If it is charging, the LED colour will be red, which is the same colour when the headset is low on battery.

The first time you boot up your headset, it will automatically alternate between red and white lights. If it doesn't, hold the talk button for two seconds, and it should be ready to pair. You will have 3 minutes to complete pairing, which should be enough even for the most normob customers.

To turn the device on or off, press the talk button for two seconds, and to answer a call, do the same. To reject, press the NoiseAssassin button.

They gave most of the functions to the hardest-to-press button. The talk button isn't easy to press, you can't tell when you've pressed it when the headset is in your ear.

A handy solution to save on button space was to assign the volume button to the NoiseAssassin button, and it's only available during calls.

Whatever you do, please do not try playing music on the device, it sounds very dull. Somehow, the headset manages to isolate everything that is not voice, and presents you with the speech from the person on the other side of the phone.

All the common features are present, such as voice dialling, redial, resetting the device. There is an option to turn off the LED, but you will be notified about low battery with warning tones.

The LED do give a huge amount of information as I was reading on the Jawbone forum, it's a pity that you can't really see them! It would be nice to have voice information, such as a voice saying “battery low”. That might be irritating, but it's better than having lights blinking and sirens going off.

The highlight of the Aliph New Jawbone, or Jawbone 2, is the NoiseAssassin feature, which blocks any background noise. I didn't test this thoroughly, but during the phone calls I had, I never had to repeat a word. Aliph conducted several tests, in construction sites, and in a derby race, as you can see in the videos, but the quality isn't that good in real life, from what I've been reading. The military grade noise elimination technology does do its work, but as I read in some reviews, it wasn't successful in very loud areas.

Verdict

Most of us won't have to worry about noisy places or differentiate between the NoiseAssassin technology on the microphone side, but we will enjoy this Bluetooth headset more than any other one simply owing to its exquisite elegance.

Advantages: Military grade background noise elimination technology; multiple stylish earloops; multiple comfortable earbuds; No visible buttons; stylish geometric patterns; only 10g in weight; USB charging

Disadvantages: Uncomfortable; needs earloop at all times; Talk button hard to press; over priced.