Jabra Supreme review

There is an inherent problem with wearing a Bluetooth headset. No matter how well designed it is, you will almost certainly end up looking like something of a berk wearing one. Add to this problem the hefty price tag of £99.99 and the Jabra Supreme is already facing an uphill struggle.

The Supreme is the latest in the company’s long line of Bluetooth headsets and its headline-grabbing feature is that it claims to be the first mono Bluetooth headset to feature active noise cancellation, a feature we're more used to seeing on stereo headphones. We'll get onto how this technology works in a while, but first let's look at that all-important part of a Bluetooth headset - the design.

Jabra is known for producing rather stylish-looking headsets, which culminated in the unique Stone range that was about as stylish as a Bluetooth headset could look. However that design had its flaws as the lack of a microphone boom meant that picking up your voice was less-than-flawless.

The Jabra Supreme goes back to a more traditional design, with a main earpiece combined with a flipping boom arm and adjustable ear hook. The first thing you notice is that there are very few design flourishes and it seems as if Jabra has put all its focus into getting the sound side of things spot-on.

The whole thing weighs just 18g and is encased in sleek-looking black-and-grey plastic and rubber. The action of the flipping boom arm feels nice and solid, but the housing feels a bit flimsy and not as premium as we would have liked for the price.

The earpiece features just four buttons in total. On the outside is the main button and acts as the call answer/finish button. On the rear of the earpiece are two volume buttons, in between which rests a microUSB port (under a plastic flap) for charging.

The fourth button is located on boom arm and is used to activate the voice controls. All the buttons are easy to access and are responsive under your fingers. On the underside (depending on which way you are wearing it) are the Bluetooth and power indicator lights.

The boom arm is hinged and can be flipped out to switch on the headset and back to turn it off. Once turned on, it automatically connects to any devices it has previously connected to. A friendly American lady will let you know this through the headset.

The headset is secured to your ear via a replaceable ear hook that can be inserted to suit left or right ear users. The Jabra Supreme comes with two ear hooks (small and large) and both have an adjustable end to help secure it to your ear.

On the inside, the headset comes with a pair of ear cushions, which should suit most people. Putting these on is not easy and securing them was a bit of a kerfuffle - but once we got them on, they stayed on.

Overall the Jabra Supreme was not the most comfortable headset we have ever worn. It never felt completely secure on our ear and because the ear hook is replaceable it felt as if the headset was hanging off our ear – despite its small size and low weight.

The boom arm is just 55mm long and we never felt it was imposing on us while not in use. It did get caught on our jacket a couple of times, but it was certainly a small irritant we could deal with to get the improved sound quality.