Bluetooth headsets should be about sound quality, battery life and functionally.  But in a world in which you’re judged by how good you look fortunately there is the Jabra STONE. Unfortunately, that’s most of what it has to offer.

First things first. Pairing the Jabra STONE was challenging to say the least.  It requires that you continue to hold down the power button (also the talk and volume button) until a the two interior LED lights blink, indicating it’s in pairing mode. This didn’t always work for me and required multiple powering downs. Pairing with my iPhone was no problem, but the Motorola DROID (I was reviewing at the time) took about 4 attempts.

The Jabra STONE is an unusual looking Bluetooth headset. It doesn’t have a boom mic and there are no physical buttons. Additionally, to charge the device you place it inside the holster/charger, which also contains an additional 1 hour charge, making total talk time about 2 hours before requiring a wall plug.

To increase or decrease the volume of the STONE you just simply swipe your finger up or down over the clickable portion of the headset without pressing down. While this looks sleek from a design standpoint it’s far from functional. Most of the time I couldn’t get the headset to increase or decrease in volume and if anything jammed the ear piece further inside my ear canal causing a slight bit of discomfort.

Sound quality of the STONE is mediocre at best. One of my friends asked me if I was calling from the inside of a tin box. The noise canceling is pretty devoid of any existence, but I really didn’t expect too much from such a small and sleek device.

So what’s good about the STONE? How good it looks. The ear loop fits over your ear which for most will prove secure enough, and it’s light enough to not be a nuisance or fall off. In fact, most people won’t even notice that you’re wearing it. From an ear canal comfort standpoint it’s pretty solid, unless of course you have trouble increasing its volume, like I did, which made me feel like I was getting an ear cleaning.

The Jabra STONE is all looks and no brawn or brain. The talk time is reasonable considering its slender and small size, but as we’ve all learned all the good looks in the world can’t negate functionality. I hate to say it, but the Jabra STONE is probably best suited at the bottom of a dark and murky pond with all the other pebbles.

You can grab the Jabra STONE here for $120

Pros:

• Killer design
• Light weight
• Charger doubles as a holster

Cons:

• Sound quality is crappy for callers
• Touch volume button doesn’t work
• Sound cancellation is just poor

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