Customer Reviews

Jabra EXTREME Bluetooth Headset[Retail Packing]

5 star:		(73)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

The last two Bluetooth headsets that I used were the Plantronics Discovery 925 and Plantronics Discovery 975. They were my favorite headsets among the many I have used since I started wearing them in 2005. Unfortunately, I gave the 925 to my father and my 975 had to be sent in for warranty service. When Amazon offered the Jabra Extreme for me to review, I jumped hard and fast. Would it be an acceptable temporary solution until I got my 975 back, or would it be something else?

PROS:
- Attractive design
- Diminutive size
- Good sound quality
- Good noise cancellation
- Dedicated power switch
- Great range
- Multipoint & A2DP compatibility
- Multiuse (connect 2 devices at the same time)
- FANTASTIC accessories included
- Comfortable fit (for me)
- Fair battery life (5.5 hours talk/10.5 standby)
- Multiple charging options
- Great value for price point

CONS:
- Volume buttons a bit tiny
- May not be comfortable for some ears
- AC charger cord length is extremely short

The unheralded Jabra EXTREME has hit one out of the park folks. Not only did I find it to be a good solution while I waited for my Plantronics Discovery 975 to come back from service, but I think the 975 may just end up becoming my backup headset. The Jabra EXTREME is very similar to the Jabra BT 530 but the EXTREME has improved noise cancellation, Multipoint, Multiuse, Acoustic Shock Protection, and A2DP music streaming. In fact, if you look at the back of the EXTREME headset, you'll see the BT530 model # imprinted on it. Make no mistake though, the EXTREME is significantly improved.

PAIRING
The EXTREME goes into pairing mode the first time it is turned on and my Motorola Droid found it quickly and paired without having to enter a code.

FIT
If you have read my other Bluetooth headset reviews, you know that fit is a HUGE deal for me. The EXTREME admirably attempts to accommodate most users by providing a couple of ear hook sizes, a normal ear gel and also what Jabra calls, Ultimate-fit ear gels. Plantronics has a similar ear gel technology and I have to admit that Plantronics' implementation is more comfortable and fits better. After trying different combinations of ear gels and hooks, I ended up just using the normal ear gel without the hooks. It is secure enough that I could probably go jogging with it and not fall out. It's not quite as comfortable as the Plantronics Discovery 925/975, but definitely good enough for at least an hour of continuous use.

STYLE
Though the EXTREME probably won't win any style awards, I find it to be very attractive. The design is subdued and the gunmetal gray front looks sharp. Also, since the headset isn't very large, it will probably attract less attention to the fact that you are wearing a Bluetooth headset. I used to think that the Plantronics Discovery 925/975 looked very stylish and I thought I looked ok while wearing them until I started watching "24" Season 8. Everyone in CTU wears the Discovery 975 and well, I think they all look ridiculous.

CALL & MUSIC QUALITY
Jabra has finally decided to use dual mics in their noise cancellation technology, similar to how Plantronics and Aliph have. Jabra calls theirs, Noise Blackout EXTREME. And like Plantronics' AudioIQ2, it works. It cancels out background noise very well so that the person on the other end of the call can hear you clearly. The EXTREME also automatically adjusts the volume of the call so that in noisy environments, you can hear the caller more clearly. To protect your ears against sudden loud noises, it also has what they call, Acoustic Shock Protection. A welcome feature addition to the EXTREME is support for A2DP which allows you to listen to music from your device via the headset. It's in mono, so it doesn't sound great, but it is certainly good enough for casual music listening, NPR and for podcasts.

BATTERY & CHARGING
The battery life is about average for a modern Bluetooth headset and it takes 2 hours to fully charge. I found that it came almost fully charged however and only needed about 15 minutes to charge the first time. I was ecstatic with the charging options included with the Jabra EXTREME. It comes with a USB car charger and includes a detachable piece that you can use to plug the headset into and charge it through ANY powered USB port. So, you could be charging your headset on the way to work in your car and finish charging it in your office from your laptop. Awesome! I am baffled by the short cord on the AC charger though. I'm guessing they shortened it thinking most people charge their headsets from a counter-top wall outlet, but I don't. My chargers are usually on the floor behind my desk. Lucky for me, since the headset uses a micro-USB port, I use my Motorola Droid's charger at my desk to charge both.

BUTTONS
A welcome feature on the Jabra EXTREME is a dedicated power switch. I have never had a headset that paired as quickly as the EXTREME. Whenever I flip the power switch on, my Droid pairs within 5 seconds. It also has an answer/end button and a volume up and a volume down button. The volume buttons are rather small, but you get used to them. Also, when you aren't on a call, if you push either of the volume buttons, it acts as a battery life indicator. Green means 1-4.5 hours of talk time remaining, yellow means 10 minutes to 1 hour of time remaining, and red means less than 10 minutes of talk time remaining.

