The Jabra Halo2 wireless over the ear headset or headphones come in just one colour which is a very sleek looking matte black topped off with a silver trim. The whole design is very small and compact. You can easily fold the headset up and carry them in your pocket. The bulk has all been taken out and replaced with elegance. The overall build is very solid and will take quite a beating despite being surprisingly light weight.
The inner lining of the Jabra Halo2 headset is velvet. This feels soft and nicely cushioned against our heads, it makes wearing them hardly noticeable. Both left and right headphones can be adjusted to suit the head size needed. And as previously mentioned you can neatly fold them when not in use, which additionally turns the headphones off and when you do need to use the Halo2's simply open them up and they're on! A great way to save the battery and the users time.
The Bluetooth set up process was very easy. We tested them with Apple devices including an iMac, iPad, MacBook and iPod touch which are very Bluetooth friendly to begin with. We also sycned them up with PC's, MP3 players and Android phones. The Jabra Halo2 Headphones appeared straight away when taken out of the box on all of our devices Bluetooth lists and when we pressed pair, everything was all set up and ready to go within seconds. The range offered is around 12 meters in our experience and for a Bluetooth device it's very impressive, the Bluetooth signal travels through walls quite happily. The Bluetooth is version 3.0 but will work will 2.0 devices too. The Bluetooth allows something called 'Multiuse' whereby you can connect two devices to the Halo2's at the same time, this works really well and is a great way of sharing music with friends or family members.
Functionality offered to get through a music library and control a device is very intuitive and easy to access. Adjusting the volume is done via a touch sensitive slider on the right hand side of the headphones, simply swipe a finger up and down the slider to adjust the volume accordingly. Skipping tracks is just as simple, double tap the top half of the slider to go to the next track and double tap the bottom to play the previous. Pausing and playing music is triggered by pressing a circular button next to the slider. We really liked that we have full control of the devices music without even needing to access the device playing where it's playing from.
The battery apparently lasts for 13 days on standby and 8 hours with playback. It lasted a little less than 8 hours with our usage. We got around 6-7 hours out of them but our volume was very high throughout most usage. Two LED indicators are incorporated on the inside of the headphones for a Bluetooth and a battery status.
Audio quality is the big end all or amaze all here and luckily it's amazing! Featuring virtual surround sound and power bass made the audio when playing music punchy, very bass heavy (which we rather like) and crystal clear. You can hear fine detail in instruments and vocals that you wouldn't through many earbuds and headphones. And the surround sound gives a false sense of distance with with elements of the tracks, this to us seemed really remarkable. The musical experience given is simply phenomenal. Call quality was also very good and clear both ways with noise blackout technology and dual microphones working a treat. The mics audio performance far exceeds most of the little inbuilt microphones found in earbuds, earphones and headphones remote control clicker remotes.
Additional inclusions within the box were an AC wall charger, a USB charging cable and an optional 3.5mm audio jack for those who don't have Bluetooth supported devices.
Overall the Jabra Halo2 headset make listening to music and answering calls more simple than ever. The excellent inbuilt controls, stylish small compact design, easy Bluetooth pairing and phenomenal audio quality. Make these leap over its wireless counterparts.
