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roustabout

Jawbone ICON "Rogue" vs the highly regarded Plantronics Voyager Pro

Although the ICON has the great feature of using words to let you know its status (if its on, battery, connection, etc) it's voice quality isn't as good as my Voyager Pro. I compared the two using the same phone (Treo 755p) as well as using it while on a WebEx conference call.

It's a trade-off, do you need Jawbone's "Noise Assassin" more or would you rather enjoy the loud, crisp, and clear voice clarity of Voyager Pro when the background noise is pretty low? At least for me, since I'm mostly in a quiet office environment or I can go somewhere where its more quiet during most calls----I'll take the Voyager Pro.

LOOKS: Give it up Aliph, I won't go out of my way to keep this headset for its looks. I'm looking for voice quality not ear jewelry.

CHARGER: Apart from the voice status announcements through the headset, I also liked the "gumby"-like charger cable which allows one to position the headset while charging---almost like a dock! I"m actually trying to it down to charge my Voyager Pro

CONCLUSION: I thought I finally got the "Holy Grail" of bluetooth headsets, but was disappointed with the lackluster voice quality. Ultimately, I want a headset where the folks I'm talking with won't even notice I'm on a headset----and the Voyager Pro does it hands down! Jawbone, meet UPS guy. See ya!


[I'm posting this same review to Amazon]

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Taylor88

Honestly, I think the Jawbone is not necessarily your best bet if you have no interest in noise cancellation. The Jawbone is the holy grail for portability and use in any typical environment which is always far too noisy. The Voyager is twice the size and almost twice the price, and for that size and price with no noise canceling I would expect it to be clearer and have better sound quality. So I really think the comparison is not totally appropriate, almost apples to oranges.
Yes, in terms of which is "the best" the Voyager would be the pick. But not for portability, not for non office use.

There's no way I'd try to carry that voyager in my pocket. And for use outdoors, on a busy street, a coffee shop with loud music, or just about every other public place I simply can't live without noise canceling. Even in the car it's almost too noisy without noise canceling. My call recipients are far too distracted by the background noise that they aren't listening to me. With the Jawbone I don't have that problem, they never complain, and most of the time aren't even aware that I'm on a headset.

In fact, if you don't need noise canceling, I have a couple of tiny Samsung WEP headsets that are excellent, tiny, and inexpensive. These work great for at home or in the office on a call where I'd otherwise disable the Jawbone's noise assassin noise canceling so I can talk a little quieter. But quiet office environments is rarely where I need a headset.

So I don't disagree that the Voyagers is superior in audio quality. But put in perspective, they are different use cases and I think the Jawbone is still an excellent sounding headset for all around use.
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