| Review of the Jabra BT-200 Headset |
| Review of the Jabra BT-200 Headset |
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The Jabra BT-200 is a Bluetooth headset that allows you to talk hands-free without attaching any wires to your phone. Note that your phone MUST have Bluetooth for this headset to be of any use to you. Last Updated: 14-Oct-2003 |
I would like to thank Treatz for lending me his Jabra BT-200.
This is the first time I’ve reviewed a
headset, and while I don’t foresee myself doing so much in the future, this
might be the first of many. There isn’t really as much to say about a headset as
there is about a phone, and so this review is much shorter than my typical phone
review.
As with phones, my top priority with a headset is sound quality. That respect
the BT-200 is actually very good. Both incoming and outgoing sound quality are
great (though there is some room for improvement). Rejection of background noise
is also very good, but it doesn’t fair well in windy environments.
Another priority for me is comfort, and the BT-200 is without a doubt the most
comfortable design I’ve yet tried. It hooks neatly around the back of your ear,
exposing the microphone just under your earlobe. The earpiece is a shaped to fit
in your ear canal, and connects to the body of the headset via a flexible
plastic tube. Putting the headset on isn’t that difficult, and as you get used
to it I’m sure you could put in on in seconds.
In real life use however, I had concerns about the solidity of the Bluetooth
signal when the phone was worn on my belt. I detected far too many frame errors
that peppered the audio so frequently that I found it unacceptable. This might
be a general limitation of Bluetooth, a limitation of my Nokia 6310i, or a
limitation f the headset. Since I couldn’t know for sure which one, it’s hard to
know who I should blame.
When the phone sits in a cradle in your car, and is in line-of-sight, the
problem doesn’t exist, and the headset works extremely well. Because of this,
I’d recommend that you consider it for automotive use, and not for general
walk-around use. I can back that up by noting that when the headset’s owner
calls me using it, I frequently complain about Bluetooth frame errors, as he
wears the phone on his belt (and no, it isn’t a 6310i).
Since the only other Bluetooth headset with which I have any familiarity is the
Ericsson HBH-15, I can’t really offer any comparative comments. Perhaps if I
test more Bluetooth devices in the future, I can do a bit better.
