Jabra STONE2 Bluetooth Headset [Retail packaging]

by Jabra

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2 x 7.2 x 4.2 inches ; 0.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B004KPLA9Q
• Item model number: STONE2
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,430 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Taking the ease-of-use of the original STONE to the next level, the Jabra STONE2 Bluetooth headset allows you to use just your voice to answer or reject a call--no need to even touch the headset. Additionally, it offers multimedia capabilities and optimization with a wide variety of voice enabled applications.

The Jabra STONE2 in leather finish.

 

Enjoy easy, hands-free communication
wherever you roam (see larger image).

Via its new Voice Guidance feature, the STONE2 headset tells you each caller's number and you then simply say "yes" if you want to accept the call, and "no" if you don't. And you don't have to look at the STONE2 headset to check battery level or the strength of the connection with your mobile phone--it tells you just what you need to know via voice alerts. You'll also be able to hear pairing instructions.

Battery and status display.

 

Portable charger doubles as a case.

 

With a shape like no other headset on the market, the Jabra STONE2 elegantly wraps behind your ear, eliminating the standard on-face microphone and combining both style and functionality. With a new and improved fit, the STONE2 includes a choice of four "comfort-tested" and ergo-designed ear gels to provide a personalized fit for different ear shapes and sizes. And the lightness of the headset, its curved shape and personalized eargels makes this a supremely comfortable headset.

To create the clearest call possible, Jabra's Noise Blackout technology with dual microphones captures sound while intelligently filtering out background noise. This eliminates ambient noise even in the loudest environments, enhancing the call clarity and ensuring a natural sounding voice.

In addition to working as a communications headset, the STONE2 is also compatible with phones that provide Bluetooth streaming audio capabilities (via the A2DP profile), enabling you to listen to music and audio from video playback while on the go.

It comes with a portable charger that enables you to fast charge on the go up to 3 times--and each charge takes only 20 minutes. You get up to 10 full hours of wireless talk time in a charger that slips easily into your pocket or bag. The portable charger functions as a compact carrying case that fits into the palm of your hand--simply plug your headset into the charger and power-up whenever and wherever you want. If you use the STONE2 with an Apple iPhone, battery levels will also appear on the iPhone, helping you to avoid guessing when the headset battery is running low.

Key Features

• Voice Control allows you to answer or reject calls by the use of the voice
• Voice Guidance tells who is calling, battery status, set-up and more
• Noise Blackout Extreme with dual microphone technology for excellent sound
• MultiUse functionality connects to 2 Bluetooth devices simultaneously
• Four ergo-designed Eargels for all-day comfort
• Portable Jabra STONE2 charger enables charging on the go
• Stream multimedia from your compatible phone (with A2DP Bluetooth profile)

Specifications

• Bluetooth: Version 2.1
• Bluetooth profiles: A2DP, Hands Free Profile (v1.5), Headset profile, PBAP
• Operating range: 33 feet (10 meters)
• Paired devices: Up to 8; connected to 2 at the same time (MultiUse)
• Talk time: Up to 10 hours
• Standby time: Up to 15 days (360 hours)

What's in the Box

Jabra STONE2 headset, portable charging unit, belt clip, AC charger, USB cable (for charging or firmware upgrade), 3 extra eargels in different shapes, quick start guide

Voice Enabled Applications

Utilizing the Jabra World of Apps, you can easily and quickly find applications that fit your lifestyle and make the most of your headset experience. With third-party hands-free apps that have been hand-selected and rigorously tested to work with the Jabra STONE2 and other Jabra products, the Portal includes a robust suite of voice-enabled apps allowing you to:

• Send text messages or emails using their voice
• Read email messages
• Update status on social networking sites including Facebook
• Notify users of missed calls
• Listen to customized music stations
• Find a business
• Get local traffic reports and updates

Product Description

The next generation of the hugely successful Jabra STONE, the Jabra STONE2 allows for truly hands-free communication while building on the success of its predecessor and featuring the same revolutionary design. The Jabra STONE2 is the first Bluetooth headset that allows users to take calls further and easier. Innovative new features allow for easy, hands-free communication. Jabra STONE2 also puts extra power in the palm of your hand with a portable charger that enables you to charge 4 times on the go, providing up to 2 hours in the headset and an additional 8 hours of wireless talk time in the charging stone. For clear conversations, an advanced sound system with Noise Blackout Extreme and dual microphone system eliminates background noise and maintains the natural sound of your voice. The lightness of the headset, its curved shape and 4 personalized ergo-eargels, makes every conversation a pleasure.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So far, love it, February 19, 2011

By 

T. Kunikov (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Jabra STONE2 Bluetooth Headset [Retail packaging] (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I used a bluetooth headset in the past. It was an excellent device for when driving and having to take a call or just sitting at home and not wanting to hold the phone against your head for long conversations. Given the opportunity to review this device, I can honestly say I was impressed. There are only two negatives that came to mind, which I'll get to later on in the review.

