May 25 2008
Selling Geek podcast #1 - Aliph’s New Jawbone headset
I’ve sometimes had to take important calls with customers as I was driving from one sales appointment to another, but I’ve always cringed at the impression I was making – with all the background noise, I’m sure my in-transit calls made less than a completely professional impression. I also remember one teleconference with a hot prospect, which I made from my home office, just when my lawn maintenance guy fired up his mower right outside my office window, turning my call into a “how fast can I hit the mute button?” contest.
But for the past year, I never worried about background noise on mobile phone calls. That’s because I’ve been using a Jawbone noise-canceling Bluetooth headset, from Aliph. This amazing device screens out virtually all background noise, allowing only your voice to pass through. With my Jawbone connected, I confidently make calls from my car, from the street, from the airport terminal, wherever, all with perfect clarity – my call recipients all think I’m calling from my nice, quiet office.
And now, the New Jawbone
Now, Aliph has released its second generation of the Jawbone headset, which they appropriately but uninspiredly named the New Jawbone. I wonder what they will call the third generation someday – the New New Jawbone? Regardless of what you call it, the New Jawbone is indeed a significant improvement over the previously impressive original model, and well worth buying, even at its relatively hefty retail price of just under US$130.
The styling of the old model Jawbone was best described as Borg-like – an approximately one inch by two inch metal mesh rectangle hanging from your ear, it reminded me of that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation when Captain Picard was assimilated by an evil cyborg race – “I am Locutus, of Borg. Resistance is futile.”
The New Jawbone is half the size of the original model, and half of the weight at less than half an ounce, which makes it much more comfortable to wear. This lighter weight also gives you the option to wear the Jawbone as a purely in-ear headset, or with a flexible attached leather-covered earloop. I wear glasses, so an in-ear option is important to me – and yet I found the New Jawbone comfortable to wear both with or without the earloop. Aliph gives you four different earloop sizes, and three different earbud sizes, so you can find the perfect fit for your particular pinna.
Make no mistake, though – this headset’s styling is still clearly Jawbone-ish, albeit on a smaller rectangle with a new diamond-patterned metallic finish in black, gold or silver. Even better than the original model, this New Jawbone makes as strong a fashion statement as it does about performance.
Performance
And let’s talk about performance – the New Jawbone’s “NoiseAssassin” technology is even more amazing that the original model’s noise canceling capabilities. The best way to describe it is simply to listen to a demonstration. (Click on the player at the top of this article, and you’ll see what we mean.)
How does the New Jawbone cut out all the background noise? It’s all in the design, which features one important difference from other headsets. At the end closest to your mouth is a small plastic nub, which rests against your face. This nub picks up the vibrations from your voice, and the New Jawbone then compares these vibrations to all the sound waves coming through the microphones, and then filters the unwanted background noise in real-time. Aliph perfected this technology for the military, and it’s very impressive in its performance.
I tested the New Jawbone’s Bluetooth pairing capabilities against three different phones, a Blackberry 8830, Motorola Razr, and a Treo 630, and had no trouble connecting with any of them. Further, I found the range of the headset to be about 20 feet before I noticed any significant signal loss.
Any Downsides?
So, are there any downsides in the New Jawbone? Well, it is fairly pricey compared to other Bluetooth wireless headsets, for sure, but given its incredible performance, I think it’s more than worth the premium. I’ve had trouble with the flexible ear loops, too – they are easily bent, and can break off, making it impossible to fix. I now store my New Jawbone in a rigid eyeglass case, just to be safe. Also, the total talk time is now less than the old Jawbone – four hours compared to the original’s six, which still isn’t bad considering that the battery is now less than half the size of the original. Aliph includes a magnetically attached charging cable, which gives you the flexible option of recharging from an AC power adapter or from your USB port on your PC. I found it takes about an hour to fully recharge the New Jawbone, which is pretty fast.
I also don’t fully appreciate the two hidden buttons on the New Jawbone – one at the back of the unit that turns on the noise cancellation capability, and a second button further forward that answers and ends calls. While aesthetically stylish, these buttons are sometimes hard to find, and although the New Jawbone gives you an aural signal that they’ve been engaged, they still are not very intuitive to use. Fortunately, I simply keep the NoiseAssassin feature on all the time, and use my Blackberry 8830 to answer and end calls, so I never have to use the headset buttons. Also, it would be nice to have a volume button – the New Jawbone adjusts volume automatically based on background noise. A nice feature, but not always perfect, so a volume boost would have been welcome.
Sales Pro Value Score
Still, these are minor quibbles for what otherwise is a perfect addition to any sales professional’s arsenal of technology advantages. There are other Bluetooth noise canceling headsets out there that are very good – the Plantronics Voyager 520 and the strangely named nXZEN nX6000 are both cheaper and worth a close look – but in the end, the New Jawbone simply wins out in style and performance. There’s no doubt about it, the New Jawbone will boost your professional image, both in person or over the phone, and those whom you call will definitely appreciate it.
So, in summary, Selling Geek gives the New Jawbone a Sales Pro Value Score of 4.5 out of a possible five.
UPDATE: Another highly-rated noise-cancelling Bluetooth headset worth a look is the BlueAnt Z9i