SUMMARY
I was never a fan of Jabra Bluetooth headsets until now. Most never fit well or were comfortable. Jabra has finally made one that is reasonably comfortable to use, though they could do even better. The call quality, advanced noise cancellation, charging options and very low MSRP, make the Jabra EXTREME an amazing value and my choice for use in the car.

Length:: 3:31 Mins

This is an excellent headset and a tremendous value. The combination of form, function and price cannot be beat. I've put together a video showing what it sounds like when recording through the headset.

UPDATE: I used this tonight walking headfirst into 30 mph wind gusts, and the person on the other end of the phone could actually hear me!! He heard the wind too, and he said I was just barely audible, but it's worth noting that this is the first headset I've ever used that doesn't completely flake out when faced with wind!

(Notes: The first part of the video was recorded with my professional-caliber microphone, so please don't compare the headset audio to that! Compare it to other phone conversations you've heard where the caller is wearing a bluetooth headset. Also, I noticed that, at times, there is a kind of gurgle to the headset audio: That is a result of the bluetooth connection to my MacBook, which doesn't have a very strong bluetooth connection generally. When paired with a phone, connection strength isn't really an issue, as long as you try to keep the phone on the same side of your body as the headset.)

I wanted a new headset for my iPhone 4. After reading several reviews I went ahead a tried the Jabra Extreme.
The audio quality for listening is great. I've used a motorola and plantronics in the past and sometimes felt they weren't loud enough. This Jabra earpiece is plenty loud. I hear everything fine. I use this for talking on the phone, but also use it for listening to podcasts.

I read some reviews that said the mic was of poor quality. I had some trouble when I first set it up. My friends were not impressed with my microphone and then I started to have dropouts while listening to podcasts.

After doing some research is appears there may be a bug in the iOS4 software for the new iPhone. A tech support website suggested reseting the "network settings" on the iPhone. It's an option in the settings menu. This clears out all wi-fi and bluetooth settings. I had to re-pair the phone to the earpiece and that has cleared up ALL THE PROBLEMS.

It works great, now. My friends report that I sound great and I no longer hear any dropouts. I love this thing.

Great battery life, too.

Let me say that my last two bluetooth devices were Jabra. I like Jabra and have had good results with them.

My last bluetooth was the Jabra BT500. It is an over-the ear device that worked very well for me because I have very small ears. I can't depend on a device that uses the in-the-ear contact to hold the device to my ear. My ipod earbuds pop out when I open my mouth, because they are too large to screw into my ears. And when I do force them, they are painful and rub the skin off the inside of my ears. What I really need is a child-sized earbud. Hmm The Jabra BT500 came with a choice of three sizes of eargels. The smallest one fit inside my ear. Good contact, good sound.

So, the Jabra Extreme was my choice this time because it has a wire that does go around the ear, if you choose to use it. This one also comes with different eargels, but not for sizing. The different eargels are meant for choosing between using the ear wire, or not. There's one eargel for using with the wire and it's a round soft plastic that just goes over the speaker. The others are in two sizes and meant to hold onto the curves of your ear from the inside if you don't have that wire adding support.

The Jabra Extreme is a mere 1/32 of an inch smaller than my ipod earbuds. The Jabra BT500 is a full 1/8 of an inch smaller. And additionally, the BT500 didn't actually have the speaker part inside your ear, it had a directional eargel that had a long-ish side that went into your ear canal as the speaker part stayed outside. Although the Extreme does have a directional eargel, it's nothing more than enough outside the circular shape to show which end has the hole in it for the sound to come out.

The wire does keep the device from popping out of my ear. But it does make the inside of my ear sore after phone calls. I don't even talk much on the phone. If I had to wear this all day, my ear would be bloody. I tried putting the gel from my old device onto the new one. The speaker is literally twice as wide on the new device, hence the good sound quality, no doubt.

My second big boo-hoo for the Extreme is that although it says it has voice commands, it doesn't for me. My old Jabra would beep when I touched the on-off button meaning it was waiting for me to say the name of the person to call. On the screen of my phone, if you looked, showed "Speak Now." So, obviously, my phone supports voice commands. On the Extreme, it is supposed to work the same way, touch the hang-up button to activate. Yet, when I do that, absolutely nothing happens. One of the big reasons I use a bluetooth is for the hands free dialing in the car. Now I find myself fumbling to at least dial while driving and that makes me very uncomfortable. It also sets a very poor example for my kids as I promote limited phone use while driving.

On a positive note, the sound quality seems very clear and people I talk to say I sound "normal." The people I talk to most didn't even know that I had gotten a new device and was not speaking directly into the phone. If sizing isn't a problem for you, I would wholeheartedly promote this bluetooth headset.

