Customer Reviews

Jawbone ICON-Series Thinker Bluetooth Headset (Silver wheat)

5 star:		(275)
4 star:		(114)
3 star:		(45)
2 star:		(46)
1 star:		(81)

 

 

I've had over 20 headsets and am extremely fussy. This headset is by far the best is most ways.

Fit:
Its difficult to explain how it fits different, yet its comfortable and secure. The headset slides into the ear instead of being compressed into the ear.

Quality of Voice in normal setting:
Perfect. It's the only headset where I NEVER got a complaint.

Noise Cancellation:
Almost perfect. Just make sure the headset touches your face.
I had Prince jamming on the radio where the windows in the house were rattling.
I could barely hear the other person or myself, yet they could only hear a clip of the music every few seconds. They could hear me fine.

Connection to Phone:
This is where the biggest problems occurred. It sometimes took up to a minute of trying to get the headset to connect on my Palm Treo.
My Blue Ant connects every time without a glitch.

The only other headset that comes close is the Blue Ant V1.
If I were to rate both, I would give the Icon a 9.0 and the Blue Ant V1 a 7.5.
I rate all other headsets below a 5.

The only feature I would like to see on these headsets is a way to find them when they get misplaced.
Perhaps a way for the phone to communicate with it when a button is pressed on the phone.

I'm really not very crazy about bluetooths (blueteeth?), but since I spend a lot of time driving, in California, with a manual transmission, it's kind of a necessary evil. That being said, iirc, the Jawbone Icon is the 5th bluetooth I've owned. It's also quite far and beyond the BEST bluetooth I've ever used!

In the past, I've had problems with comfort, volume, background noise, charging, and even straight up defective units (plus I'm embarrassed to say, I'm an idiot and I somehow lost the most expensive one, a Plantronics 975). But I don't have any complaints about the Jawbone Icon!

Comfort - comes with a bunch of different-size earpieces, and optional ear-hook. No prob!

Volume - callers sound very clear to me. Previous handsfree devices I've used never had enough volume for me to hear clearly when I'm driving in the car. I don't think the Icon can actually adjust volume, except through the phone volume.

Background noise - waaay waaay better than my Plantronics 975. From the first time I called my wife with it, she noticed a huge, huge difference. She said it was even better than my old Blueant Q1 (which was pretty darn good). No wind or road noise, turn signal clicks, or even radio really got through to her - just my voice!

Ease of use - This is where the Jawbone Icon is OUTSTANDING. The on/off switch makes all the difference. No holding the button for 5 seconds, or any garbage like that. Just flip the switch, and it's done! The button placement is good, too.

Anyway, I've already said it, but to sum up: it's the best bluetooth I've ever owned, hands down.

For me, a headset must have excellent noise cancellation. Also, the headset must be loud enough to drown out surrounding noise. These trump all other features. Why have a headset if no one can hear me or I can't hear them, right? In fact, I will gladly give up comfort and features for a better noise canceling and/or louder headset. This headset is good, but the Jawbone 2, my headset before this one, has noticeably better noise cancellation.

I wear my headset on the left side. I also find that the medium earbud, no loop, fits perfectly. It seems to seal out noise better than the small or larger earbuds. My 5'2" girlfriend needs the small one. All testing was done with a Sprint Palm Pre.

I purchased 'The Thinker' from a Verizon Wireless store. On the Aliph's website, the headset it white/silver with a texture of ellipses featuring an "intellectual man's voice" for the MyTalk app. My version of 'The Thinker' was black, same texture, and featuring the voice from 'The Catch.' The voice was a nice change from the beeps and dongs of most headsets. The voice will tell you when the battery is low or how much time you have left when pressing the multifunction button once when not on a call.

The Jawbone 2 doesn't seem to pick up anything outside of two-three feet. I could drive at 65 mph with the driver side window rolled down and people said the wind is about a 4 on a scale of 1-10. I could drive my 2005 Corolla with the radio blasting, windows rolled up, and people would say that the radio was at about a 3. I could have a conversation with someone about 4-5 feet from me and callers said they could only hear me speaking. When riding my bike 20 mph, yes I can ride that fast, people said it was between 4 and 6. They could hear me just fine. I could eat granola and the sound would fade to a distant 3 in a few seconds. I brushed my teeth and there was no audible noise being transmitted until I brushed the tops of my teeth.

