Now that I’ve got an Apple Watch I’ll never go back to boring wired headphones, and now that Jabra’s new wireless earbuds have built-in coaching, I’ll probably never have to hire a personal trainer either.
Jabra launched its newest set of earbuds today called the Jabra Sport Coach, that along with sounding excellent and looking cool, the wireless buds add an integrated motion sensor so you can get real-time feedback on all the burpees, lunges, squats, and planks you do at the gym.
I love wireless gadgets, but sometimes they’re more trouble than they’re worth. For instance, I’m forever getting dropped connections on my AirPlay speakers, making them more annoying to use than wired speakers, despite the promised convenience. And wireless earbuds seem like an exercise in frustration. I regularly lose even my white Apple EarPods, so imagine how bad it’d be with two separate (and tiny) buds.
Jabra’s new Rox wireless earbuds at least address the last question. How? By adding a wire.
Jabra made a big show of introducing their Sport Bluetooth music/phone earbuds at CES this year, even bringing in triathlete celeb and Ironman champ Craig Alexander to flaunt the buds while he sweat away the miles on a stationary bike. Unfortunately, the Sport has been plagued by reports of abysmal Bluetooth connectivity (possibly due to range) and poor fit ever since it shipped.
Jabra’s response is their new Sport Wireless+, the successor to the Sport, which Jabra says has made everything better.
Like the Plantronics Voyager Legend we reviewed a few months ago, Jabra’s new folding-boom Motion series incorporates motion sensors — so they can do things like automatically answer calls when you place the headset to your ear, and even automatically adjust the volume.
LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Jabra makes some nice stuff, but the last time I played with a pair of Jabra’s headphones I really felt like doing this to them. If I had, they would have broken; the new Jabra are probably better, and they have a nigh-indestructible headband to boot.
The Jabra Freeway ($100) is Jabra’s flagship bluetooth car speakerphone. The Freeway has loads of top-rung features like hands-free voice commands, caller announcements and FM music-streaming, wrapped around three loud, powerful speakers accompanied by noise-cancelling dual microphones — making it a very attractive option for drivers who want to add a hands-free speakerphone to their cars.
Jabra isn’t an organization afraid of veering off the main road; it seems to use many of its high-end Bluetooth gadgets as design and technology showpieces — sometimes with unfortunate results (the Stone sacrifced performance for a radically shaped body, and the Halo headphones were all kinds of awful).
But when Jabra isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s actually able to give us stuff that’s pretty darn good. The outfit’s newest creation is the high-end Jabra Supreme ($100), the first monoaural Bluetooth headset to offer active noise-cancelling technology in its earpiece, along with all the other goodies usually stuffed into a primo ‘set. So Jabra’s definitely gone the showcase route with the Supreme — but this time, the headset is also an outstanding performer.
What’s got a folding boom, Jabra’s most-advanced noise-canceling and wind noise-reduction technology and a massive ear cushion even that princess in the pea story would be comfortable with? You guessed it (probably because it’s in the headline) — the just-announced Jabra Supreme Bluetooth headset.
Nailing down the design and functionality of a Bluetooth headset seems like it’d be a fairly easy task. Yet if you’ve ever been in the market for a new headset, you’ve probably noticed that their aren’t many models out there that offer great design and functionality at a fair price. Jabra’s Extreme Headset ($79) is here to the rescue to provide a great experience at a reasonable price.
