By: Hillel Fuld

Let me tell you a little story. As you probably know, I recently replaced my BlackBerry Bold with an iPhone 4. As soon as I got my new shiny iPhone, I wanted to test its Bluetooth capabilities among many other things. I plugged in my Jabra JX10, an ear piece I got for my birthday three years ago. Unfortunately, it would not charge. Now, the headset was not under warranty and I had not used in over a year so the fact that it would not charge did not completely surprise me. Despite that fact, I thought I would reach out to Jabra on Twitter and see if there was anything they can do.

Suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised (as I always am when companies interact on Twitter) when Jabra responded almost immediately and explained that they would have someone contact me and replace the headset. I was thrilled. To make a long story short, Jabra ended up not only replacing the JX10 with a newer version called Jabra Arrow, but they also sent me the Jabra Stone, a ridiculously sexy Bluetooth headset that you can see in the photo below, and the Jabra Halo, which is a set of Bluetooth Stereo headphones that double as an earpiece with which you can talk on the phone. They sent the devices to get my feedback on them and for review purposes.

Just in case you are not familiar with the difference between a Bluetooth earpiece and a stereo headset, when you speak on the phone, the sound is usually in one ear and when you listen to music, it is stereo and heard in both ears. The Jabra Halo is a stereo headphones device, so it is intended for listening to music, but somewhere hidden in its slim body, is a microphone, so if your phone rings while you’re listening to music, you can answer and speak without removing the headphones.

I have been using the Jabra Halo now for over a week and I am loving it. If you want to stop reading now, I can tell you my conclusion that it is a highly recommended Bluetooth device for a person who likes to listen to music wirelessly with extremely high quality sound. It also doubles as regular headphones with a wire that plugs straight into the Halo to transform it in a standard wired set of earphones. Is it perfect? No, but like I said, overall, I would definitely recommend the Jabra Halo.

The following are some key advantages and disadvantages of the Halo based on my personal experience.

• Pairs with two devices: The Halo came in very handy when I was connected to my iPhone at work listening to music while also connected to my MacBook, which enabled me to talk on Skype. I found that the Halo did not pair perfectly with an iPad and some of the controls on the Halo such as Next Song or even volume did not register on the iPad. Like many other issues I had, I am not sure if this is a Halo thing, a Bluetooth protocol thing, or an iPad thing. All in all, 90% of the time, the Halo connected with two devices seamlessly.
• Touch controls: Despite the goofiness involved in moving your finger up along the side of your headphones to raise the volume, the actual touch technology in the Halo is quite futuristic. In addition to volume, touching the headphones also enables you to go to the next and previous songs, but you really need to be precise about the location of your touch, something I picked up quite quickly. Using touch, you can also pause and play your music and there is one hardware button on the device to answer phone calls.
• Stops music for call then resumes: When your phone rings in the middle of a song, you can answer, talk on the phone, which generally produced solid audio quality, and when you hang up, the music comes back in a smooth manner. This worked well in theory and even in practice 90% of the time, but other times, the phone was connected to the device but would not pick up the music. I was forced to disconnect and reconnect the two devices. Again, might just be a Bluetooth stability issue, no way to know.
• Nice Range: This is an issue that is directly connected to Bluetooth protocol but I have found that different devices, despite using the same protocol, have different ranges. The Halo’s range was impressive and the sound quality remained intact despite distancing myself from the phone.
• Sleek design: To be honest, I am a little torn on this issue. When I unboxed the Halo, my first impression was “wow”. The headphones are light, smooth looking, and extremely impressive. However, I was told by my sometimes-too-honest co workers that they looked pretty goofy. I had no problem walking around with them on in the street and despite getting no blatant laughs, I did get a few confused looks. I have used the Motorola S9 headphones, and as far as looks go, the Halo might be a little more out there.
• Fold to turn off: Again, this is a tricky one. There is no On and Off buttons on the Halo. You simply fold the headphones to turn off Bluetooth and power and you unfold and click them in place to turn them on. Very sleek. However, the mechanisms are a little too sensitive for my liking and almost every time I removed the headphones to pass them to someone else, the latch was released and the Bluetooth disabled. In addition when clicking them into place, it is way too easy to bend them the wrong way, which would in theory damage the body of the Halo. The whole thing is nice in concept but just a little too flimsy in practice.

There are a lot more positive things to say about the Halo but most importantly, the sound quality is superb both when listening to music and talking on the phone. The comfort of the Halo is also unparalleled to the point that when they’re on, you do not even feel them there, that is how light the Halo is. Unlike many other gadgets I have tried over the years, the Halo has a special place in my laptop bag, which comes with me to work every day. It is a convenient device to have around, and some Bluetooth stability fixes plus a little hardening of the outside of the Halo would make it almost a perfect gadget for the music enthusiast.

All in all, as I said, I definitely recommend the Jabra Halo if you are in the market for a Stereo Bluetooth headset. If you are not in the market, you might want to consider it, since it adds a whole new level of comfort and ease to every day activities like listening to music and talking on the phone. In fact, according to some of the latest rumors, even Steve Jobs is in the market for some good old Bluetooth technology, but that is a topic for another time.

If you have used the Halo or a similar product, I would love to hear about it in the comments below or on Twitter.