Review: Jabra's JX10 Series 2 for Mobiles and Land Lines

Jabra JX10 Series 2

Jabra JX10 Series 2

Jabra JX10 Series 2

Jabra JX10 Series 2
Weight	9.8g (0.35oz)
Body Size	39mm x 20mm x 20mm (1.5" x .8" x .8")
Talk Time	6 hours
Ear Loop	Optional, over ear
Left/Right Ear?	Both
LEDs	1, blue/red/green
Pairings	Multiple
Headset Sound	Excellent
Mic Sound	Excellent
Included Accessories	AC power, USB charging cradle, 2 ear hooks

Jabra's JX10 Bluetooth headset has long been a favorite of the folks here at MobileBurn.com. It is small, good looking, weighs only 9.8g (.35oz), and just plain works. But now, there are a few more reasons to recommend the JX10, thanks to the arrival of the new JX10 Series 2 headset from Jabra. The Series 2 gives the JX10 a new black color scheme and includes some additional hardware that allows the headset to be used with a regular home or office desk phone while working with your mobile phone at the same time.

That's right. The JX10 Series 2 can support two active connections at one time, which is a first for any headset that I have reviewed. The JX10 Series 2 can connect to two mobile phones at the same time, or with one mobile phone and one land line. The trick that allows the land line connection is a little black box that Jabra includes in the JX10 Hub package. This device, the A170 Hub, sits between your desk phone's receiver, the part you pick up, and the phone itself (not between the phone and the wall). If your phone has a headset port, you can connect the hub to the phone that way, too. The JX10 in the package comes pre-paired with the hub, so apart from maybe having to adjust the dial tone switch once, something that takes mere seconds, all you have to do is pair the headset with your mobile phone. There is a dedicated pairing mode button on the headset that makes this easy.

Now that everything is hooked up and paired, you are ready to do some talking. We'll start with the phone. If your phone supports voice dialing, you can initiate it by long-pressing the main answer/end button on the headset. Thanks to the JX10's design, doing so exerts no pressure on the wearer's ear. After the long-press, you should hear 2 beeps from the headset and the voice dialing on your phone should start. Ending the call, or answering an inbound call, requires just a brief press of the button, and you can reject an inbound call with the same type of long-press that is used to initiate voice dialing. All pretty simple.

The interesting part is that while all of this mobile phone functionality is available, you can also use the JX10 with your desk phone. A brief press on the answer/end button will cause the JX10's hub to tap onto the phone's receiver line. It won't get you a dial tone, though, until you manually lift the receiver out of the cradle (or tap a line button if your hub is connected to a headset port on your phone). The same basic procedure is needed for answering calls. Briefly pressing the headset's call/end button will turn off the hub, but you will still have to put the receiver back into the phone cradle to hang up. It's not perfect, but it at least lets you use the same headset with both your desk and mobile phone.