Photo gallery: Jabra BT2050Jabra's previous Bluetooth headset release, the BT3010, featured something we don't often see in the hands-free market — some colour. While most headsets hope to camouflage to the side of your face, the BT3010 presented itself confidently with garish rainbow print faceplates. The BT2050 is the alternative, a return to sleek black and silver, and a miniature design with discretion in mind featuring what Jabra calls the "Jabra Discreet Light feature" — simply meaning there's no flashing coloured lights to make you seem like some pretentious business cyborg.
We are impressed with the layout of the BT2050's mechanical keys. There are four in total, a circular start/end call button, front facing volume keys and the power/pairing button on the side of the headset. The silver circular call button is raised and reasonably large and is simple to locate without looking. Likewise, having the volume keys facing outwards is excellent and makes it very easy to adjust the level of calls while wearing the BT2050.
Unlike many Bluetooth headsets, the BT2050 doesn't have an ear hook permanently fixed to the device. Instead Jabra has bundled two detachable ear hooks in the box of slightly differing sizes. The BT2050 is also designed so that it can be worn without an ear hook; the in-ear speaker is large enough to hold itself inside the ear canal. Even with all these options we still haven't found the BT2050 to be the most comfortable headset to wear, the larger speaker rests loosely on the ear rather than in the ear like most headphones.
The BT2050 features a standard list of headset functions like auto-pairing, last number redial and voice-activated dialling. Unlike the BT3010 this recent Jabra doesn't support three-party calling, but it can handle call waiting.
More important than how it looks is how it performs and unfortunately we haven't been blown away by the performance of this tiny headset. Despite the ease of setting up the BT2050 with our Nokia N95 8GB test unit, the quality of the audio during calls has been inconsistent. At best the call quality was slightly muffled with lower volume than we'd have liked, perhaps due in part to how loosely the speaker sits and to some resulting audio leakage. At worst the reception crackled and made our calls inaudible. These disturbances were only for short periods and mostly the reception was decent, but this disturbance was more frequent than we tend to see in higher end models.
The most outstanding aspect of the BT2050 is its budget price point. When you consider the BT3010 is AU$120, as is Sony Ericsson's HBH-PV712, the AU$60 asking price for the BT2050 is excellent value for a unit with enough features to suit most people in the market for a hands-free headset. The performance isn't top-notch but we think it's passable for basic use in most situations.
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