The Jawbone Icon seems to pick up sound over five feet away. While at a store, callers could hear grocery carts crashing about 15-20 feet away. People were astounded at the loud wind noise while driving with the driver window rolled down. They gave it a 7 or 8. Sometimes, they couldn't even understand my speech. When driving with the radio blasting and the window rolled up, callers could understand and even repeat what was on the radio. This goes for music and spoken word. When conversing with someone 5 feet away, callers could hear the other person as well as me. While riding my bike, people could still hear me, but the wind was obtrusive. They stated that it was noticeably louder than my Jawbone 2. People could hear me chomping on granola as if NoiseAssasin was turned off. Brushing my teeth was the same as the Jawbone 2.

The Jawbone 2 hurts my ear when wearing it for over an hour. In fact, my ear usually feels bruised, but it is not. Therefore, I only wear it while on a call. The Jawbone Icon is a dream to wear. I don't even feel it after an hour. I could easily where it all day. However, using the medium sized earbud translates to a looser fit when compared to the Jawbone 2 so I used the hook.

The absent volume adjuster on the Icon didn't bother me too much. The Icon is supposed to be able to normalize audio. This didn't seem to work for me. Callers could make a sudden loud sound and it would pierce my eardrum. Also, notification sounds from my Palm Pre didn't seem to get normalized either.

All of the Jawbones have a multifunction button on the side that the user inevitably presses by mistake. Moving that button to the back of the headset with the Icon was a stroke of genius. I never accidentally hung up on a call. However, I got used to the side mounted multifunction button on the Jawbone 2 and adjusted my habits accordingly.

Reception with my Sprint Palm Pre was the same with both headsets. 15ft or so with a couple of walls between the headset and phone was about the maximum distance.

The short, stiff, but bendable microUSB cable was nice. I could attach it to the computer with it dangling. The headset charges quick...about an hour.

A battery life of 4 hours is the bare minimum these days for a headset. It's nice to know that Aliph shot par with this feature.

The Icon's microUSB charger, Multipoint, and possible firmware update capabilities make an attractive choice over the Jawbone 2. A2DP on the Icon is just a rumor at this point. Besides, necessary access to the Private Beta area to download the software that is capable of firmware updates is very limited. So limited that I haven't been invited. Maybe it will be opened to the public if Aliph decides to post downloadable firmware updates?

In the end, the Icon's dual mics do not offer any kind of protection from the wind and only serves as a gimmick. NoiseAssasin 2.5 is a huge step backwards from the Jawbone 2. Callers could hear me despite the extra background noise. Therefore, the Jawbone Icon is still very useful in noisy situations. However, it just picks up more background noise than the Jawbone 2. This results in me having to repeat myself a little bit more and the callers having to live with more noise during a conversation.

I have an earlier model bluetooth that I liked, but it suffered from the same problem as all bluetooths I have had so far--it would turn itself on in my pocket. This would occasionally lead to my thigh making a call to a random person or the battery draining prematurely. That has changed with this model Jawbone. I LOVE the fact that this model has a rocker switch to turn it on and off. No more turning on by mistake! It also connects to the phone much faster than any other bluetooth I've had, the moment the switch it moved, there is only a half second before it connects to the phone. Also, the pairing of the device is quick and easy. I turned it on for the first time and it was already in discovery mode, so I didn't have to hold this button and that button for X amount of seconds to get to discovery. Call quality is excellent, as expected from a jawbone.

I recently purchased the Jawbone Icon and Plantronics Voyager Pro at the same time so that I could test them both out and return the "loser" in my tests.

I've owned several Plantronics models over the years have never been particularly impressed by their noise reduction capabilities. The new Voyager Pro turned out to be no exception.

I performed identical tests in my home, leaving voicemails for myself to test the sound quality of both headsets under various conditions. My tests included:

Sitting on the couch with the TV louder than I normally listen to it
Sitting on the couch with music playing pretty loudly
Standing at the kitchen sink with the water running
Coffee grinder running
Silent room (to test general voice quality between the two headsets)

After listening to the voicemails I left for myself with each headset, the Icon was the clear winner. Noise cancellation was MUCH better with the Icon (at least with my iPhone - perhaps other cell phones would have different results). In a silent room, the voice quality for both headsets sounded pretty much on par from what I could tell.

