Posted March 13, 2008
I’ve been testing the new Jabra BT8040 Bluetooth Headset with various Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, and I’ve been seriously impressed with its sound quality. Active Noise Reduction technology does a decent job of dampening extraneous background racket, and something called Intelligent Volume Settings works like an automatic equalizer to make a muffled voice louder (which is useful when the person you’re talking to is on a bad connection or a crummy cell phone). It’s got six hours of talk time (it’s rechargeable), it “pairs” easily with devices (in fact, MultiPoint technology lets you keep two devices connected at once), and it knows to interrupt your music when a call comes in. Yep, that’s right: This baby has so-called A2DP support, meaning you can stream music to it wirelessly (it’s not in stereo, of course, given that it’s feeding into only one of your ears, but it’s nice to have if you’re listening to, say, an audio book or podcast that doesn’t suffer when played in mono). It’s also so featherweight—one-third of an ounce—and compact that you can just stick it right into your ear and it’ll stay in place (small, medium, and large ear gels come with it) without an over-ear hook.

$79.99 at J&R.

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