Product: Aliph Jawbone II
Manufacturer: Aliph
MSRP: $129.99    Find Lowest Price @ PriceGrabber
Author: Nick
Date: 3/27/09

With the introduction of the Original Jawbone, Aliph revolutionized the Bluetooth headset industry. Before the introduction of the Original Jawbone, little emphasis was placed on noise cancellation. The Original Jawbone was very successful but the only real problem was its size. Aliph claims the New Jawbone improves upon the Original Jawbone while being roughly half the size.

Specifications:

• 50% smaller than the original Jawbone
• Military-grade noise elimination technology
• Ten times better voice clarity than competing headsets – meaning it transmits 90% less noise
• Faster processing eliminates unexpected noise bursts
• Unmatched intelligibility — voices sound human, not robotic
• Sophisticated dual microphone array reduces wind noise
• Invisible touch controls
• Three-dimensional texture on shield inspired by noise abatement surfaces
• Premium materials including medical-grade plastic and fine leather

Contents/Packaging:

• Magnetic USB cable & wall charger included
• Three (3) earbuds — small, medium, and large
• Two (2) fine leather earloops — medium and large
• Two (2) slim earloops ideal for use with eyewear — medium and large

First Impressions:

As already mentioned, the New Jawbone is roughly half the size of the Original Jawbone. This is definitely a welcome improvement. The reduced size and weight of the New Jawbone made it more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

The Jawbone  II includes 4 different ear hooks and 3 ear pieces to customize the fit. There are three circular earpieces, each in a different size, and also two sizes of each ear hook; one set to match the leather style and another to match the slim style. The slim style ear hooks are a black plastic and are designed for use with eye wear. I found the pre-installed small ear loop did not allow the Jawbone to fit securely in my ear. However, after switching to the large ear loop, the Jawbone sat lower in my ear and did not have any problems with it falling out of my ear.

Aliph included a proprietary USB charging cable and a USB A/C adapter for charging the New Jawbone. The cable attaches to the New Jawbone magnetically to hold the charging contacts on the jawbone and cable together. This method is both good and bad. On the bad side, you cannot use any mini-USB cable you have laying around. However, on the other hand, this eliminates the problem of the charging port either being damaged or pulled out with inserting and removing the charging plug.

In an attempt to make the Jawbone look more stylish, Aliph hid the buttons under the outer shell of the headset. This “improvement” did not bother me until I had to adjust the headset. A couple times I ended up accidently ending the call. Pushing anywhere on the back half of the headset would be able to trigger the power/talk button.

I was a bit surprised when the Jawbone II’s  LED turned from red (charging) to white (fully charged) in little under an hour. After talking with Aliph, I also learned the New Jawbone can be charged to a 80% charge in around 35 minutes after the first initial charge.

Aliph claims the New Jawbone has a talk time of 4 hours and over 8 days (192 hours) of standby time. The stated talk time is 2 hours less than the original Jawbone due to the smaller size of the New Jawbone. During my testing, I was experienced 3.5 hours of talk time with a few hours of standby time.

The New Jawbone supports all the functions that you would expect a Bluetooth headset to support. Since the Jawbone only has two buttons, you will need to memorize the button combinations that you will regularly use. For some reason, Aliph chose to have the phone’s voice commands activated by the “Noise Assassin” button instead the talk button which is the norm on most headsets, including the Original Jawbone.

Background Noise Cancellation:

The New Jawbone’s Noise Assassin would appear to be one of the most elaborate versions of voice canceling currently in a Bluetooth headset. Not only does it use the the standard methods of canceling background noise, such as dual microphones, it also features Voice Activity sensor that sits against the users skin. This sensor is used to distinguish the users voice from other background noise.
I subjected the New Jawbone to the usual battery of background noise canceling situations. These include:

• Outside in windy weather
• Outside next to a busy roadway
• In the car with the vents blowing
• Inside with the TV on
• Inside with a group of 4 people talking
• Inside with no background noise

During the testing, I found Aliph’s Noise Assassin to be extremely effective at blocking out background noise. While some background noise was still transmitted, this is by far one of the best background cancellation technologies that I have come across. In many cases, using the New Jawbone yielded better sound quality with less background noise than using the phone itself. The only downfall was the person I was talking to sounded slightly tinny. The tinny sound was not noticeable enough to bother me.

Conclusions:

Overall, the Jawbone II is an excellent Bluetooth headset and I was throughly impressed with the capabilities of the Noise Assassin technology. It is smaller and lighter than the Original Jawbone while also improving the background noise cancellation. The only place where I felt the New Jawbone fell short opposed to the Original Jawbone was the sound quality on the users end. When you consider the New Jawbone can be found online for around $70 – $80, it makes the New Jawbone a worthwhile investment for anyone that uses their phone is a noisy environment.

Pros:

+ Noise Assassin is very effective
+ Smaller than Original Jawbone
+ Fully charged in less than an hour

Cons:

- Slightly tinny sound for user
- Proprietary USB charging cable

Tags: Aliph, Bluetooth, Jawbone, New, Noise Assassin, noise cancellation