Jabra Halo 2 Bluetooth headset
'Phones for you?
Geek Treat of the Week
Jabra’s Halo 2 is a lightweight, easy-on-the-eye Bluetooth headset that won’t attract the kind of disparaging looks that the typical cyborg-style Bluetooth phone attachment will get you.
The Halo 2’s design is about function as much as form. The headset is comfortable to wear and easy to transport thanks to its foldable headband.
In addition to easy portability, the hinges double as an on/off switch: unfold and the headset turns itself on, fold them up and it does the reverse. The Halo 2 goes into pairing mode automatically the first time the headset is unfolded.
There are touch-sensitive controls on the right earpiece to allow you to adjust volume, play and pause, and answer and end calls. I liked the way that sliding a finger up the earpiece increased the volume, though wasn’t quite so keen on the beeps that were emitted as it did so.
A micro USB port on the same earpiece allows you to charge the Halo 2 from a powered USB source or directly from the mains. Jabra says that you should get 3 days standby and 8 hours music time from a single charge. There’s also a micro USB to 3.5mm jack cable in the box so you can connect to non-Bluetooth audio sources.
Audio quality is remarkably good for a Bluetooth headset. Voice calls are clear at both ends, and music is delivered with the kind of fidelity normally reserved for pricey cabled headphones. At less than £70, Halo 2 is a worthy treat. ®
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COMMENTS
OK who else's head was in the wrong place?
This headset looks NOTHING like the headsets worn by techs in Halo 2.
Come to think of it, did techs even WEAR headsets in Halo 2? Were they implanted in the skull or something?
Yay - decent stereo headset!
It's been irritating me for ages that there seems to be little traction on stereo headsets. Yeah, there are a few about at any given time, but half fo them are crappy in-ear things with dangly bits (not that sort :-) And I've never seen any in mobile phone shops / general electronics shops / Tescos etc
Most phones these days have A2DP, most PMPs are, in fact, mobile phones, yet most headsets are mono... Why? I genuinely don't get it. If you have a mono headset, you have to have a pair of plugins as well, if you're going to listen to music.
It's nearly as weird as being as bothered about it as I clearly am :-D
You are both wrong.
'Halo' here refers to the movie classic called Minority Report. Up-vote if you agree,down-vote if you disagree.
No support for wideband speech (HD Voice)
This headset only supports Bluetooth Hands-Free Profile version 1.5, not the new version 1.6 which was ratified last year. That means it doesn't support HD Voice. Perhaps not a big deal today, with relatively few phones or networks supporting the standard; and not so important for a headset which will be mainly used for listening to music; but nonetheless a shame to omit.
