In the world of bluetooth headsets one could easily be overwhelmed when picking and choosing what fits their needs best. Some are hugely expensive and offer relatively nothing more than the cheapest headset at the local Quickie-Mart while others are reasonably priced and come with all the bells and whistles. Recently we were able to test such a device in shop, the Jawbone ICON, and we have the whole broken down review just ahead!
Here We Go!
First off, the packaging is beautiful, modern, and eye catching. After gazing for a second your attention is grabbed by the seemed-to-be floating headset in the top of the box. A quick slide of the bottom of the packaging reveals a whole slew of accessories, from ear hooks to ear buds. Included are an array of sizes of soft ear buds to be used with the provided ear hook, or one could choose the specialized Jawbone ear buds that can be maneuvered to fit in your ear without the hook, giving everything a more sophisticated feel. I personally could not get used to this feel and opted for the ear hook instead but I believe this is more of a personal preference and not a flaw of the product.
Initial Power Up and Pair
The initial power up and pair of the ICON was unarguably one of the easiest I’ve ever done. Basically, even a user with basic tech knowledge could read the clear, short instruction cheat sheet provided and successfully pair it with their phone. After completing the set-up I realized I needed to put the device on the charger. This was odd because the box said it should be partially charged although it only turned on for 5-10 minutes. This was not a hassle though, as the Jawbone ICON can fully charge in just 90 minutes. Thats a full charge people!
Personalization
One thing I absolutely loved about the Jawbone ICON was that it could be easily personalized unlike any other bluetooth out there. With a quick visit to this site I found out some of the amazing things you can do with this headset, such as viewing the battery of the headset on my iPhone’s status bar straight out of the box. One other I tried was free 411. After setting up I can confirm that they do in fact offer free 411, although it is ad supported and not very enjoyable to use. Still useful nonetheless. The website also allows you to personalize the voice of your bluetooth, who reads you your estimated battery life and alerts you of a caller. This was easy to do also and only required about 10 minutes of syncing, plugging the headset into the PC with the provided USB cable, and visiting a webpage to preform the update. I was very impressed with these features because I have yet to see them on any other bluetooth headset available on the market today.
Sound Quality
After using the JAwbone ICON for a couple of long conversations I was able to easily form my opinion regarding my experiences of the sound quality. On my end the call was amazing, better than using just my cellphone. I enjoyed a noticeable difference in peoples voices, background noise and overall quality. When speaking to my grandfather he said he could hear me good but couldn’t tell a drastic difference from the other times I have spoken to him without the device. Others basically reported the same thing, really good quality but no huge noticeable difference from other calls. I believe me listening for the changes and being able to distinguish good quality sounds made my judgement a little better than most who were taken back when told they were being spoken to on a bluetooth. Overall the sound was good, utilizing the dual microphones built in for wind reduction and noise, and made hard conversations that much easier.
Continued Use and Impressions
After using the device for a few more days I realized I have become dependent on it for most long or even brief conversations. Something about the freedom of being able to do things while having a conversation with someone makes me very happy. Since the battery life on my iPhone is less than perfect, I opted to turn the headset off when it wasn’t being directly used to conserve juice. Surprisingly even after turning it off, which causes the two to unpair, the second the switch is turned back on the two are reconnected like nothing ever happened. I found this to be a huge time saver because every bluetooth I’ve ever used required a repair after the device was shut off, which is usually about a 10 minute job. In the end, I would most definitely recommend the Jawbone ICON to anyone who plans on getting use out of their device and needs something of great quality. The MSRP is only $99.99 and can be purchased at here or at your local electronics store.
A special thanks to Jawbone for allowing us such an awesome review unit. Stay tuned for future comparison reviews with some other leading bluetooth headsets! Comments are appreciated, especially if you’ve used a Jawbone ICON before.
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