Jabra JX10 Review

Design:

This model is fairly small and very light, which makes it a size-rival to the rest of the ultra-small headsets, such as BH-800 and AX2. Unfortunately it is the ear-hook, indispensable for wearing, that makes it look larger. Its shape is not even close to standard, being rather weird and extravagant; it resembles a spaceship, looked at from above. Gray shades predominate, but black is also skillfully used on the sides and in the middle of the front and back panels.



The headphones dispose of 4 buttons:

1. Multi-function button, located in a concavity on one side (at the top when the set is worn on the left ear and vice versa), where it is easily felt and pressed. On the opposite side there is an imitation of a button for the sake of design symmetry – of course, it is not operable and just misleading you to perceive of it as functional.
2+3. A pair of buttons for volume control, located on the back. They are small, square-shaped and easy to press, but the lower one is difficult to access while the set is inserted into the ear, because the cochlea covers it. It is also a bit disturbing that both buttons have the same sound signal at pressing, so one cannot be certain whether volume is being turned up or down.
4. Pairing button – it is very small and located on the back as well. Operating it is possible with the help of the nail tip or anything smaller, for instance a stylus.
On the back part of the front panel there is a LED indicator. It lights blue or red, depending on the various modes, in which the device is operating.



Functionality:

A special button switches on the pairing mode for connection to another device. It must be held while the headphones are on, until the LED is lit in solid blue. Your pairing device will detect them as Jabra JX10 and after entering the 0000 code both devices will be connected.

How to…

Answer a call
• Tap the answer/end button on your headset to answer a call.
End a call
• Tap the answer/end button to end an active call.
Make a call
Reject a call*
• Press the answer/end button when the phone rings to reject an incoming call. Depending on your phone settings, the person who called you will either be forwarded to your voice mail or hear a busy signal.
Activate voice dialing*
• Tap the answer/end button. For best results, record the voice-dialing tag through your headset. Please consult your phone’s user manual for more information about using this feature.
Redial last number*
• Press the answer/end button.
Adjust sound and volume
• Press the volume up or down (+ or -) to adjust the volume.
Call waiting and placing a call on hold*
This lets you place a call on hold during a conversation and answer a waiting call.
• Press the answer/end button once to put the active call on hold and answer the waiting call.
• Press the answer/end button to switch between the two calls.
• Tap the answer/end button to end the active conversation.

* Functions marked with * are dependent on your phone supporting these features. Check your phone’s user manual for further information.

Performance:

We have not been pleased by the sound quality of JX10 and, considering its fairly prohibitive price, strongly disappointed as well. The volume you hear is little above average, but the sound is rather muffled. At maximum volume, some sounds cause the loudspeaker to make cracking noise. Despite that the other side does not hear this and your voice sounds a bit stronger, it is even more muffled and less intelligible there. A high-class headset is supposed to offer much better sound.

We are glad of the fact that despite being a headset of the smallest class, the JX10 features a DSP system for external noise reduction, thus improving the quality of sound during conversation. It filters the car noise to a considerable degree - sounds such as engine noise, the traffic, and music at normal volume inside the car. Not so with strong wind: although the system should filter its diverse effect (noise, jamming the conversation), the JX10’s DSP seems not to improve audibility; so, in case of strong wind, conversation will turn out to be hardly possible.

In order to test how endurable the battery is in reality, we made a long conversation and witnessed how long the set would operate at highest volume. The result of JX10 was 4 hours and a half, which is an excellent result in comparison with other small headsets featuring DSP (a system, reducing the battery operating time). We observed better results in small headsets without DSP (6 hours or 33% more for Bluespoon AX2 and Nokia BH-800), but, as mentioned above, this is normal.

We also checked the distance from a phone, at which the headphone would work trouble-free. The further the set, the stronger the Bluetooth signal – thus reducing the interference, caused by objects between both units, i.e. when moving in an office or in a motor vehicle. This is quite important so long as the phone is sometimes left at a certain location, while the headphone user walks away from it. On such occasions the weak signal would cause crackling sounds and short breakdowns. With 10 meters (33 feet), JX10’s performance was better than that of the rivals AX2 and BH-800, with respectively 6/6.7 m (19.7/22 feet), but at the same time worse than the 13.6 m (44.6 feet) of Plantronics 655.