This week it looks like we’ll be able to give away a Jabra STONE. Oh yes. One of the top new bluetooth headsets that’s just hitting the marketplace as I type.

You too can be amongst the moberati kings and queens sporting this device. Provided you use it properly. We have a rule here at Mobile Industry Review that you do not sit in (the likes of) Pizza Express with your friends whilst wearing a bluetooth headset. It just isn’t done.

Mind you, you could probably use it quite effectively in a restaurant given the STONE is equipped with Noise Blackout Extreme technology — which translates into your mother being able to hear you properly when you’re phoning from the train / station / football field / restaurant.

For the bluetooth geeks amongst us, here’s a quick precis of the key facts:

Ground-breaking headset design and shape
Portable Jabra STONE Charger enables charging on the go and serves as a holder and charger in down time
Cutting edge technology including Noise BlackoutTM Extreme
Bluetooth technology – easy pairing with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR & eSCO
Up to 8 hours talk time and 12 days standby time with the Jabra STONE Charger
Jabra StatusDisplayTM makes it easy to check battery level and Bluetooth connectivity at a glance
Effortlessly connect two Bluetooth enabled devices at the same time with MultiuseTM capabilities
Features touch volume control, answer/end button, voice dialing (depending on the phone used), and streams music from A2DP enabled mobile phones
Lightweight – weighs only 7g
Dimensions for headset in charger – H 58 x W 50.7 x D24.7mm
Charging plug: USB Micro-B, 5-pin

And for the fashionable geniuses reading, here’s a picture:

Yup.. the unit you can see there — the ‘stone’ — is a wireless charger and compact carrying case. Useful. Because there’s nothing worse than arsing around trying to charge your bluetooth headset with a special cable.

Keep your eyes peeled for details on how to win in this week’s newsletter.

And if you’re not subscribed, this is the link you need.

(You can, of course, pick one up for £99 exclusively at the Carphone Warehouse.)

Back on the Great Wall I gave the BT8030 headphones / speaker combination the thumbs down and the BR2050 mini-headset the thumbs up, but what a difference a more extended test makes…  I’ve already updated my view of the BT8030s to a qualified ‘not half bad’ (for travel) in my review, but unfortunately the BT2050s (pictured above) have spent the last week going down in my estimations.

First the good stuff… this headset is small, well put together, has a good battery life, a simple and comfortable ear clip plus USB charging.  It’s also available for £20 which, lets face it, is practically free.

The problem is, and it’s clear to see in the picture above, is the proximity of the volume increase and decrease keys which are within a few millimetres of each other.  In the quiet of our Beijing apartment I set the volume and forgot this, but out and about in the centre of London adjustments whilst in use are impossible and this, at worst, makes the unit unusable as callers are too quiet to hear or uncomfortably loud.

If this flaw doesn’t bother you then the headset otherwise has much to commend it – give it a try.  Personally, I’d look for one of the many alternatives at this price (Amazon has a ton, well 15 or so) with volume buttons that work.

[The BT2050 is on the left]

As shown in my clip from the Great Wall, included in Mobile Industry Review Show 27, I took the unusual combination-product  – the Jabra BT8030 Bluetooth headphones, headset and speakers – with me to Beijing.  Deployed normally as a chunky pair of headphones which connect to mobile handsets or computers to perform standard duties in making calls and listening to music two buttons on the top of the device unfold it to an almost flat bar and amplify the volume to allow use as battery-powered bluetooth speakers.

As you can tell from the shape, this unit is most at home as headphones – with a long battery life and impressive sound quality they are a tight fit and too warm and heavy to wear for extended periods for my taste, although for someone preferring larger on-ear headphones these may be a good choice.  Any phone supporting the bluetooth A2DP profile can use them to listen to music wirelessly and in my experience the phone’s battery will be exhausted before the headset’s is.  As a bluetooth headset for calls the unit is unspectacular – working well with the usual array of call answering and volume buttons found on most devices, although microphone performance is weak with the microphone positioning is so far from the wearer’s mouth.

As speakers the stereo performance and bluetooth reception range both impress – at the opposite side of our appartment the music sounded clear with good left / right separation from substantial spacing between two channels.  Unfortunately the quality of the audio produced is weak – strong bass often overwhelms the sound and tinny top-end, with the majority of the sound muddy in the mid-range.  In normal use this is fine for casual listening of dance and pop music, but anything acoustic or more sonically challenging isn’t done justice.

Typically retailing in the UK at £70 this unit has reduced significantly in price since their launch.  With an excellent travel case and long battery life it may make a good travelling solution for those that can accept the size and weight when used as headphones – others may prefer to opt for separate units.  Without the regular need for mobile speakers I will opt for a pendant-style option I can use my regular headphones with when wanting wireless audio.