My Jabra BT500 review:

[Treatz]

i've been using the jabra BT500 now as my main BT headset for a good 3 weeks.
this is a retail packaged jabra BT500 and is the replacement to the extremely popular Jabra BT200/BT250/BT250v series. Is it better then the series it replaces?.. Read on:

Sound Quality
I myself like the Jabra line. The sound quality is good, and it's nice and loud because of it's in ear design. The actual sound on the Jabra 500 is quite good. no descernible hiss in the earpiece and good quality.

It's not that i'm deaf, but i prefer a louder headset so when you're in the car or louder areas you can turn it up a bit instead of alwasy walking around with the headset on max but just needing that little bit more.

I have also noticed during my testing of the Z520 and W600* that certain phones will actually make the Jabra BT500 sound differently in terms of volume.

*The W600 is a LOUD phone, and it seems to just amplifly all headsets.. Even the older motorola headsets I have at the shop once paired with the W600 are louder then with other phones. Because of this I went back to the Z520 for comparisons since I don't think running a Jabra 500 / W600 combo is the best way to test real world phones since the W600 seems to be the only phone I've seen that has louder then normal BT headset audio transmission.

The outgoing audio is ok. People can tell i'm on a headset, but they dont' complain that they can't hear me etc etc.

One thing though, the original Jabra line was really bad in outside/windy enviroments. While the Jabra BT500 improves on the 200/250 line, it's still bad. The lack of DSP also equates to a poor outside experience when you're hoofing it around town. However, for my needs i'm usually in a car or in the office/home so I really don't require a headset that works well outside, since I am not the type to wear the headset at all times. I only wear the headset while answering/initiating a call.

Battery life
The battery life on the BT500 is one of it's strong points

Jabra themselves claim 8 hours talk and 240 hours of standby. I myself was able to get about 6 hours of talk (turned headset off when not using and clocked just talk time) before I gave up and just charged the thing. The standby time is 240 hours, which would be 10 days. I have no concerns about the BT500's standby time since I had left the bT500 on for 3 days accidentally while playing around with the new jabra JX10 (review coming soon) and had used it for a good 4 days prior to that point.

Call handling
as with most jabra products, the unit supports quite a few nice features.
these features are:

Last # redial: press and hold call button. 2 beeps and let go
Rejecting calls: press and hold call button, 2 beeps, caller gone
Call waiting: press and hold call button, 2 beeps, caller switched
hold: press and hold call button, 2 beeps, caller on hold

The Headset also connects quickly and without much effort to any of your paired phones. the call handling is fast and effecient

Charging
The jabra BT500 features a home plug, as well as Jabra's proprietary USB charger for charging on the fly with USB via a laptop. Very convenient.









PROS:
*Excellent battery life
*great comfort in wearing
*great volume (even better on W600)
*good call handling
*good speed on handling commands to and from phone
*good weighting

CONS
*Lack of DSP
*Poor handling in windy situations
*Size (some say it's large)
*in ear operation (some dont' like in ear)

[didouche]

good review once again

[JwY]

nice review!

[Evil Ernie]

good work Mr.TDMA....

[jase88]

Good review; thanks!

I like the call handling features and USB charging. Too bad they didn't improve the outgoing audio....

[GaDgEtMoN]

Nice BT headset but what a Bunk phone!!

I would like to thank you for taking the time to do these reviews for us. They are very helpful..

Thanks!!

[sjlotus]

nice review..

always used and loved jabra over anything else

[feerie]

Nice review treatz!

[Spic]

Nicely put together like always informative and unbiased

[crocket]

Nice review Treatz, I have never used the Jabra but i have to agree with you on the W600. I hooked up my Motorola Bluetooth Headset to both the W600 and the V635 and i found that the headset is a lot louder when using the W600.

[Prevailing Wind]

treatz have you done a review of the Jabra BT 250? I got it recently as a gift. And the 500 you're reviewing now did poorly on CNET's reviews (a 6.0 versus an 8.0 for the 250). What do you think of that?

[Treatz]

treatz have you done a review of the Jabra BT 250? I got it recently as a gift. And the 500 you're reviewing now did poorly on CNET's reviews (a 6.0 versus an 8.0 for the 250). What do you think of that?

i dno't see how.. the 500 is the next gen on the 250.
it's ligher and has bettery battery...

I fould the 500 to be good for my needs