Jabra Stealth UC product reviews

I'm not a big fan of Bluetooth headsets that you stick into your ear and just pray they stay there by some piece of metaphysical voodoo. Despite finding many of the more affordable over-ear units a little uncomfortable, they are definitely my preference over pretty much every in-ear variant I have ever trialled. Thus I was overjoyed to find this unit is capable of quickly morphing between both modes, giving it a very broad appeal across the whole market - and making it something my ears could at least enjoy assessing.

Lightweight and stylish are two adjectives that apply perfectly to this device. With a very sleek black and silver finish, discrete controls and a covered USB data/charging port, the only thing that mars this stylistic perfection is that the only ear-gel that fits me comfortably is bright orange... but that's just me. Thankfully, it sits inside my ear and thus is not an eye-sore. I have to admit I personally don't find ear-gels of any design to be overly comfortable, so it was great to fin a non-protruding ear-gel - more of a cover for that part of the unit than anything functional - and a pair of ear-hooks, allowing me to convert this unit to an over-the-ear design in a matter of moments. There were two sized ear-hooks, so it's a safe bet that regardless of the size of your sound-catchers, you'll be able to hook this unit on with one of them.

I strongly recommend downloading the Jabra Direct software for your computer, as it gives you a tonne of options for this, and any other, Jabra units you own. It also pro-actively alerts you to firmware updates and feature enhancements available. Well worth it, especially for non-techies. Simple to use, it allows you to take advantage of the latest advances and adjustments to the software embedded in the unit, giving you - where possible - better performance, battery life, etc.

I was impressed by the 'voice control' system, allowing me to trigger my phone's voice-dial features hands-free. Alas, no matter how hard I tried, I could not get Google to understand and correctly dial any numbers not already in my phonebook, but it was extremely handy when it came to driving to Auckland recently, enabling me to stay focussed on the road while using my phone in GPS mode to navigate me, piping the turn directions directly into one ear, and still allowing me to access secondary search functions like "OK Google, search, Mexican restaurants nearby" and seeing them pop up as little flags on the navigation display. ROAD SNACKS!

Overall, this is quite the dark horse in the mobile earpiece market and I loved how I could integrate it into my pc as well. The only thing I found lacking was a 'mute-mic' button... I would have liked the ability to shield real-world conversations from the ears of phone callers, and/or shut up the little voice in my ear when I needed to focus both ears on the real world around me for a moment. However, with a unit as compact and sleek as this, there's only so many buttons you can put on it and ensure they are still big enough to trigger properly - so something had to be left out I suppose.