Refine search for Car Tech

  2 comments      Email TrustedReviews Newsletters

Buying a Bluetooth headset isn't necessarily as straightforward as it looks. Sure they all tend to look a bit samey, but there are crucial differences such as comfort, battery life and the all important call quality. After all, you don't want to have to constantly repeat yourself like an overseas call centre worker when you're just trying to tell the other half to pop the frozen pizza in the oven because you're running late. That's where this headset from Jabra aims to set itself apart form the crowd. It boasts two microphones which it uses in conjunction with a noise-cancelling DSP chip to make your voice more easily heard above any background din.

Looks-wise the BT530 isn't particularly flashy, but that's no bad thing unless your day job involves some association with gangsta rap. The black plastic body looks and feels like it's built to last and has a slightly rubberised feel so it's easy to grip in your hands. The perforated silver band that runs down the middle is broken by the multi-function call answer/hang up button and adds a little bit of subtle style to proceedings. The headset is relatively small measuring just 48mm long and 12.5mm thick and it feels very light at just 10g, which is obviously important as it's got to spend its life hanging off your lughole.

As you would expect there's pretty minimal controls on offer. As well as the multifunction call answer/hang up button, there are volume up and down buttons on the outside of the headset and a power button on the bottom (or top if you're left-handed!). Many headsets do without a power button, instead relying on the device to automatically turn itself off after a set period of inactivity, but it's nice to see one here as it lets you save precious battery life when you want to.

Add your comment