I was able to visit the Mobile Pilipinas 2005 last Saturday and got to ask around for some of the propective gadgets on my Digital Wish List. Been eyeing on the Jabra FS258 bluetooh headset for a couple of months now but since its retail price was around Php4,850, it was a wee bit out of my budget.
The Jabra booth was adequately manned so I asked for a quick demo of the headset. At first glance, it does seem very bulky but after trying it out, it doesn’t feel like it. The minigels were also soft to the ears and fits just right. I hooked it up, fired the bluetooth connection and dialed a number. Signal reception was good but I found the quality of the voice to be a bit muffled. I asked Alex who was apparently their Sales/Marketing Head about it and he expained that some interference like noise around the area could be the reason for it. He added that the quality would be just fine if I were to use it in open space.
My “price” concerns were also answered when they told me that the Jabra FS258 was re-priced and now retails for about Php3,900. He even gave me a 5% coupon as additional discount should I decide to buy it later (expires Sept 30).
Here’s the complete specs:
- Lithium polymer battery
- 8 hours talk time and 140 hours standby time
- 23g/0.8 oz
- 10m or 30 feet functional range
- Bluetooth 1.1
A sub 4k bluetooth headset like this is a good buy. I compared it to some of the other ones around — the Motorola HS810 Paladin Bluetooth costs Php5,390, the Sony Ericssson HBH-600 Akono retails for Php6,800 and the Nokie Wireless Boom Headset HS-4W is even pricier at Php6,990. On top of that, the Jabra is still the oe with the longest talk time with 2 hours more than the runner up.