DoomBook

Returning the unimpressive Jabra headset to Staples, I now needed to pick out a new headset to give a go-round.

Staples, by the way, tends to be very friendly about accepting returns. It’s one of the reasons I buy from them if I need something local or might end up exchanging it due to a lack of reliable information on the products quality.

Since it’s the same price ($39.99) i decided to go with Plantronics Explorer 220.

So far the unit seems to hold up well. Plantronics ear piece seems to be a much nicer fit. The sensation that I was hearing muffled audio is gone, although there is now a bit of static hiss in the background. I would guess that’s the trade-off between filtering and hissing in a mid-range unit.

We’ll see how the battery life and comfort hold up after a few days of use, but so far I’m more impressed with this unit out of the box.

After brief consideration of all the contenders for my Bluetooth headpiece dollar at the local Staples, I settled on the Jabra BT2010.

And am finding this to be a rather nasty mistake.

Sound quality with the BT2010 is so-so when paired up with my Samsung M510. There’s quite a bit of squelch on the line, muting the highs and lows of whomever is speaking to me.. which makes them completely incomprehensible when they modulate their pitch up or down.

Battery life is excellent. It’s been going for a few days so far and hasn’t had an issue. They appear to have gotten this bit right, as it seems to stack up to it’s expected 7hours on time or 200 hours standby. In mixed use the little Jabra does fairly well.

But where it really falls down is the comfort. This thing is equivalent to sticking a rock in your ear. I tried it on both the right and left side of my head, just to make sure it wasn’t something odd. Another thing to note on the comfort level scale is the solid plastic wrap-around for the ear. Not only is it uncomfortable, it doesn’t keep the unit attached to your head very well.

Don’t even consider their claim that you can wear it without the ear clip. It doesn’t stay on with it most of the time.

So I’d say avoid the Jabra BT2010 and go for something with a more comfortable earpiece and better ear-clip mechanism.