You may believe that Bluetooth headsets are a bit of a muchness and which one you select doesn't really matter as they all do the same thing. However those of us who rely on them during daily travel, or that strange breed who wear them in the office or even nightclubs know better! Key areas are performance, battery life and comfort. The Jabra BT500 is a mid range headset, its bigger brother the BT800 has all the LCD panels and caller ID, but why you'd need that on the side of your head we are a little mystified?

When you first pick up a BT500 you realise this is not a compact headset, you may think from the specs that this is a small headset, but it's a behind the ear model and one that wraps right round your ears a bit like a hearing aid. Perhaps this is not the most stylish of headsets despite its silver coating and flashing  LED, those planning to strut their stuff in the nightclub may want to stop reading here.

Its large size and grip around the ear do make the BT500 a robust and secure headset. We managed to shake madly as if having a convulsion and the headset stayed firmly fixed to the ear. This is essential for those who primarily use the Bluetooth headset in car, nothing worse than it falling off into the foot well mid call. The patented Jabra mini Jell also makes for a supremely comfortable fit, the Gels apply to the end of the in ear speaker, there are two sizes provided that allow differing amounts of intrusion into the ear. We found that the larger size gave the best fit and did not seem to compromise sound quality at all.

Controls are simple and easy to reach, the volume is adjusted in one touch and calls can be answered / ended simply with a single push of the MFB. Pairing is made easy with the dedicated pairing button and the instruction book is excellent too.

In a quiet environment like an office our callers could not tell we were using a BT headset and the Bluetooth 1.2 technology used in the BT500 gave excellent audio quality for us too. In our tests callers would often suggest that we were using the headset when in fact we were just using the phone's microphone and speaker as normal, quite a result for the Jabra BT500. Take the Jabra on road and the 6mm omni directional microphone does seem to pick up its fair share of background road noise, it would be unfair to say it interfered with conversations but it does let in a bit more background noise than some headsets we've tested in the past.

Battery life is something of a strong point for the Jabra BT500. It managed an astonishing 8 days on standby mode with some calls being made and it managed a solid 5 hours of calls on a busy day during our review without a recharge. Jabra claim 8 hours but we were unable to verify this. Topping up the battery is via the supplied power adaptor which plugs into the unit, it takes 2 hours to get a full charge, the LED indicates its charging and Bluetooth is switched off during this process. Perhaps the big selling point for us is that the cable can be removed from the supplied adaptor and powered from a PC USB port meaning you can easily top up at work too!

This is a headset of real quality, not only is it well built and comfortable to wear it also has a massive battery life and good audio reception and transmission. It can pair with up to 8 devices and its only downside is that it's not as small and pretty as some of the competition. Priced at under £50 we can't help but be impressed and its starting to become apparent why this could well be the best selling headset in the UK today.

More Jabra Reviews

Published - 05/02/2006

Technical Tip -

To pair the Jabra BT500 headset, ensure the headset and phone are powered, press the pairing button until the light flashes, the headset is now in pairing mode, scan for the BT500 from your Bluetooth enabled phone, select the "Jabra BT500" and enter the pass key 0000 and confirm.

More Bluetooth Headset Reviews-

[ Up ] [ Bluetooth Headset Reviews ] [ Jabra BT300 ] [ Motorola HS850 ] [ Motorola H500 ] [ Bluespoon AX ] [ Jabra BT500 ] [ Nokia HS-4W Bluetooth Headset ] [ Bluetake BT400 G5 ] [ Belkin Bluetooth Headset ] [ Bluetrek G2 Headset ] [ Motorola HS820 ] [ Sony Ericsson HBH-300 ] [ Logitech Bluetooth Headset ] [ nXzen Gennum 5500 ] [ Sony Ericsson HBH-GV435 ] [ LG Prada Bluetooth Headset ] [ Motorola H9 Review ] [ Qstick EVOQ ] [ Jabra BT330 Review ] [ Nokia BH-800 Review ] [ Jabra SP100 Speakerphone ] [ Jabra BT250V ] [ Jabra Bluetooth Headset BT200 ] [ Plantronics Bluetooth Headset M3000 ] [ Nextlink BlueSpoon Bluetooth Headset ] [ Sony Ericsson HBH-200 ] [ Nokia HS-11W ] [ HBH-600 Bluetooth Headset ] [ Jabra BT800 ]