The price I paid, here at Amazon.com, was very reasonable. I can surely buy more expensive devices. But I've been a fan of Jabra for a long time and thought this would work well for me. I'm not sure that even with a great price I can live with this for the long term. My last Jabra lived for about 4 years.

I don't want to be too excited about this headset..since i only got it for few days..and these things tend to be good at first..but this one was really really good, that my first review about it had to be really quick!
In my pursuit of the "perfect" B.T. headset..i tried like 5 headsets in 3 months!(each was given out for family members later on as none was what i was looking for!)
i still dunno if this review will later be a 5 stars or 3 stars..will figure out and update later on..as for now i would have given this a 5 star, but, the noise cancellation ( as good as it is) doesn't seem to be enough with very noisy environment( this is when the Jawbone masters!) and the buttons are rather smaller than expected, but i never actually had a problem with them ( if u have really big hands, don't buy this headset)..these 2 would be the 2 major cons
as for the good things:
- Very good looking ( some might like the Plantronics 975 more, which might be true..but i had really BAD experience with Plantronics that i wasn't ready to try them again!)also the Jabra stone beats this one big time in shape, but its reviews are awful..This one looks really good, with a solid structure ( no cheap-plastic look here)
- Awesome little sliding on-off button gives a VERY quick reconnection with my phone,i can easily save the headset battery by turning it off ( specially when u know u wont be using it for a while,like if u aren't allowed to talk on the phone at work or something) then slide the button back on, less than 2 seconds and u r ready to take the call!
- In those few days i didn't get a single complaint about the other side of the call not able to hear me, the dual mic is doing a great job!
- Also i didn't have a problem hearing any one on a call
- The range is OK, but nothing special, u can walk around away from ur phone but not much..
Two little extras i had with this headphone when paired with my HTC Aria(am not sure if this is a general thing with all cell phones)
the first: - i could actually listen to the music on my phone using this headset! none of the other 5 b.t. headsets had this option( except for the plantronics back beats, which is specifically designed to listen to music while being able to take a call too, but had all the problems in the world!!)
The 2nd: - my phone had a problem with most b.t. headsets( this wasn't why i hated the other headsets though..i was using a different phone then) anyway, the problem is even when the headset is connected and i see the bluetooth sign connected and everything, if i get a drop call, or if i get disconnected on a call..the first call i receive after that wouldn't go through bluetooth, and i had to use the phone mic! i dunno what this problem is but had it with 3 different headsets!( got them back from family members!) anyway this little Jabra here was able to identify this problem, so when this starts to happen it gets disconnected automatically then reconnected ( which i had to do manually with the other headsets to be able to connect again!) so i can use the bluetooth to talk!
i talked too much in this review, but i hope that was useful..u get what u pay for, except if u r a truck driver or something, if u usually use ur headset in a very noisy environment then get a jawbone. If u only need it for regular use, with some extras and a touch of elegance then get this one & u won't regret it!

It has been a long road finding a good bluetooth earpiece. I've looked literally for years and had continued using an antiquated H500 from Motorola which worked great. Then my new job presented me with a company cell phone. I could only connect my H500 to one phone at a time so I renewed my quest for an earpiece that would (now) handle more than one phone simultaneously. I tried four different devices and finally obtained the Jabra EXTREME. This is the only headset that combined acceptable comfort, reasonalble volume, noise cancelling, and the ability to handle both of my phones at the same time.

I wear this earpiece for four to six hours at a time and, though it does become a bit uncomfotable after awhile, it is acceptable. The volume is great and the ability to handle multiple devices is superb. Plus, the noise cancelling has made the call handling audio great at both ends. I highly recommend this unit for anyone with similar needs.

Note: I cannot use an in-ear only earpiece as they fall out too easily on me. The hook is what becomes a little uncomfortable. This unit has a semi-in-ear design and, when coupled with the hook, functions on my ear very well. The only design element that I don't like is the main call button which is narrow and difficult to operate with gloved hands (it's cold out right now).

After a few months, I've changed my tune on this headset. See my update at the bottom of this review.

I've owned a lot of BT headsets. There are a lot good things to say about this headset. A2DP rocks. Works perfectly with iPhone 4.

