Jabra Storm Bluetooth Headset

By Perry & Cindy Mack

The Loss of Rotary Phones and Dog Collars

Do you remember when you were little, the phone rang in the house and someone ran to answer it? You don’t if you were born after 1991, and you’ve only seen a rotary phone in a museum or an old movie.

In many households now, everyone owns their own phone, and it’s a cellphone. You might run to find your own phone or you’ll just let it go to voicemail. If you spent a lot of time on the phone in the past, especially for work, you may have worn a wired headset – it’s like being on a leash, but better than a hot sweaty phone stuck to your ear (that someone else has used, and who knows where their ear has been).

We welcomed the advent of the wireless headsets of old, with the band of metal or plastic that wrapped over our head to hold it in place. Although we were happy to lose the leash, it still wasn’t something we wanted to wear all day, any more than we want to wear a dog collar – although there are some readers who’s preferences run that way.

A few years ago, we experienced the invention of the Bluetooth earpiece headset. Always on the bleeding edge (of tech, and sports – which is where the bleeding comes in), I was one of the first to get one.  Finally, we had freedom from collars and leashes (other than recreational use).

But freedom came with a price – poor sound quality on the callers end, excessive background noise and echo on the recipients end, and a short battery life. Spending roughly $300 on a headset alleviated some of the drawbacks, but seriously - $300? That buys a lot of gas and liquor – especially on a trip to the states.

Fast forward to February 2015 - ‘Less Noise. More Power. Wind-Noise Blackout and 10 Hours Talk.’ That’s the promise on the outside of the black box enticing me to try the Jabra Storm headset. For someone like myself who loves to be outside, but is tethered to a paycheck and has to stay connected, it sounded good (pardon the pun). In the office, no one calls just to chat, they always have questions that need to be answered so pen and paper or keyboard are always in use, and that leaves no hands for holding a ‘hand’set. A headset is mandatory.

Testing a Bluetooth headset always starts the same way – trim the ear hair. It seems the older I get, the more prolific my hair, everywhere but on my scalp.  Once the personal preparatory work done it was time for testing.

The unit is quite small and very light. I chose the smaller of the two earpieces and placed it on my head. Comfortable enough – good start. Set-up was fast and simple on my affordable android phone from www.roammobility.com (in other words you don’t need an iPhone 6Plus for $1000 to make this work). I placed a call to my wife Cindy (much to her surprise) to test the sound quality. Excellent on my end, and although she could tell I was on a headset she conceded my voice came through loud and clear. Jabra says it’s the Advanced Noise Blackout™ technology and the dual microphones.

I stepped outside into the wind and continued talking, although the wind buffeted around my head and the headset, she couldn’t hear the wind, and my voice was still loud and clear on her end. The headset comes with a ‘windsock’, bit of foam that slips over the microphone portion of the headset. Honestly, it seems too Mickey Mouse to function, but it does.

I wore the headset for the next few days while I worked. It’s comfortable enough that you can forget you have it on, until your spouse makes a sly comment at the dinner table – most spouses are subtle that way – it’s in the fine print you don’t read just before “I Do”.

I suspect that there are more Bluetooth headsets available that are as good, and if not yet, then soon. The good news is that The Jabra Storm is available now at less than $100 Canadian and provides the freedom to comfortably and clearly drive, walk, work and talk, both inside and out.

You’ll find more info at www.jabra.ca and you can watch a review video right here.