Jabra Revo Wireless Review

Introduction:

Versatility is a nice thing to find with many of today’s Bluetooth headsets/headphones, but unfortunately, a lot of them tend to target to a specific category. Highly regarded as a key player in the Bluetooth industry, veteran maker Jabra just recently introduced a brand spanking new pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones during CES, but now we’re on the heels of its expected availability. Packing an assortment of features that deepen its scope, like the convenience of having a wired and wireless connection, the Jabra Revo Wireless looks like the high-tech Bluetooth headphones version of the Swiss Army Knife.



Design:

Much like many of today’s popular headphones, the Jabra Revo Wireless employs a very sleek, clean, and solid industrial design. Giving it a fair amount of strength and integrity, its aluminum skeleton chassis has the sturdiness to ensure us that this pair of headphones is solid with its construction – without being too weighty. In aiding to keep its fresh appearance, there’s also a subtle rubbery coating throughout its headband, while the underside of it has a miniscule amount of cushioning to still feel comfortable when worn. Thankfully, we have no complaints with the feel of the headphones over our ears, since they’re padded with this extremely soft fabric material. And at the same time, the Jabra Revo Wireless has enough flexibility to minimize fatigue on our ears over a prolonged amount of time. Oh yeah, did we mention too that the headphones can collapse for better portability?


Both ear cups are held up by a small bar, which enables them to adjust up and down for better comfort, but they don’t move side-to-side. With the left ear cup, it’s packing along an NFC chip that provides for quick and easy pairing. In fact, we simply tapped the back of our Samsung Galaxy S III and it automatically connected. It can’t get any simpler than that, right? Showing off more of its versatility, the left ear cup also houses a 3.5mm headset jack, which enables us to use the included wired cables for a hard connection – as opposed to a wireless one.


Sporting some equally astounding tech, the right ear cup is also chock full of neat goodies that give the Revo Wireless a futuristic appeal to it. Specifically, the entire outer surface of the ear cup is touch sensitive, which is referred to as its “turntable touch controls” – so we can execute a variety of presses and gestures on it. Using a clockwise circular motion, we can increase its volume, while doing the opposite decreases it. Likewise, double tapping the left portion of the ear cup reverses the track, and of course, double tapping the right portion forwards the track. And finally, there’s a physical button at the dead center of it all, which acts as the multi-function button to pause/play songs and accept/reject calls. Finally, there’s microUSB port used to charge its internal battery and a switch to easily turn on/off the Jabra Revo Wireless.

Performance:

Pairing it up to an iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III, we’ll say that the Jabra Revo Wireless delivers a well-balanced quality when it comes to listening to music – attributed mostly to its 40mm dynamic speaker drivers. However, things are further enhanced by downloading and using Jabra’s exclusive Sound app, which interestingly enough, brings forth Dolby Digital Plus sound to the mix. For music loving junkies. We surely appreciate the level of control offered by the app, as there are various equalizer settings to choose from.


Even better, manual controls give us a meticulous amount of flexibility in properly fine tuning the quality, which isn’t something we tend to find with many apps or headphones. In terms of output, we love the punchy tones we’re given with mids and highs – though, at the highest volume, they can be drowned out. And of course, we can’t forget to mention about the bass, which is subtle with its tone, but never overpowering. Attempting to be the one-stop hub for all your music listening needs, the Jabra Sound App also incorporates social networking functionality with Facebook and Twitter – so you can let the entire world know what you’re listening to.

Phone conversations are readily made on the Jabra Revo Wireless without much negative disturbances with its quality. Seeing that it has an ample amount of volume, voices through the headphones are clearly audible. On the flip side though, our callers complain that its noise cancellation feature, which is enabled through its Noise Blackout technology via its dual-microphones, produces some noticeable distortion with voices when it kicks it after a few seconds. However, it’s doesn’t pose much of an issue when we’re using it in quiet environments.

Battery:

Rated for 12 hours of music, we managed to get close to that tally with 11.5 hours of music listening out of a full charge. Certainly we would’ve liked to hit that 12 hour mark, but seriously, 11.5 hours of straight usage is pretty darn good in our books. However, just know that it takes approximately 2 hours for it to get charged back to 100-percent. Also, the manufacturer has it rated for 10 days of standby.

Conclusion:

Through it all, the Jabra Revo Wireless has shown us that it’s serious about fending off the competition, seeing that it’s packing countless features that remarkably shows off its versatility. Not only that, the audio quality that it delivers is equally astounding as well, dishing up some pleasant tones that never seem to be distorted or unclear. Sure, the quality might not be as crisp as some high-end wired headphones, but when it’s packing NFC for easy setup, an option for a wired connection, touch sensitive controls, and an app that enhances its quality even more, there’s no arguing about its depth. Perhaps, the $250 cost of the Jabra Revo Wireless will cause a momentary concern for some people, but quite frankly, it’s a cost we wouldn’t hesitate to dish out.

Jabra Revo Wireless Video Review: