The Jawbone Icon from Aliph is the 4th and latest in the line of Bluetooth headsets known for their noise cancellation technology.  The Icon has actually been on the scene for several months, however, Aliph just recently added A2DP to Icon allowing you to play streaming audio, music, and podcasts, etc. through the headset. Since I haven’t talked about the Jawbone Icon before I figure that this would be a good time to give it a proper review.

With that being said, let’s get to it…

Style and Fit

The first thing that you should notice about the Jawbone Icon is that it is not just one Bluetooth headset…  It is six.  The Icon comes in six different styles.  The Hero, which, we are reviewing here.  The Rogue, the Thinker, the Ace, the Catch, and the Bombshell.  Each headset has a unique color as well as a unique styling that differentiates just a bit from each of the other models in the Icon line.  Once you select the style of Icon that suites your personality and move beyond the aesthetic differences, each headset is virtually identical.

One of the most important aspects of a wireless Bluetooth headset is the fit.  Function and features don’t matter much if the headset doesn’t fit comfortably in or behind your ear.  Fortunately, the Jawbone Icon, the lightest of all Jawbones to come before it, has a plethora of options for in ear and behind the ear fits.

The first thing you see after opening the box are  three ear-only buds including the one already on the Icon as well as 4 ear buds to be used with the behind the ear earloop.  Most people will find that one three buds with the rubber circle on the back (option A) fits nicely in their ear without the need for the earloop. If, however, you like the security of the earloop, there are 4 different size earbuds to be used with it.

Sound Quality

The most important aspect of any Bluetooth headset is the sound quality.  How people sound to you and how you sound to people is super important.  The Jawbone Icon absolutely does a bang out job in this ear.  I won’t tell you that the Jawbone is the best sounding headset I’ve ever used, however, it is definitely in the top three.  Where the device makes its mark however, is in the noise cancellation and quality of sound people that you are talking to hear from you.  To make a long story short, Noise Assassin, the noise cancellation technology in the Jawbone is second to none.

I personally have mowed the lawn and even have used my snowblower while talking on my Jawbone without any complaints from the person I was talking to about background noise.  While I may have and a headset or two that might have sounded a little better in my ear, I’ve never owned one that I sounded better to the person on the other end of the line.

Extras

One of the really cool things about the Jawbone Icon is that it is programmable.  With the Icon, Aliph introduced MyTouch, a website where you can dynamically personalize your headset with different audio apps, or, even new features like A2DP.  All the different voices you can download are kind of cheesy, however, getting a new feature used to mean getting a new headset, but, now software features can be added to your existing Jawbone Icon with a simple software update.

Verdict

The Jawbone Icon is one heck of a Bluetooth headset.  I personally own 2 Icons.  The Hero and the Ace.  The only knock on the Icon that I have is battery life.  It will, however, get you a respectable 3.5 to 4.5 hours of talk time, and the recharge time seems to be pretty quick.  The Icon also uses standard Micro USB to recharge so it usually isn’t that hard to get some extra juice when you are out and about even if you’ve forgotten your charger.

If you are looking for a really good Bluetooth headset with best noise cancellation technology available, definitely take a look at the Jawbone Icon from Aliph. All 6 models of the Jawbone Icon are available in the RIMarkable Store.  They run $96.95 plus $5.95 shipping and handling.