Aesthetically, the device has a sleek look. It feels nice in your hand, although the part that wraps around your ear is more rubbery, which is nice as it won't bother you when it's wrapped around your ear. The portable charger it comes with doesn't increase the size of the unit that much and will easily fit into a pocket. It also keeps the unit charged when on the go, an excellent feature. Here though is the first negative. The unit comes with a usb connector and an electrical outlet connector, both are rather limited in length, VERY limited.

In terms of set up, I have an iPhone 4 and with it the bluetooth set up took less than 5 seconds. The phone saw the bluetooth device and automatically connected to it, no pin number necessary (although instructions are provided if you need to go through the process with a pin number). Making phone calls was pleasant enough. If the earpiece is uncomfortable, the unit comes with a few other choices, which will hopefully prove a better fit. I love the fact that I can answer calls by simply saying 'answer', no buttons to press or find. The earpiece itself has a button that lets you check the battery level and if a call is incoming allows you to answer it and/or finish the call (another option aside from using the voice feature). Furthermore, pressing it twice will redial the last number. You can also adjust the volume by moving your finger along the length of the earpiece. So the unit itself carries no negatives but its price point is up there (for $60 or $75 this would be a no-brainer). Truthfully, having experienced what his unit has to offer, if I was in need of a bluetooth device, this would definitely be my pick.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but some awkwardness..., March 1, 2011

By 

Mark "Sorokahdeen" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jabra STONE2 Bluetooth Headset [Retail packaging] (Wireless Phone Accessory)

(What's this?)

The Jabra Stone 2 is a surprising bluetooth unit with a few very good features that are sometimes overshadowed by awkward ones.

The good:
Good, functional design
Decent acoustics with noise reduction
Real, hands-free operation with voice-activated "answer" and "decline" functions
Portable charging egg with clothes clip
Good voice quality on the listener's end

The bad:
Sometimes bizarre design decisions including right-ear-only orientation
Shorter than advertised talk-time
Hollow sounding voices

The ugly:
Ridiculous, illogical battery life claims (ten hours)
Equally ridiculous multimedia device claim

It is easy to call the Jabra Stone 2 "awkward" because it isn't really bad; in fact, some of its features are real, unique innovations which, with slightly better implementation or with less grandiose claims would be considered great in another device. With the battery life as one important exception, the stone 2 does what the manufacturer claims it does and if you wish for anything at all, you wish that it did it only slightly better.

Out of it's oval plastic box, the Stone 2 is a sleek package, shaped like a flattened, black egg that functions as a charging station and it is here that the innovation begins: putting the headset into the charging station turns it off; taking it out again turns it on and, once you've paired the headset with your phone, creates a bluetooth connection quickly and dependably.

Another fine innovation in the Stone 2 is its digital signal processing features. The Stone 2 borrows a page from other manufacturer's playbooks and uses a voice for important announcements such as the headset's battery level and reading off the phone number when a call is received. The Stone 2 allows the user to take, or reject calls by saying "accept" or "decline" after the voice has read the last digit of the number (saying them before then seems to drop the call directly to voicemail). This is a great feature for people who simply *must* talk on the phone while driving; it allows them to keep both hands on the wheel.

The Stone 2's voice feature ignores one aspect of contemporary culture: in a world full of cell phones that store libraries of phone numbers, fewer people memorize phone numbers as they once did, and having a string of numbers read to a user might not tell him or her anything useful.

Those are all very praiseworthy design features but once you go past them, things get rocky.

Used in a quiet environment, the Jabra Stone 2 is a stellar performer. Listeners report great sound, while the user hears the voice on the other end as somewhat hollow, but certainly clear and recognizable. In noisier, or windier environments, conversations rapidly become exchanges of "huh?" and "What?" despite Jabra's claim of effective noise-cancellation.

