AliphCom Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset

Considered one of the best Bluetooth headsets available on the market, AliphCom's Jawbone Prime combines appealing style with excellent noise-cancelling capabilities.

The AliphCom Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset is stylish but its size means it remains unobtrusive when worn. The curved, angled design is highlighted by a stylish, etched pattern on the front. The headset's build quality feels superb.

The AliphCom Jawbone Prime ships with no less than six ear buds: regular buds and hooked buds, in small, medium and large sizes. AliphCom claims the two included ear loops aren't required, but we struggled to achieve a comfortable fit without one. Once fitted, the AliphCom Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset remained comfortable throughout use and the curved design sits well on the side of your face.

The AliphCom Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset has two camouflaged buttons. The first is towards the top of the headset and adjusts volume, the NoiseAssassin function and ends calls, while the second answers calls and powers the headset on and off. Depending on the function required, you tap, press or hold the buttons. Though these controls suit the unit's style, they aren't overly practical — the volume in particular is annoying to adjust with just one button and it's hard to feel just exactly where the buttons are located while the Jawbone Prime is being worn.

The Jawbone Prime's design also means that the tiny LED is a little difficult to see. Though this is a minor point as the headset spends most of its time in your ear, the LED only glows when buttons are pressed and doesn't indicate of its power status when in standby mode.

The Jawbone Prime Bluetooth headset has excellent sound quality, made possible by what AliphCom dubs the Voice Activity Sensor (VAS). A form of bone conduction, the VAS is a small, plastic bulb that sits against your jaw line when worn, and detects the frequencies of your voice. Unlike the Motorola Endeavor HX1 Bluetooth headset, the AliphCom Jawbone Prime doesn't digitise your voice and our callers were impressed with outgoing audio quality — our voice was clear and free from distortion. The Jawbone Prime is most effective when the VAS is touching the side of your face, but still works well even if this isn't the case.

The Jawbone Prime does a capable job of minimising wind noise. On an outdoor balcony on the 21st floor of a high rise office building, we were able to hold a clear conversation. Our voice did sound a little softer with wind noise, but the headset was still an effective communication tool. Incoming audio quality is clear and also free of distortion, but we would have appreciated a boost in volume.

AliphCom rates the Jawbone Prime at 4.5 hours of talk time and over eight days of standby time. A USB cable and an AC adapter are both included in the sales package and the charging adapter has a stylish curved end that magnetically clips to the top of the Jawbone Prime.

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