Jabra Stone 2 Mono Bluetooth Headset with Charging Dock

Let me begin by saying I was really excited to receive this. I have been using the Nokia BH-800 & BH-700 for many years and these headsets were quite small & stylish, though admittedly also quite no-frills when it came to functionality. Jabra I have never used before but I recognize the distinctive shape of their ear pieces. Certainly reading about it here on Amazon, the Jabra Stone 2 sounded quite revolutionary to me and I expected I would be blown over by it.

Before I get into specific points about the headset, I just wanted to add a note on the packaging which appears to have frustrated some reviewers. There's a lot of packaging with the headset and to avoid frustration, look for the little diagrams positioned at key points on the plastic container: these will show you HOW to twist, push, lift and open up everything.

OK, now onto the good and bad points I experienced with my headset:

POSITIVES
- Portable charger: unlike most other headsets, you don't plug your actual headset into the charger - you actually put the headset into its 'stone' and then charge everything together. You need to take the stone with you and when the headset battery is low, you stick it back into its stone and it will charge up for you without needing to plug anything in. This is pretty nifty although I have seen it before (Plantronics does a headset in a portable charger case Plantronics 975V2 Bluetooth Headset)

- Once paired, the headset will connect absolutely immediately every time it's taken out of the stone - I was impressed with how fast & efficient this made everything.

- The Jabra Stone headset and little stone portable charger are sleek and genuinely pleasing to the eye. The headset itself is really small, light and slim.

- The voice in the headset will tell you the battery level when you press the button on the headset. There is also a three-light indicator on the pebble charger which lights up each time you fit the headset back into the piece.

- The touch-sensitive volume control is excellent: you just stroke upwards or downwards to change the volume and there are many increments so you have greater control over the level of sound. The minimum sound volume is very quiet - something I have had a problem with in the past where even the minimum volume is still too loud.

- You can listen to media on your phone, through the headset. I had no problem with listening to music: the sound clarity was good and consistent.

- When you've finished a call, the headset will tell you 'call ended' which I found to be a nice little bonus. Normally I always check my phone to make sure the call has really ended but now I get a verbal confirmation which is quite convenient.

NEGATIVES
- The voice answering is a great novelty of an idea but really very unreliable. When someone calls you, the headset will tell you who is calling (obviously you have to have the headset in your ear to hear this - it's inactive if it's in it's pebble charger) You can then say 'answer' or 'ignore' to answer or ignore the call - my headset will answer most times I tell it too but it rarely ever ignores calls. This is disappointing because in the time it takes to repeatedly say 'ignore', it is easier to just ignore the call on your phone. The voice-command element is really innovative and I know the original Jabra Stone did not have this feature but it's a novelty that disappointingly doesn't work in practice.

- It clearly says on the box that you can pair the headset to two phones at the same time but try as I might, my headset will not pair to a second phone when one phone has already been paired. I use two phones and have two different Nokia headsets so I was really looking forward to streamlining but it looks like that's not going to happen. There is a quick start manual provided but there is no help on pairing the second device.

- Battery life: you should get 10 hours of total talk time (2hrs from the headset and 8hrs stored in the stone unit). I found that the headset battery drains quite quickly when it's connected to your phone and rather than keeping the headset switched on and waiting, it is best to just stick it back into the stone unit after every call. Doing this will help you get the best use out of you battery but obviously as the headset is technically disconnected from your phone when it's in the charger unit, it won't be able to tell you who's ringing and you won't be able to tell it to 'answer' or 'ignore' calls.

- Comfort/fit is an issue. I found that the whole headpiece takes some getting used to - I constantly feel like the piece is going to fall out at any moment but to be fair, it never has. I would have preferred a tighter fit or the ability to adjust the bit that goes around your ear, but no such luck. You do get three extra ear covers in the box to vary the fit slightly. It doesn't make too much of a difference but they provide a nice assortment in terms of how the sound enters your ear.

- The headset is designed for the right ear only and cannot be changed - not a problem for me but you won't be happy if you wear your headset on your left ear!

SUMMARY
It's an innovative little headset with a lot going for it on paper. Sadly it does not completely live up to expectations: being able to use your voice to answer/reject calls is a novelty and should not be the sole reason you purchase this headset. Do check your headset for pairing of a second device as mine does not do this even though you should be able to. It's a good-looking headset though and fits discreetly in the ear. Comfort may be an issue though it may just be a matter of getting used to it. I had no problems with sound quality and liked being able to change the volume on the touch-sensitive surface of the headset. I like having the portable stone charger but be aware that the battery life is not that great and you really DO need to take the stone with you everywhere you go. Despite the negatives, I actually do LOVE my new headset and will continue to use it - it's just a shame all the features don't work like they're supposed to: voice control and pairing a second device being a particular sticking point.

Having started working from home & being on the road a lot, I needed to get a decent Bluetooth so I can work whilst on the phone... Clamping a phone under your ear may be OK in the 80s when they were several inches thick, but trying to securely wedge a slim smartphone between your shoulder and bonce is impossible.

I read reviews, I looked at specs & I decided this was the headset for me!

I was delighted when it was delivered - it's properly tiny and so light you forget you're wearing it, and even wearing glasses wasn't a problem. The portable charging dock is awesome too - meaning you can have long battery life, but without having to have the pre-requisite big battery on your ear. It even comes with a belt clip so you don't have to fiddle about in your pockets to find the tiny lump.

As a piece of design it's fantastic.

The problems came when trying to use it take make calls... In use, I had no end of distortion between this & either of my two phones. Interference wasn't an issue - the phones were on my desk less than 50cm away with no obstructions. The signal was so poor that the advertised A2DP feature didn't work at all - giving the kind of choppy sound you'd expect from a corrupt MP3 streaming over bad dial up. Even on a good day when I could just about make out what people were talking about - they complained that they couldn't hear me.

I'd love to say it's a weird bug with my phones - an iPhone 4 & an HTC Sensation... If IOS & Android don't work properly there's a flaw here.

I did pair it to my PC as well to use on a Skype call - but I pretty quickly had to resort to a wired headset we could hear each other. Maybe I got a faulty one...

I've just bought a Plantronics Voyager Pro+ and the sound quality is staggering - makes the Stone2 sound like a child's toy! Yes - the Stone2 looks awesome - but I'm starting to think you can't have the microphone in your ear & expect people to hear what's coming out your mouth!

I bought it for my father coz he needed something stylish and expensive...:)...well..Jabra stone 2 does the job...
it sleek..stylish ...and has some good techs in it....but all tht is uselesss without a gud battery life. Yes..Jabra 2 like
its predecessor has very low battery life max 2 hour stand by time on its own..den u have to charge it with the stone...which
is okay but agitating.