9. Jabra BT8010

Jabra has years of experience making quality Bluetooth headsets that pair easily with every phone on the market and the BT8010 builds on this heritage. It looks like a pair of classic mono headsets joined together. In fact if you want to use it as a mono headset, you can detach the second ear-piece and use the right ear-piece on its own as a headset for calls then plug in the other ear-piece when you want music. This makes the BT8010 very flexible and a good choice for heavy phone users.

The Jabra BT8010 is a powerful Bluetooth headset with an OLED display.

The second ear-piece doesn’t need charging and has no controls, although the shape of the jog wheel and button are formed on it to match. The cable from it plugs into the same micro USB port you use to charge the right ear-piece. The cable is quite short and fits better under your chin than it does around the back of your neck, which may not suit everyone. The ear hooks are hinged so you can adjust the angle of the BT8010s to suit your ears – or wear them on the opposite ears. If you do switch, you can rotate the OLED display so it’s the right way up for the left ear. Like other headsets, the ear-pieces may not be comfortable to wear for long periods.

The ear buds project from the BT8010 ear-pieces at a slight angle so they fit a little way inside your ears but don’t go right into the canal, which is common with phone headsets. This gives you slight noise reduction when you’re playing music but none when you’re not. It also means the headphones won’t stand up to a lot of exercise; it’s too easy to dislodge one or both if you turn your head sharply.

As well as the usual buttons, the BT8010s have an OLED display on the right ear-piece. That compensates a little for how the power and pairing button isn’t labeled and it shows you when you’re paired to a phone or a media player. You can also see caller ID on screen or pick a number to call from the last 15 incoming calls or the internal address book (install Jabra’s Control Center software to add up to 30 numbers to the address book). But of course you have to take the ear-piece out to see the display and control the menu.

Use the button inside the jog wheel to answer and end calls and to play and pause music; use the jog wheel to control the volume. To skip to the next track you tap the button twice; unlike all the other headphones we tested, you can’t go back to the previous track. The same button can also be used to reject a call, put calls on hold for a second incoming call or start voice dialing depending on whether there’s a call on the line or not. The mode button switches between phone and music mode – which is useful if you’ve paired the BT8010s with a phone and a media player and want to use them at the same time. However, the headset switches automatically when you play music or receive a phone call so you won’t need to use it frequently.

Audio quality is generally good and stereo separation is excellent but the BT8010s don’t match the excellent sound of the Etymotic ETY8s. While treble is clear and detailed, there isn’t as much bass as the Plantronics Pulsars or as much volume as you get with in-ear models. Sound quality for phone calls is good, with excellent noise reduction even in very noisy places. The automatic volume reduction can make you sound a little quiet when there isn’t background noise but you can quickly turn the volume up if you need to.

We had no problems with audio breaking up when we were close to your phone or media player but the range of the BT8010s is one of the shortest you’ll find for Bluetooth headphones. You can hardly get to the other side of a mid-sized room and the signal from the BT8010s won’t reach through a brick wall either.

The small soft case doesn’t take up nearly as much room as the Bluetrek case, but it still has enough room for both ear-pieces and the micro-USB cable.

The Jabra BT8010s are Bluetooth headphones for fans of Bluetooth headsets. They don’t offer the best music quality you can get or the full range of music controls, but you’re not sacrificing call quality or headset functions either and the price is reasonable.

Plug in the second ear-piece to turn the Jabra BT8010s into stereo Bluetooth headphones.