Jabra BT250 review

 If you liked the Jabra BT200, there is no reason why you should not love its successor - BT250(v). Building on its award winning predecessor, the BT250v has the same design but increased battery life and some added features such as vibration.

Specification 

• Bluetooth 1.1 specification
• Headset and Hands-free profiles
• Up to 8h talk time
• Up to 240h stand-by
• 0.8 oz weight
• 05 x 2.375 x 4in.
• Uni-directional microphone
• Lithium polymer battery

Sales package:

• BT250 headset
• 4 Mini-gels (2 standard and 2 small)
• Charging cradle/belt-clip
• A/C adapter
• Manual
  

BT250 compared to BT800, Scala-500 and Logitech Mobile Free

  The BT250v's design is very inconspicuous and most of the headset is concealed behind the user's ear. The headset ends with a Mini-Gel, which goes into the user's ear canal. Such a design helps block ambient noises and also channels the incoming sound directly into your inner ear. The headset comes with several different size Mini-gels to fit different ears. Adjusting the headset for left-right ear is also very easy - just turn the Mini-gel to 180 degrees. A flexible rubber arm connects the ear-piece to the main body which is hidden behind the ear and holds most of the headset's electronics and battery. A rocker switch is used to adjust the volume and a multi-function button are located on the outer side of the headset's main body. The buttons are well spaced out, with good response when pressed.  

BT200 next to BT250	multi-function button on the left and rocker switch on the right

Since the unit does not contain any moving parts, with the exception of the pivoting Mini-Gel it should be very durable and drop-breaking resistant.

Functionality
The pairing process is easy and straight forward. Just press the power on button for 6-7 seconds, after which the LED with turn solid Blue. Then initiate search from your phone. After finding the BT250v, enter the "0000" password and you are all set. The headset supports both the Headset and Hands-free profiles so no worries there.
  The BT250v offers the standard features we come to expect today from a Bluetooth headset - call answer and end, last number redial, call-waiting, but is lacking the Mute function.

Comfort
When it comes to comfort, I personally have not seen a better headset then the BT200-BT250 series. Most headsets are designed so you just put it on for the duration of the call, and then put it in your pocket. The BT250 again offers the best comfort when it comes to continuous wearing of the headset for 3-4 hours and more. At some point which for me personally is like 6+ hours, discomfort is definitely strongly noticed, but with the other headsets such discomfort is perceived way too soon.

Things have changed a lot since the first Bluetooth headsets appeared with 1-1.5 hours of talk time. BT250v like most of the today's headsets offers about 7h of continuous talk time and up to 200h of stand-by. Charging it takes about 2h and is done via the belt-holder/charger.

The point of a wireless headset is to able to roam around without the need of wireless, so range plays a big role in our testing. The BT250v performed unsatisfactory compared to the rest of the headsets currently on the market. If there is a clear line of sight, the BT250 can be used up to about 25 feet. At that range there is strong static, but still the voices are clearly understandable.

Model	Range (feet)
Jabra BT2500	25
Logitech Mobile Freedom	45
Cardo Scala-500	50
Jabra BT800	150

The table above shows at what distance communication was possible when there was a clear line of site between the headset and the phone.

Hearing the other party is no problem with the BT250v. The headset's volume can be adjusted from very loud to really hard to hear. The ear-piece reproduces sounds very accurately with excellent clarity. The problems come if you go outside or step in a noisy environment. The headset does not provide any kind of noise/wind-cancelling design or software, so the other party has hard time distinguishing your voice from the surrounding clatter.

For our tests we use a small fan supplied to us by Logitech to test their Mobile Freedom headset. The comparison chart below shows at what distance the voice was not garbled by the wind.

Model	Type of wind suppression	Range
Cardo Scala-500	Design	7.87in (20sm)
Logitech Mobile Freedom	Design	9.84in (25sm)
Jabra BT800	DSP	11.81in (30sm)
Jabra BT250	None	23.6in (60sm)

The table above shows at what distances the air-stream created by a fan does not suppress the voice of the person using that headset

The official specification calls for up to 8 hours of continuous talk time. In our test we achieved 6 hours and 40 minutes of continuously playing music - excellent achievement (only Logitech Freedom so far achieved 7h of continuous talk time in our tests).

Conclusion
There are different types of headsets for different needs. If you want to have a discreet headset, offering the most commonly used features, great battery life and ergonomics and lacking capability to cope with noisy environments, I recommend the BT250(v). The headset works great in a office-home environments where ambient noises are minimal. It is very comfortable to wear for long periods of time thus making it ideal for stretched conversations.