Jawbone's headset is clearly different

Now that using a mobile phone while driving is behind only smoking indoors and doubting global warming on the heinous crimes chart, the requirement for a hands-free set that doesn't immediately betray the fact that you're making that important business call from the fast lane of the M4 is paramount.

The Jawbone Bluetooth headset is just that device. Its excellent call quality, noise cancellation features and sleek good looks have propelled it to the top of the gadgets charts since its launch in the US, and its eye-catching, if slightly over-blown, packaging has found itself alongside the iPhone since the Apple phone hit the shops last month.

The Jawbone hits the UK in August, available for £79.99 from Carphone Warehouse in black, red and metallic silver editions, but we tried it for size before it arrived in the shops.

Designed by Yves Behar, whose award-winning team have worked on design icons like the BMW Mini and Birkenstock sandals, the Jawbone is certainly a good looker. Smaller than many headsets, the curved two-inch unit features detachable earhooks and earbuds so that with a little trial and error, you can mix and match the supplied hooks and buds until it fits comfortably.

Having tried every combination on both left and right ears, I couldn't really find a comfortable fit, with the earpiece either feeling worrying loose or the earhook digging so far in to the back of my ear that I may need corrective surgery to pin them back to normal.

No matter, the most important thing is that the small sensor on the tip of the headset rests against your jawbone - hence the name. This is the secret of the noise cancelling technology which can help eradicate all external noise when you make a call.

Setting up the Jawbone is quick and easy. After charging it up using the supplied cable, simply set up your mobile phone to search for Bluetooth devices, switch the Jawbone on and pair the phone with the Jawbone by entering a PIN code.

Next time you receive a call, press the headset's Talk button to answer. To reject a call, just press the Noise Shield button to reject. When making a call, the headset will automatically be activated, although you can transfer the call between headset and handset using the Talk button. Usefully, to redial the last number called, you just need to press the Talk key twice, and you can use voice commands to call contacts too, although the success of this is usually reliant on the phone's voice recognition engine.

So far, so headset. The Jawbone's real selling point is its noise cancelling technology, which really works. This is activated by holding down the Noise Shield button. In tests, callers on the receiving end of a Jawbone call heard little or no background noise, and none realised the caller was even using a headset. A volume control on the headset itself meant that the caller had no problems hearing the call in any conditions.

The Jawbone Bluetooth is the clearest Bluetooth headset we've used, and the sound quality was excellent regardless of which phone model we paired it with (including a Nokia N95, a Nokia 6300, LG Shine and Samsung U600). Its range of calling and control options means that if your voice command calling is working properly (and it's a big if), you'll rarely need to touch your handset once out on the road.

Admittedly, the Jawbone comes at a cost, and the fit takes some fiddling to get right but if you want to make hands-free calls with fuzz-free results, it's well worth trying out.

www.jawbone.com