A Tale of Two Headsets: BH-900 and Jawbone2

I've been pretty lucky lately. About three months ago, I entered a contest given by the guys at Mobile Industry Review (formerly smstextnews). I made a video submission with my n75. It was the first self-video I've ever made and is pretty bad. I used a tall candlestick as a tripod and it came out kind of weird. I was also in a hurry to get to work. Okay, enough excuses, the point is, my tragic tale of tangled wires apparently struck at the heartstrings of the mobile experts over at MIR, and I won the Jawbone 2.

But, like I said, I've been on a streak lately, and while I was waiting for the jawbone headset (I didn't even know I had won it yet), I received a Nokia BH-900 from my participation in the S60 Ambassadors program.

Style

• Nokia BH-900: To me, the BH-900 looks like a shuttle craft model from a low budget SciFi channel movie. I suppose it could be judged as "cool-looking" but to my mind, it is a bit big and with the mic extended, it looks like a full headset you imagine someone at a call center wearing.
• Aliph Jawbone 2: This is where the Jawbone shines. I have the "blah blah black" version with the optional leather ear loops. This is a very sleek-looking headset and with its multiple earpads, can even be worn without the ear loop, giving it that Morpheus glasses look from the Matrix. Because of its small size and folding earloop, I have found that this headset easily fits in my shirt pocket or other small pockets. Why is this important? Well, I hate to tell you but you look really stupid walking around with a bluetooth headset sticking out of your head all the time. Don't do this, and don't clip your phone to your belt. Trust me.
  

Use and Setup

• BH-900: Pretty straightforward. The BH-900 paired easily with my phones, of course, and the controls are very easy to figure out: there is a toggle for volume and an on/off button. As you can see from the pictures, the mic slides out. it's not necessary to use this, but if you do have it extended, contracting the mic will hang up the phone.
• Jawbone 2: Pairs easily. I don't understand why almost every headset has a pair code of '0000', I mean, that just makes it far too easy to pair your headset with your work neighbor's phone. Good times. The buttons on the jawbone are hidden, which makes for a nice design but a much less intuitive interface. Luckily, the headset comes with a well thought-out cheat sheet with the few options you will need. Kudos for the ability to easily turn off the blinking LED, something I never understood on a headset since the wearer cannot see the blinking and it only serves to annoy others. Every headset should come with this feature, and it should be the default.
  

Fit

• BH-900: The Nokia headset takes a sort of one-size fits all approach. Its prongs fit around the back of the ear and it rests loosely on the cheek. The large speaker pad is not as uncomfortable as it looks, but it really is a speaker that sits near your ear, rather than in it as many of the newer headsets are doing.
  
• Jawbone 2: The Jawbone comes with an array of implements to create a perfect fit. Well, perfect may be overstating, but I can definitely forget that it is there sometimes.
  

Sound Quality

• BH-900: The sound is good on the Nokia and more or less sounds like you are holding the phone to your ear, as it is basically a speaker that is against -but not in- your ear.
  
• Jawbone 2: The sound quality is not great. When first using this headset, the voice on the other line would come across as crackly, as if there were feedback or the speaker was defective. After some fiddling, I think the volume on my phone was too high, and the volume on the headset too low. The headset can be adjusted through the NoiseAssassin button, and by increasing the headset's volume, the sound quality was markedly improved. The NoiseAssassin feature seems to work, but it is not a lethal killing machine on par with, say, a ninja, so don't expect miracles.
  

Battery and Charger

• BH-900: the Nokia headset uses a standard 2mm Nokia charger, the same used by my N75, N82, and N800 tablet. This is handy as I need carry only one charger for all my stuff. If I remember to turn off the headset, it can go for a long time on one charge. I do not use my phone too much for talking, but I have let this headset sit for a couple weeks, turned it on, and then used it for over an hour.
• Jawbone 2: The jawbone I received included a USB cable that attaches magnetically to the headset, a'la MacBook laptops. It apparently came with a wall plug adapter which didn't make it in my prize. Not that it matters, I wouldn't be able to use a European plug anyway. I have left it on over 24 hours, with maybe an hour of talk in that timeframe, and the battery has held up. Both headsets far outlast my phone in terms of battery life, so there is no problem there.
  

Conclusion: Judging from Amazon, it looks like the price difference between the two headsets is about $30, with the Nokia BH-900 somewhat cheaper than the Jawbone 2. I would say the two are very comparable in terms of feature set, with the BH-900 a bit on top in terms of sound quality and the Jawbone on top in terms of styling. So, if you are the kind of person that puts your bluetooth headset in at the beginning of the day and don't take it out until you go to sleep, the Jawbone is for you. Just do us a favor and click the button 5 times to turn off the LED.