Some people can say that Bluetooth headsets are a bit of a muchness and which one you select doesn't really matter as they all do the same thing. However, for those peeps who are always on-the-go and rely on them during daily travel, or that strange breed who wear them in the office or even nightclubs know better.

For Jabra, one of the producers of top-selling BTWH, it's no laughing matter. And this was proven on the Jabra BT500 that was lent to Technews for review.

When this writer saw the BT500, he got the first impression that this is not a compact headset. Based on the specs, it's a small headset, but it's a behind the ear model and one that wraps right round your ears a bit like a hearing aid. Comparing it to the Jabra FS258 (that was previously reviewed by Technews months ago), the BT500 is quite bigger.

The BT500 weighs about 19 grams and has a silver black color. This Bluetooth headset was designed to sit comfortably behind the ear, with the rotatable mini Gel speaker resting just inside the ear itself. The unit is somewhat fully curved (almost forming a U shape) with the microphone positioned behind under the ear lobe. For starters, it may take a little while to get used to the feel of it. But once on, the device is almost unnoticeable, the least.

All the controls for the BT500 are laid out on the top curve of the unit. There is an Answer / End button for accepting/ending calls, voice dialing and redialing. A second button on the device is used to place it in 'pairing mode' to use with a phone and above are controls for adjusting volume. There are also two LED lights, one that tells if the unit has low battery, is fully charged or charging, while the other is, if the unit is in active or standby mode. Pairing is made easy with the dedicated pairing button and the instruction manual is easy to read, even an elementary kid can simply understand.

Technews finds the BT500's battery life impressive. During the review, it had a standby time of 7 days, talk time of 4 hours, and charging time is 2 hours.

Topping up the battery is via the supplied power adapter that plugs into the unit. But, the thing we like most of the BT500, is that the cable can be removed from the supplied adapter and powered from a PC USB port, meaning you can easily top up at work too.

Mobile phones that were paired with the Jabra BT500 for this review were the Nokia 6630, Samsung SGH-720C, and the Sony Ericsson Z800. Making a call using the BT500 is clear and crisp, but on other hand, background noise was quite audible to those on the other end of the line. Although the range of the BT500 is 10 meters, we found that the call quality deteriorates markedly as a user moves further away from the phone. Apart from the call quality, the only other issue we found was that we couldn't use our phone normally to receive calls when the BT500 was paired, as all sound output was routed to the headset. So basically, after pairing, the user can use it to answer calls until it has been disconnected.

Eventhough with these minor shortcomings, the Jabra BT500 is a headset of real quality, not only is it well built and comfortable to wear it also has a massive battery life and good audio reception and transmission.

Pros: Lightweight, comfortable, long battery life

Cons: Limited range, controls are quite tricky

Our verdict: The Jabra BT500 offers extended phone functionality for mobile users but the fiddly controls and odd looking design may turn some people off.