‘The’ Jabra Halo review

Jabra Halo

It has been a while since I have been using ‘the’ Jabra Halo bluetooth stereo headset. I thought to quickly share my experience with it so far:

The technology

While the bluetooth communication technology has come a long way, it has to cover some ground yet. It may be perfect for a wireless mouse, keyboard or file transfer (slow though), it warrants an improvement as far as stereo audio streaming is concerned.

Having said this, unless you are an audiophile, the technology will not fail to impress you!

The goods

• Seamless pairing with the phone. I have never had issues.
• Can pair simultaneously with two devices. I am frequently connected to my phone as well as the PC simultaneously without any issues. Whenever there’s an incoming call, it takes priority.
• Crisp and clear stereo sound quality. Decent bass.
• The touch sensitive audio control works like a charm. I really like this feature.
• Very comfortable to wear. Stays on unless you are running around.
• Decent backup. I’ve tested it for 6 hours at a stretch and it has not failed. Practically it will deliver good music at medium volume for about 6 hours on a single charge. For me this is sufficient, even if I am travelling.
• Fast charging time (2-2.5 hours)
• The ability to listed to music through the wire makes it double up as a standard stereo headphone. And boy!, you need to listen with the wired option to realize how good these headphones could perform!
• Works well with Skype as well as other voice calls through the PC.
• The noise cancellation microfones works well.

The OKs

• The grip on the head is good, but could be a little better.
• The inner lining material could be improved.

The not-so-goods

• Sometimes, I’ve experienced loss of audio streaming for a few seconds during stereo playback. This happens when I am streaming music from my phone. Haven’t faced this on my PC. So possibly this could be an issue with my phone.
• Windows bluetooth connectivity sucks. I frequently face bluetooth service crashes. Again, the Jabra Halo is not to be blamed.
• While the hinged design  makes it very portable, it feels flimsy.  Haven’t faced any issues yet, but it does need care.
• If you use Skype, be careful! I used to face frequent bluetooth stack crashes on my PC. It took me long to figure out that Skype also tries to use the bluetooth interface directly along with windows and there’s a conflict which causes it to crash. I am yet to find a workable solution for this, though I haven’t spent enough time.

I guess this  would be helpful to some people. I am looking forward to the bluetooth 3.0 version to possibly bring the stereo bluetooth experience comparable to the wired options.