Jabra sport bluetooth headset problems review

The Jabra sport bluetooth stereo headset are, in principle, the best companion a runner could desire, at least for a runner that  likes listen to music during workouts.

The jabra sport are inexpensive,  have an acceptable sound quality but for a runner they key winning features are:

• a secure and  confortable  fit
• very light (24 grams)
• sweat and rain proof (jabra claims a "US Military Grade rain, shock and dust protection")

I bought the jabra sport about 12 month ago and they worked magnificently for 3 months after which they ended working. Since i bought them at an online store located far away I gave the warranty and bought a new pair at a  local dealer. The new headset  worked fine for about 3 months after which they died down . The dealer changed them for a new pair that worked fine for about 7 month until they died down again and, again, the dealer changed them for a new pair that lasted 3 days.

All my jabra sport headsets died in the same way: when I tried to charge them a blinking red light apperad on the led and the headset would not charge. A search on the web confirmed that the problem was common and widespread, most likely a manufacuring defect, so that I decided to stop the replacement procedure ( even if here in Italy the warranty lasts 2 years).

In other words what could have been an outstanding product actually proved to be  unusable  but what is worse and incredible is that it seems there is no good alternative. Sure, on the market there are few other bluetooth sport headsets but all with well reported problems and none with the jabra outstanding (exterior) design.

I think that jabra could (and should) design a new outstanding bluetooth headset by minor updates to the original jabra sport model. The necessary updates are:

• of course, the fix in the red blinking led defect (charging circuitery or Li-Po accumulator defect?)
• improve the Li-Po capacity. The current 85 mAh capacity of the Li-Po battery (see picture 1) is to low and allows only 3.5 hours of music listening. The current battery weights about 3 grams and I see no problems to replace it with a 6-8 grams 120-150 mAh battery that could provide 6-8 hours of music. In the current auricolar (the battery is placed in the left hand side auricolar) there is a lot of free space to place a bigger battery (picture 1), possibly, but not necessarily, with a curved shape. May be that the new flexible Li-Po battery technology could be an option.
• improve the sealing of the head set. I opened my first jabra headset, used for 3 months,   3-4  one hour workouts per week,  and noted many signs of oxidation, in particular in the circuitery close to the usb connector, see picture 3. I think that it is not a good idea to rely on the usb plastic cover (picture 4) for the sealing. It's better to use a usb waterproof connector without the holes present in the current one, see picture 5. Furthermore i suspect that the holes in which the cable enter are not water proof.
• improve the bluetooth range in the outdoor environment. In summer with hot weather it is not confortable to wear an armband because  sweat and friction irritate the arm skin, so that the natural place for the phone is on the waist, but in this case the current headset loses continuosly the bluetooth signal. Since there are many bluetooth headset (not suited for sport) that function properly with the phone in the waist, this should not be an intrinsic  bluetooth limitation.

          

     
Picture 1 : the Li-Po battery of the Jabra sport into the left hand side auricolar. Note the big           amount   of free unused space due to the different shape of the case and the battery.
     
       
Picture 2: the right hand side auricolar contains the circuitery and the control buttons


     
Picture 3: The signs of circutery oxidation near the usb connector (the metal box under the yellow strip)

     
Picture 4: The usb connector closed by a plastic cover


Picture 5: The usb connector. Note the square holes in both the left and right hand side face of the connector that allow moisture to flow into the auricolar from the outside


UPDATE 13/05/2015

At this time making a good bluetooth stereo headset for runners should be very easy for every company also if not already involved in the market of sport gears. All the (few) components  needed to build a perfect stereo wifi headset are available in the market. CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) produces a microchip family (CSR86xx) that greatly simplifies the task. In particular the CSR 8645 IC is  a SoC (system on chip)  that provides all the needed funcions within a 5.5 x 5.5 x 1 mm case:

• bluetooth 4.0 transceiver
• aptX codec  (high quality stereo)
• power regulator
• li-ion battery charger based on usb port
• advanced DSP including a multi band equalizer

In other words the CSR8645 provides all the electronics needed to build a BT stereo headset and you need to add  

• a li-ion battery
• one or two microphones (optional for phone calls) 
• one to 7 control buttons
• two earphones 
• an usb charging port

Excluding the earplugs all the needed hardware costs less than 5 $ and probably much less for  big orders. The cost of the earphones depends on the quality and  i estimate it in the range 1-20  $. Note that water proof micro usb ports now are common (those used by samsung in the galaxy s5 phones are at least ip67 rated). 

Thus, using a mid range earphones the hardware should cost about 10$ plus the plastics to encase the electronics. On the market you can find CSR8645 based earphones in the range 20-150$.