Jabra Motion Bluetooth Earpiece Review

mountainbikermark

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I've said it over and over. Hollywierd is out of new ideas. Well so are Bluetooth earpiece manufacturers and maybe that's not a bad thing.
For my fellow dinosaurs that remember Bluetooth in its infancy you'll know what I'm about to talk about.
Anybody remember the old Moto 700/800 series with the flip boom microphone/power on and off feature but they fit horribly? Remember the old Jabra BT250 that looked sorta like someone had gotten silly with the Play Doh that the slightest breeze or background noise made the thing useless? The ear gels that went with the 250 that everyone tried to use for everything else because their tear drop design just plain worked and was super comfortable? The Plantronics 800 series that looked like a mini broadcast microphone hanging from your ear but literally blocked all wind noise when sticking your head out of a moving vehicle but only got about 2 hours of talk time and felt like you were wearing s brick on your ear?
Then they came out with dsp to block noise but it made you/the other end sound like a robot trapped in a dungeon.
Then a2dp hit the U.S. and some had it but they all sounded like a can and string quality music and conversation? The Jawbone came onto the scene with its vibration technology that worked great IF it was fitted JUST right but horrid wind blocking but it had a desktop suite to add goodies and change settings.
Then it seemed everyone tried the smaller is better approach that also didn't work well.
I think Jabra took all that did work on them and threw out what didn't with the Motion.
Flip boom microphone/power for off to on and connected in under 2 rings of your phone, awesome noise blocking and wind noise reduction , excellent quality sounding a2dp profile. With the ancient designed but included tear drop gels onboard highs sound natural and bass notes even have thump while vocals sound rich and real for both music and voice calls. The best mono experience I've ever heard to be honest. It's the old Play Doh look of the 250 but adjustable in height to go from a great fit to perfectly seated in just the right spot . Unfortunately it's so comfortable I forgot I had it on when I went into work today, bringing a funny look from my boss then verbal request to remove it when I didn't understand "the look" she gave me. Hey look I'm married, I'm used to the look from my wife but still have no clue what it's for 99% of the time so I wasn't embarrassed that I missed my managers cue.
Anyway, it also has an app for ios and Android for customizing your settings and stuff, even a "find my Motion" feature that I suggest DO NOT TRY while it's on your ear because the tone is blood curdlingly loud and obnoxious. But it also warns don't try with it on when you first tap it. Great reminder for those of us that can't find the durn thing because it's on our ear to check our ear before tapping. One feature some might enjoy, but I don't get, is the ability to map where you last had your earpiece via waypoints. I guess that's a good thing for party hoppers that can't remember where the party was to go back looking for their earpiece but but at my age I rarely party or hop in the same month much less together. The app keeps an annoying "J" in your notification bar when idle (switches to a battery icon when active) that is easily alleviated by turning off notifications to the app in your application manager for the Android device. I have tested and it uses 0 cpu when inactive and turning the notification off doesn't affect the speed of the connection . You just have to access it by setting an icon on your screen or go into your app drawer and tap it. Very battery friendly. It's also futuristic looking when being used that some may appreciate along with its functions.
The earpiece has a separate button for voice commands and call rejecting. No need to remember "was that 2 taps or 42?" like so many others to access differing features. The volume changing has gone from trying to find the right button to touch sensitive. No matter where you touch the area, slide your finger up for higher, down for lower. Even I can handle that on the fly! The answer/end button (in case you don't want to flip the boom) is on the front side of the ear gel, plenty large to find with ease and doesn't require push so hard it feels like the gel is touching your other ear from the inside. Just a tap about life if you were squishing a gnat but don't want it to splatter.
The auto volume adjust is kinda neat and works on music and calls. I could hear it go up when I came outside and it's noisy with nature and other life noises but when I went back in where it's quiet I could discern it dropping back down. Not instantly but in a few seconds. That's the first one I've ever had that that feature actually works.
When connected to a landline or pc dongle it's range is touted at 100 meters. My Hopper is capable so I was outside, next door, last night listening to my tv just to try the range out. I was about 50 yards away AND outside with no breakup at all. SWEET during football season! Or if I want to use one of the gazillion XM radio stations Dish threw into my package that I've never tried while cutting grass. While connected to my phone it's the usual 20' through walls, ~ 30' if clear line of sight.
I charged it when it showed up yesterday and have well over 4 hours of actively using it since then and my battery is at 75%. Speaking of battery it's got "Power Nap" function where if not used, but on, for an hour it goes to a light sleep where if you move it it wakes up instantly and if you, like me, forget and don't use it for 24 hours it powers off totally and just close/open the boom to wake it back up. With the boom closed it's off off and the nap feature works if you take it off with the boom open and senses movement and powers back up.
Instead of the bling bright blue flashing light when on and active you have to option to enable a call reminder light or leave it off. If activated it emits a red light on the answer/end button while on a phone call goes back to none when not on a call. The instructions suggest leave it off if not needed for extra battery savings. Stevie Wonder can practicallysee the thing when it's active so if you don't need it and don't want to be the center of attention leave it off.
It came with the usual useless instruction manual, extra gels ,a usb cord and car charger. I've got about a million wall warts so not having one just means 1 less new one tossed in a drawer.
Since I don't use my phone much for calls it's really nice to have the quality of sound for listening to music while driving instead of the incessant noise called broadcast radio
If I've tried them all and been left wanting before why'd I get this one? $35 on Amazon. It was "used, like new" with the same satisfaction warranty from Amazon and same 1 year from Jabra but a killer price. I also most my Icon last week and needed a second unit for when the Whisper is charging.
Testing voice calls, both in and out, using the voice recorder on my phone gave pleasant results. The app also has its own voice recorder feature as well in case you might want to use it. I still prefer my watch's voice recorder because it syncs the recording in both audio and text to my phone. That's just cool , to me btw.
Thanks for reading my blather.


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