SCI FI PI

They're thin, light and sexy. Have Jabra finally cracked 'cool'?

Headphones - they're basically impossible for the layman to understand. Plug goes in, sound comes out. More expensive, better sound. That's about it.

Mention noise cancelling and it sounds great, but headphone pros will tell you that when it comes to cutting out noise, a pair of plugs that go right in the ear (as opposed to buds that sit in them) are far better than all the super expensive, battery powered noise cancelling headphones that push out a wave of interference to block out ambient noise.





But of course, you can argue about that kind of thing for days, with variable success. Today's correct person is tomorrow's ning-nong. To avoid future ning-nong is the goal of every electronics consumer.

Of course, every gadget gets superseded sooner or later. Occasionally though, one or two marriages of circuitry and design stand the test of time. Recent Apple products point in that direction (take your pick) and now Jabra has released something that people may be wearing two, three, even five months from now.

You may even feel comfortable wearing them a year or two from now.

Jabra is a company that has consistently stood in the 'decent but nothing super range' of the headphone hierarchy, looking up at the Sennheisers and Bose's of the worlds and hoping that one day, they too will be up in the super duper expensive comfy and beautiful sounding pedestal that the very best look down from.

Well, the Halo is something a little bit spesh.





First up - it's got a decent name, and not a weird number.

Secondly, they're wireless blue tooth headphones the size and weight of your mum's hair band. After a charge, they hook up toothily to your computer or your phone. There's one button on the right hand side, next to a touch slide volume control.

This is a bit of a magic button. Someone rings, you press it, you answer. You start your iTunes song, stop it, or even ring back the last person you called. All with the touch of a button.

Pairing your Bluetooth is just like any BT device - usually pretty straightforward, sometimes a little bit of turn on/turn off is required.

Having a phone call come in while you're listening to music is no problem. A touch of the magic button, and you're answering. Sweet.

The real trick to these headphones is to make sure they stay snapped and clicked to the on and open position. If you fold them, they turn off. If you try to charge them when they're folded, or try to listen with them when they're not completed locked, you're in trouble.

Once you get that through your thick skull, things should be pretty good. Light plastic, lined with fabric, they fit comfortably on top the skull. Walking around with them synched to your iPhone is no problem at all. They are extremely thin - you don't have the 'cans' on top of your ears like normal headphones. The effect, originally, is somewhat unnerving. How can these things work properly? How can they feed enough sound into my earhole.

In a non-technical review, the details of how these headphones work are irrelevant - as long as they work.

They do. They look futuristic (in an 80's Sci Fi kind of way) and they're comfy.

For $AUD 169, that's not a bad deal.

The Jabra HALO is set for release in Australia during October.