Jabra SPORT & Jabra JOURNEY

Jabra is known for their quality hands-free headsets and speakerphones. Two of their newest products are the Jabra SPORT and the Jabra JOURNEY. Before I get into a full review of each, here’s a quick breakdown:

• Jabra SPORT – a wireless headset meant for those with an active lifestyle, allowing them to workout to their favorite music and be accessible by phone without fussing with dangling cords
• Jabra JOURNEY – for crystal clear conversations on a bluetooth-enabled speakerphone which discreetly clips to your car visor

So let’s start with the Jabra SPORT. I love the fact that it is wireless and so easy to pair with your phone via Bluetooth.

There are four buttons on the right-side earpiece: on/off/answer/end, FM, volume up, and volume down. Keep your instructions or bookmark them online because each button has different functions based on how long you press it and it’s easy to forget or get confused.

The quality of music is pretty good but I did notice the sound dropping a few times when outside. Inside the reach is a good 10′ which is great for multi-tasking around the house. Calls are clear and the person on the other end can hear you perfectly without you shouting (though most of us tend to unintentionally do that when they’re on phone anyway). The earpieces won’t block out a lot of sound so my husband couldn’t use it when using our subway-like public transportation. But,  if it is just windy outside while running or jogging you can still hear fine. The headset is lightweight and unobtrusive. The only major drawback is that it is not comfortable for those that wear glasses. The back portion of the headset is a bit thicker so you either get sore spots or they don’t stay on very well.

If you don’t wear glasses and plan on getting fit this year (or you’re just always chasing kids around), you might want to invest in this headset. For those that are vision-impaired, you may want to opt for the corded version but that kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Okay, now we move on to the Jabra JOURNEY. This speakerphone is small and sleek so it does not draw a lot attention if you leave it on your visor. It also has great battery life and only has to be charged once a month or so. Up to eight phones can be paired to this speakerphone (two simultaneously) and the sound quality is very clear for phone calls. I was amazed, actually, at how good the sound was and how well the other party could hear me.

Listening to music through the speakerphone is possible but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s as if someone turned the bass way down and treble all the way up, which is horribly ear-piercing. This is definitely designed for voice and not for music.

As the speakerphone picks up all the audio of your phone, you will also hear the clicks when typing. So, if you are a passenger that is also paired with the JOURNEY, you may not want to play any games or text unless you want to irritate the driver. As a side note, you actually press the shiny area to answer/end/pair. At first we didn’t realize that part could be pressed and kept hitting the button for voice control.

The JOURNEY turns off when it’s not in use for ten minutes and the motion-sensor will turn it on when you get back into the car. When your phone is in range it will automatically connect to it and is immediately ready for use. We were shocked several times to get in the car and suddenly hear, “Power on!” and “Connected!”

The only con I could think of was that the voice control doesn’t work well but that’s more of an issue with my iPhone than it is the speakerphone. Aside from that this is a great device. We’ve had several hands-free speakerphones but were never happy with any of them. Some were bulky and made awful indentations on our visors. Others just had terrible sound quality on both ends. I really like the Jabra JOURNEY and plan on using it for a long time.

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