Netbooks were very much in evidence – being supplied free with the various subscription 3G data packages.  In addition to the existing range including some Eee models from Asus, an Acer Aspire One and an Advent 4211 a new model from Fujitsu was on show.  Spec wise there was little separate it from the pack but styling and finish were impressive… Everyone agreed there would be a ‘bloodbath’ in this sector in the next few months with Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba all also due to announce products.

The Samsung stand was one of the best with the Omnia – a Windows Mobile 6.1 iPhone-a-like (that’s mine on the right of it for comparison) – launching today and the very impressive i8510 – one of Samsung’s first Symbian handsets – also on show.  The i8510 give Nokia’s best a run for their money – expect to hear more on this… my wallet is itching!  I’ve already got Ewan excited see here.

Next up was Nokia announcing an exclusive (until Christmas) white 5310 handset via CPW for the launch of their ‘Comes with Music‘ offering which is first to launch in the UK.  This gives a code for unlimited downloads from the Nokia music store which is very cool.  Even better is the fact you can keep the tracks after your year-long free subscription expires, but some of the answers about transfers to upgraded handsets and renewing subscriptions were worryingly vague – Nokia best have some good answers before those years start expiring!  Also on show were a number of the newer handsets including the N96 which, in my opinion, is looking lamer and lamer everyday as a flagship model (sorry Nokia).

Next up were our new best friends at SonyEricsson (the same chap in fact) who had his X1 out again and couldn’t answer any of the hard questions about when it would actually be released.  He did say some nice things about the show though so there is some hope for them

The new Jawbone headset we reviewed a few months back is now available in gun-metal grey and gold…. Meh.

Motorola had their Z10 out which impresses with its unusual form factor and video playback if nothing else, but also had their ‘budget smartphone’, the A810 on display – at around £90 on PAYG this is a Linux-based mini-tablet intended for people who want smartphone features at a lower cost… The interface and screen size are all much poorer than the best smartphones available, but at this cost I think they may have a good compromise.  Also impressive was the ZN5 – a 5 megapixel cameraphone with Kodak branding and xenon flash (something that helps Nokia’s N82 shoot such great pictures).  This has a WiFi photoframe accessory that is set to automatically show pictures the phone uploads to Kodak’s online photo site (via a Shozu-like feature) and multiple frames can be added.

LG were also present but apart from a nice table setting didn’t have much new to announce.  Disappointingly the PR there didn’t know about the LG blog so I gave up and moved on.  Nice table though…

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I was going to write quite a bit about the noise cancelling features of Aliph’s new Jawbone bluetooth headset, but to be honest there is no point, I recorded the tests I made and you can listen to them and make your own mind up about how well the Jawbone performs in the various real-world situations I used it in.

While I was unable to convince anyone with a convertible to let me sit in the passenger seat and make calls while we drove around with the top down I did test the handset in the following three situations:

* In my office, with loud music playing:

* In my office with the air conditioning on full:

* On the back of a boat, travelling up the Thames (obeying the posted speed limit) stood between two giant turbine engines:

I paired the Jawbone with my iPhone and called a number I’d setup that recorded all incoming calls. In each recording I give an example of what the audio quality is like with the Jawbone Noise Assassin features turned on, off and using the iPhone as a normal handset.

My opinion is that the Jawbone does a great job when there isn’t much background noise but when any serious background noise is introduced the Noise Assassin just falls apart. It wasn’t too bad at filtering out the air conditioning though. In every test the iPhone, while not doing as good a job at filtering out the background noise, did manage to make me sound more audible than the Jawbone. My biggest problem here is that I have no way of knowing if I sound clear to the person on the other end of the call, on some occasions the Jawbone was slightly misaligned and didn’t pick up anything I said.

As for the device itself, it certainly feels like a premium bit of kit, it’s solidly built and just over half the size of the original Jawbone which felt bulky and cheap (in fact, my own original Jawbone fell to pieces) and some of the included ear-loops are covered in what we are told is “fine leather” but to be honest there is so little of it that it’s hard to tell, but it’s a nice aesthetic touch. The device is operated by two buttons hidden beneath the plastic exterior, one to start or end calls and one to toggle the Noise Assassin function (which is automatically enabled at the beginning of every call). Unlike the original Jawbone these buttons are easy to press accidentally, a number of times I found myself disconnecting a caller because I wanted to push the headset further into my ear.

In brief, for a fiver short of £100, it’s probably not worth bothering with.

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Bonus: there is a bit of the Thames without a speed limit where the boat goes quite fast and during that time you couldn’t hear anything from me… although the Jawbone sensor may have been making contact with my cheek, who knows!

Ben took some good QIK footage of the live demonstration — I’ll ask him to put it up shortly. Meantime, here’s some pumpin’ tunes footage:

And a quick look at the Jawbone Assassin itself:

First impressions? Nice. Very nice.

I’ll try it out shortly!

The headset’s about half the size of the well-received original and is available in the UK from today online and from Carphone Warehouse* stores for £79.99. Judging by the number of ‘trendy’ sorts (not me) and life-style brand types there tonight it’s going down well in the styling-stakes as well as for its technical wizardry.

We’ll have a proper review in the next week and may even (hint) have an *ahem* mystery gift to give away. We’ll get our thinking caps on about the how and where. In the meantime here a few snaps and a Qik of the launch presentation. I’m hoping to start a new trend in unboxing images with this post: unboxing on public transport… if you jump over to my Flickr set you can even see where they were taken on the way home!
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

*Not a warehouse, doesn’t sell carphones.

The SMS Text News team are off to the Jawbone Noise Assassin launch next week. Expect muchos QIKing and updates. We’ll give the product a go and see how it performs. Me? I’m not a big bluetooth device user, ever since I bought a Sony Ericsson headset to work with my Sony Ericsson T68i and it made me *literally* ill, wearing it.

I have an old Jawbone but I didn’t use it much on the basis that every time I did, the person I was speaking to couldn’t hear me. Not a fault with the product per se, more a fault with the user. I tried pressing it against my cheek (or, er, ‘jaw’) and it just wouldn’t stay there so it picked up next to nothing.

User error, I’m sure. I’ll learn the right way to use it at the launch.