I also called a friend and repeated these same tests during a "live" phone call and he confirmed that the Icon was the clear winner on his end as well.

The only thing I didn't test was wind noise, but that's not a particularly common scenario for me. Mainly, I needed to ensure that I can work in public places such as coffee shops and not have my clients distracted by background noise and the Icon seems like it will do just that!

Jawbone Rocks!

Good: Unparralleled noise cancelling technology, voice tells you how much talk time is left, great invisible style and I haven't yet tried the voice dial apps.
Better next time: I'll buy a different color, it is too easy to lose the black/white combo - this headset is beautiful and tiny, I need a different color so I can spot it better when I put it down.

I was skeptical about paying big bucks for a headset, but I was more tired of my spouse constantly griping that he could not hear me on my previous headsets (Jabra and Plantronics mid-price products). This headset is worth every penny! Noise cancelling technology is excellent. I had to take a business call in the middle of a P.F. Chang's lunch (P.F.'s is the most acoustically deafening place outside of a hammer testing factory). My callers thought I was in my office! Even hubby has stopped complaining (worth the dough just for that :) )

Comes with numerous options to attach to your ear and for me the 'in ear' one works fine and does not fall out. Love this headset - I'm Jawbone from now on!

After reading some bad reviews of this product I was skeptical of purchasing it, but i'm glad I did. This version of the icon has a matte finish so it's not too flashy. The device easily paired up to my 3GS right out of the box. At first the sound was weak but after I updated it using Jawbone's updater it was way better. A2DP works wonderfully with the iphone and they just updated it and made it louder. Make sure you have a C: drive on you're computer or else the jawbone software won't be able to install. So far sound quality on both ends is very good and it works well in loud environments. I would recommend this bluetooth to any iphone owner since it has the battery meter and works with voice dialing.

I have owned all of the Jawbone models since the first. All are small and I have lost several. I now carry it in a separate zipper case with my phone number inside.

I had difficulty with some previous models. I never could get a comfortable fit with the wire ear loops. Later I learned to use only the rubber ear piece.

The greatest problem with previous models was the use of the pressure sensitive areas of the Jawbone. Reaching to adjust the position during a phone call would sometimes terminate the call or to turn off the Bluetooth connections. Also pressure on it in my small case would sometimes turn it "On" depleting the battery.

The redesign of the Icon has solved these problems as well as improving noise cancellation.

For me the greatest improvement has been the elimination of the pressure sensitive points.

The Icon now has a small sliding switch on the inside surface. Sliding this switch, showing a blue dot, automatically connects the Bluetooth feature of the phone. In addition, pressing a small pressure switch on the top surface next to the ear, allows a voice to announce the remaining talk time available.

Other features include a redesigned charger.

I have also found that the Icon is louder than my Nokia phone earpiece permitting easily heard phone calls in a noisy environment.

Jawbone has corrected and improved on their design to the point that I can not find any problems.

Recently purchased the Jawbone ICON - Tinker to replace my 3 year old Jawbone v1. All worked well with the v1 except I had finally worn out the multiple ear pieces and loops. It was time......

I read the reviews on the ICON and thought v2+ noise cancellation should at least be incrementally better. Was disappointed. I have had callers tell me they are picking up background noise that appears to be in certain frequency ranges. It's most pronounced from sound the higher ranges.

I was also disappointed in the programmable features. While they are making progress, I don't consider my choice of voice announcers to be particularly valuable. I found the add-on allowing audio media to be heard through the headset not to be functional - it works inconsistently with my Blackberry.

On the positive side, the ICON manages better in wind. That is a great improvement. The unit size and voice announcement on battery time are definitely pluses. I also like the "standard" micro USB interface. A great improvement from v1 Jawbone.

Better than previous models? If I hadn't needed a new headset, I probably wouldn't have made the change. Satisfied but not 'wowed' by the new technology.

The Jawbone Icon is good and it's also pretty versatile as far as switching ears or using it with an ear clip or no clip at all. I prefer to use an ear clip as I don't have to worry about it falling off (even though my friends have no problem)... just provides more assurance. I do have a problem with it in my right ear, maybe that's just me. Overall, outstanding noise cancelling and nice voice that announces what number is calling you. Entry 02/23/11: The BLUEANT Q2 has taken the title! Please check it out, the Jawbone now does not stand a chance!