The quest for better function, battery life, good looks and sound quality has continued and this time Jabra has found a gem.

The Jabra Stone boasts of its revolutionary and unusual design with all its groundbreaking features all tucked in just one sleek “stone” bundle. The bundle comes in two parts: the headset that sits comfortably on its other part, the portable charger/carrying case. Together they resemble a perfectly crafted pebble in a soft black matte finish.

The stone charger/carrying case extends the battery life of the headset. The headset alone has about 2 hours of talk time and even with the charger unplugged from the AC adapter/wall charger, it has enough power to re-charge the headset and extend its life up to 8 hours of talk time.

The sleek, lightweight (0.25 oz.), U-shaped headset of about 1.75 inches tall and 1.5 inches wide loops comfortably on the ear. Although the loop is comfortable over the ear, it is however not adjustable. So, for those with smaller ears, it will feel a bit loose; though it will rarely fall off because it is further supported by the speaker that rests inside the ear. The entire headset looks cool when worn and is quite noticeable, but in a good way. It doesn’t have a boom like other bluetooth devices so, definitely you won’t look as if you’ve zapped out from space or had just finished a shift from a call center and had forgotten to remove the office’s headset or something. It looks clean and sleek showing no external buttons. There is no power button. The headset automatically turns on when removed from the stone charger.

Since it has no external buttons; what it has are touch sensitive buttons/sensors. The volume is adjusted simply by sliding your finger up or down over the area just above the Jabra logo and immediately below the logo is the lone clickable part for the answer/ end call (one click), redial (double click), and reject calls (press 1-3 secs.). It may be a bit confusing at first getting used to the number of clicks and the amount of pressure you should exert on these “touch sensitive” buttons, however in no time I got the hang of it as the sensors were fairly responsive.

They were a bit of a challenge when I started pairing. Somehow I just could not get the exact pressure or how long I should hold down the call button to get the two interior LED lights to blink. I somehow managed to make 2 attempts before I got it right. Nevertheless, pairing was quite easy and automatic.

The headset automatically goes in to a pairing mode once you take the headset off its charging stone. It will immediately look for the device to which you are pairing it with. Depending on the device (in my case, I paired it with the Samsung Jet and the HTC Tattoo); both were asked for the code. Just type in the code and in no time I was connected. Oh, may I note that I connected both cellphones with the Jabra Stone all at the same time. This was made possible with Jabra’s multiuse capability that enables you to connect to two bluetooth enabled devices at the same time. Cool!

Jabra utilizes the Noise Blackout Extreme. It is Jabra’s advanced noise cancellation technology and together with the dual microphones, background noise is largely reduced concentrating only on the user’s true voice. Sound quality was good on both sides (the caller and the receiver). I was able to hear and converse with the person on the other end clearly with very, very minimal background noise and she on the other end said the same. Although I was outside at a park full of kids, conversation was kept at a normal tone. I don’t remember raising my voice or talking loudly for my friend to hear me on the other end.

With Jabra Stone’s unique shape and eye-catching design, portable charging unit, multi-use capability and Noise Blackout Extreme technology, bluetooth technology has definitely found a gem in this stone.