PROs:
-Stays in ear without loop and very comfortable
-Comes with a neat little car charger w/ usb port and is adjustable, like a dock for your BT in the car
-Flawless and fast pairing with iPhone 4
-Voice dialing is without error (using it with iPhone 4)
-Play and pause music with voice control through headset
-Big plus for bikes...I get navigation audio through Jabra with phone locked and in my pocket. Awesome for getting around D.C on bike
-I can listen to my podcasts and music and audiobooks with it while driving and the nav instructions from GPS apps still come through loud and clear (other audio "dims")
-BIG PLUS for me...easy to carry in pocket without worrying about breaking off an ear hook (I use the in ear gel bud, no hook needed, one bud for left, one bud for right are both provided)
-Nice size, doesn't look to dorky, still, you want to remove when not using it to avoid DB look.
-Very loud audio, important for those hard of hearing
-Audio up and down volume buttons are separate and easy to use
-Power switch is not a push button type, it's a rocker switch, very easy to use

CONs:
-Can't think of any yet

UPDATE: May 2011

I bought two of these because I really liked the first one so anything I say below is based on the fact I have two of these Jabra Extreme's and have used it exclusively with iPhone 4 for several months.

I've concluded these headsets are unusable for their primary function, which is talking to other people on the phone. I can hear people just fine, and it pretty much does everything I want, with two or three glaring problems:

-People can't hear very well on the other end of the line, this is true for both headsets. 90% of the time I have to switch to using just the phone. Common complaints are my voice dropping out, echoing, lots of background noise(which leads to my next big Con)

-The noise cancelling is a joke. I don't even think it exists, everyone complains that it actually amplifies background noise, or at the very least the noise cancelling makes it nearly impossible to understand what I'm saying. I've used this headset (2 of them actually) for many months now and it's true of both headsets

-I love listening to my audio podcasts through my Jabre Extreme, the audio quality and volume are very good. However, I've discovered a problem with the Jabra Extreme headsets which I used to blame on my iPhone. Horrible buffering for the first few minutes of listening to audio through the BT headset. I confirmed it's actually the headsets and not the iphone after purchasing and using a Jawbone ERA (more on that later)

-Part of the seemingly non-existent noise-cancelling issue is the weird way they Jabra Extreme deals with certain noises. Any computer beeps or sounds (even very low volume sounds from a computer) is amplified many times to the person on the other end of my call. They often shriek and complain I blasted their ears. It's not an occasional occurence. It's every darn time. One person told me their ear was ringing for an hour afterward.

-The range is affected sometimes dropping from better than 30ft to a couple of feet. Sometimes if my phone is in my pocket on the other side of my body than the BT, the signal is interrupted. I have to reset network settings on iPhone constantly to resolve this (which leads to believe it's an issue with iPhone 4, then again, it hasn't happened with my new Jawbone ERA)

I have to change my recommendation to not buy, unless you don't give a rat's butt if the other party can understand what you're saying, then maybe it's the BT for you. I change my recommendation based on two things: inadequate processor power which causes buffering issue when playing back audio over the headset, and horrifically bad noise cancelling, bad audio quality for anyone on the other end of the line.

I recently bought a Jawbone ERA because it had good reviews, in order to compare it with my Jabra Extremes. The Jawbone ERA audio quality is nearly flawless and people on the other end of the line say it sounds better then when I just use my iPhone without BT. Noise cancelling seems to work very well compared to Jabra Extreme. Also I don't experience the buffering issue as with the Jabra Extremes. I can listen to A2DP audio just fine.

Love this bluetooth. It is incredibly comfortable. I have purchased several other bluetooths and they are always uncomfortable. This one fits well and works well. I purchased this one as a gift. They love it too!

I started off with a Plantronics Voyager 520 and then Motorolla H15. Both claim to be noise cancelling, but I had troubles with both. The Jabra is working great so far. People are able to hear me clearly, and the noise cancelling works pretty good. However, if you are sitting right next to someone and they are talking, then their voice can be heard loud and clear! Duh... Well some people think that noise cancelling also means voice recognition too, so that had to be explained. I am able to talk on the phone with the TV on in the background and the person on the other end only hears me. The stock ear piece is a bit large and uncomfortable like the other reviews say, but I am in the process of purchasing new earbuds to see if that makes a difference. Also, the charger cord is approximately 5 inches long! I don't know why, but plan on charging your Jabra on the ground unless you have plugs at counter level. The auto charger is super cool accessory that comes with it and charging it on the go is a snap. I gave this product 4 stars because of the ear piece and short charger cord.

I ended up ordering two of these Jabra bluetooth headsets for my IPHONE, first one replaced and second one failed too--different reasons. For the first one, in week 2, the charging sleeve came out with the charging cord: dead unit. I sent it back, got an immediate replacement. The second one lasted about 2 weeks--failed connections time after time, called their JABRA service, got a walk through on a reset. Didn't work. Make a call, I hear nothing, other party doesn't hear me then loud static sound and lost connection. Two data points make a straight line. Mailed 2nd one in today for a refund, won't buy another Jabra product. BUT, BUT, BUT, really, really happy with Amazon service.