One definitely edgy aspect of the Stone 2's design is the decision to use an asymmetrical, right-ear-only design. The Stone 2 is certainly stylish and well-fitting in the ear (better than the great majority of bluetooth units I've ever owned or tested including Blue Ant and the (early) Aliph Jawbone), however, no matter how good the fit, the design begs the question, `what about people with reduced or absent hearing in their right ears?" Jabra's obvious answer appears to be, `use something else.'

Things become well and truly strange when you come to the Stone 2's battery life. Jabra Claims that the Stone 2 unit alone has a two-hour battery life and that it will run for up to ten hours with the charging cradle. The second of these claims lacks even a toehold in reality.

The Stone 2 unit I have for review doesn't like long phone calls. It has never lasted for more than ninety minutes before the voice started announcing "low battery" and the claim that the Stone 2 with the charging cradle operates for up to ten hours is based on a logical dodge: if the user makes phone calls that drain the battery, and puts it back in the charging cradle until it is fully charged, repeating the process until all the combined power of the charger and headset is exhausted, the total time the headset was functional might tally up to ten hours, but it will be ten hours broken up by charging cycles when the unit will be either useless, or only partially charged.

By this reasoning, Jabra might as well say that the Unit has twenty-hours of talk time because you'll use much of those twenty hours to get the full ten hours of charge, talk and charge again cycles out of it. This is either logically bizarre or a deception depending on your way of looking at things.

Almost equally odd is Jabra's claiming that the Stone 2 is a multimedia device. Yes, it will certainly play an audiobook stored on your phone, but it has only a volume control and an end-call switch on the body of the device, and single-ear sound with a strongly limited dynamic range stopped being the norm for listening to media with the introduction of the Sony Walkman a long, long time ago.

At the end of the day, the Jabra Stone 2 is not a bad headset; it is a good one.

Used in a quiet environment with still air for a series of short phone calls, it is better than a lot of what you find out there. The charging cradle with its clothes-clip, is a cool innovation. The sleek unit fits well in any pocket and gets the job done with style and aplomb, but some things about it make you wish that Jabra would fire the copywriters who allowed them to make the ten-hour claim and hire engineers whose vocabularies included the words, "bigger battery."

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New favorite headset, March 17, 2011

By 

Strohmian (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Jabra STONE2 Bluetooth Headset [Retail packaging] (Wireless Phone Accessory)

(What's this?)

After aquiring a Plantronics Voyager headset just for home use, I didn't think I'd need anything else. However, after using the Jabra Stone for about a month, I have a new favorite.

*** What I like most about it (most positive first) ***

- Style and fit: I think the fashion police has issued that wearing a headset while not on a call makes even George Clooney look like a dork, but the Jabra Stone 2 may prove to be the exception to the rule: it's small, has a leathery shell, hugs the ear closely, and nothing protrudes or blinks (even the obligatory blue light is not visible while worn!). If you have over-the-ear hair, this headset will probably go unnoticed. Comfort- wise, I tried it with the standard eargels (out of 4 supplied) and practically forgot it was there right away.

- Operation: there is only one button (with good tactile feedback) that is intended to "do the right thing", like giving the battery level or take/hang up a call. Volume control is superbly implemented as well: you just slide your finger up or down on the headset, no need trying to locate buttons. Most impressively, if the phone rings while you're wearing this headset, you simply say "answer". Awesome.

- The 'Stone'. This very small recharger doubles as a carrying device. It's about the size and shape of an egg except about half as thick. The headset fits into it seamlessly and can be fully recharged four times while on the go. It's too bad the back is open though - that would have been an excellent dust protector.

- AD2P a.k.a. "advanced audio": the acronym stands for the ability to 'stream multimedia', as Jabra puts it. This means that the headset pairs with an iPad for example (which others don't), or can be used to listen to an audiobook on your iPhone. It found that the audio quality was marginally better than on my previous (non AD2P) headset, although I had expected a much larger quality boost. Also, a word of caution: not all apps support A2DP; for example, Skype on the iPhone currently doesn't! Clearly that's not Jabra's fault, but it was nonetheless a surprise to me.

*** Things I don't like (most annoying first) ***

- Right ear only: My previous headset was switchable from right to left ears, so I now miss that feature on very long conference calls.

- Battery life. The claim is two hours, but I manage to empty it out in barely one hour. To be fair, I usually leave the phone 15 feet away in the charger, perhaps that switches the unit into a higher power level. That said, because I always place the headset back into the "stone" I'm confident that it's well charged when I need it.

- Packaging and documentation. So awful I had to mention it, even though you need to pry the parts out only once.