Aliph Jawbone 1st Gen

Bought it, tried to use it for a month, but I had to return it. I would call people and I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. Or they would call me and the same thing would happen. It is also pretty uncomfortable. It's really heavy so a little shake of the head and it comes off. The return was easy and I got my money back quickly.

I've owned many earpieces, wired and wireless, in my day. Motorola, Plantronics, Sony... honestly, I'd given up on Bluetooth headsets as irredeemable junk. Always falling off my ear, poking or getting hung on my glasses, or running out of battery; they always felt cheaply made and more of a show-offy gimmick than anything. To my mind, the novelty just wasn't worth the terrible sound quality and unreliability.

I changed my mind when, at the recommendation of a co-worker, I picked up a Jawbone for the first time. I did test calls, and standing in the wind, next to a large outdoor generator, or next to a shower running on full blast, the person at the other end didn't realize I wasn't in a quiet room on the handset! Wow.

It's built sturdy, too: nothing rattles when the case is shaken vigorously, a prime annoyance for me with other sets. Who wants some toy-like hunk of plastic hanging off their ear making obnoxious rattling noises all the time? Others have complained of the Jawbone's bulk, but with the right ear piece and ear bud selected, I have to say that I think it's just right: enough to keep it firmly planted in my ear at all times, but not so much that I notice that it's there. I've laid down on it a number of times, forgetting it was still clipped on at all.

Now, life-changing experience though it has been for me, the Jawbone does have some flaws. For one thing, as many people note, the buttons could be better. They're not bouncy or rattle-y, at least (cough cough Motorola cough), but it's hard to tell when you've made positive contact as opposed to just depressing the case. The charger design is beautifully bizarre -- although it would no doubt have interrupted the case lines much more than the current design, I'd have preferred a standard USB port so I wouldn't have to lug the special cable everywhere I want to charge from.

Form clearly dictated functional design of the Jawbone, for better and worse. It is a beautiful device with an almost organic high-tech look that manages to be cutting edge and dignified simultaneously. It's comfortable and reliable with good battery life. It lives up to every bit of the "DARPA technology" hype and the military-budget price tag: voice quality that sets a new standard, and you can use it in everyday situations, like noisy traffic or a storm, that other headsets just can't handle.

If you're contemplating spending the $40-$60 for an "entry level" BT headset, my advice is to save your money and spring for one of these later on instead. For not all that much more money, it's such a dramatic jump in performance that it's probably the difference between a device you will still be using in three months and one that will be collecting dust in a drawer.