I was a little bit thrilled when I took in hand this headset. I used to consider it to be a promising and flawless device (according to Internet publications). Let's see what we have now...

Design. The BT8010 looks great indeed. You can easily transform mono headset into stereo due to the detachable earpiece. The right earpiece is the main one with an OLED display, controls and battery in it. You can use it as a common headset making and receiving calls – it looks exactly like all the other Bluetooth headsets, but comparing to them it is rather big. It has a lot of buttons, such as On/Off/Pairing button, Answer/End button, Menu button and Mode button (the last is applicable mainly to set a primary device). Other headsets do without this odd button perfectly.

What I didn't like is that there is no Skip track backward function! It will skip only forward if you press twice Answer/End button in the center of a jog wheel. Yes, the headset also has a jog wheel – very convenient to control volume, I appreciate it a lot. But I think I would manage without beeps while controlling. By the way, the BT8010 features an automatic volume control that adjusts the volume depending on the ambient noise level.

The other thing I don't like is that nothing is written on the buttons – thus no intuitive start is possible, to get to know buttons you should read manual. I started to use intuitively some previous headsets, without reading manuals – unfortunately this one is not the case.

The left (stereo) unit is smaller, and looks as a copy of main unit, only without display. It connects to the right earpiece with a flexible cable that plugs into the charging port of the main unit. The silver wheel on it has no purpose, it exists just to fit into the design. You should detach the left earpiece from the right one while charging, as it has only one jack in which you have to put the USB cable or charger.

Display. The OLED display shows the headset's volume level, a battery indicator, the mode in which the headset stays currently (phone or music), the device name it is connected to right now, and caller ID. You can choose whether to show Caller ID by default. Caller ID will not be indicated, unless you specifically request it during an incoming call.

The display is very handy while scrolling through phone contacts as well.

Brightness can be set to different levels. The display is not on all the time, it switches off very fast, thus saving battery. Maybe someone will be annoyed by having a large display on the ear, but take into account the plethora of functions – how would you operate it without the display?

Wearing. The mono unit is by default optimized for right side wearing. If you prefer left side wearing you can orientate the display for it. In the menu select Settings – Wearing – Left side. In case of left side wearing, the display, stereo channels and volume control will be inverted.

In the headsets of some users the earhook may come off and stay around the ear, while the earpiece falls down. I had no such problem, though the earloop is really loose.

Users admit the earloop is painful, but I can't tell strictly what part of ear aches more. Really, these headphones are really inconvenient to wear – they are hard to adjust in the beginning, and afterwards they don't hold in their place. The earpieces don't go inside the ear canal to create any noise isolation. I had to readjust them all the time, that's why I tried not to twist my head round. I even can't eat normally – the left unit seems to be envying me, 'cos it tries to fall into my saucer all along. I wear glasses while working, and it aggravated the situation. People use ear gels and employ the shrink tubing being molded while warm in the inner ear – they say it helps a lot. So, if you decide to purchase the BT8010, you won't manage without such an auxiliaries, and maybe this link will help.

Sound. Clear sound, loud, no heights distortion. Heights and middles are excellent until you make the volume unbearably loud. No drop-outs at all, which is great.

But I haven't noticed their vaunted deep bass! I use several special songs to test basses, and many other headsets had considerably more of bass other things being equal. When I adjusted sound using player's equalizer (Pocket Tunes), basses were coarse, so I decided it's better to hear music with lack of basses than with hoarseness.

Due to design, not all the sound goes into ears, part of it is being lost.

With the stereo configuration you'll hear a call sound in both speakers. This makes the caller’s voice very clear. The voice is loud enough even if you prefer to use only the main unit, but it may depend on the mobile phone.

Connection. The device is very easy to pair with music source – in no time I've paired it with Palm TX, as well as later with Life Drive. The BT8010 lets you connect to two devices for phone and music features. The last paired device is automatically set as the primary device. To change your secondary device to your primary one, press and hold the Mode button. You will receive an audio notification indicating that the primary device has shifted. The primary and secondary device will be listed in the BT8010 display, with the primary device listed at the top. And the functions performed by the headset depend on the fact whether the devise is primary or secondary. As I've said previously, I wander what on Earth this feature does here at all, why all the other headsets manage without it, having all the functions in full?

The headset can remember more than 4 devices. To delete all paired devices select “Delete all”.

The Bluetooth connection is really stable. When I had to go out to the remote room with the iron door, I paused the music, and when I returned in several minutes, the playing was resumed easily. Previously I tested many headsets that in the same situation broke the connection and I had to pair them again. Well, Jabra is good girl! No stuttering, and even microwave oven has little influence. The range is really great - 12 m, even more than promised.

Battery. I've heard beeping and looked at display at once. Aha, the battery is low. I heard this beeping once in 30 seconds. After approximately five minutes the sound faded out. The charging took more than 2 hours. One isn't able to use the BT8010 while charging.

The battery lives rather long for a small headset, more than 8 hours of music, though they promised 6 hours of music streaming.

Advanced functionality. You can choose between “Call List”, “Phonebook” and “Settings” inside the menu.

The alert can vibrate, if you wish, just select between “On” and “Off”.

You can control “Caller ID”, “Quiet” and “Brightness” of display. Quiet mode controls if the display automatically comes on during different activities, and can be set to “On” or “Off” (default).

You can select your preferred language. The BT8010 is shipped with “English” (default) display text and room for a personal language. The personal language is inactive until you download it.

You can select between “Neutral” (default), “Rock”, “Pop”, “Jazz” and “Classical” mode – use equalizer to find the best sounding for you. But my Jabra refused to change the mode, and when I tried to set "Jazz", after a few seconds the sound became hoarse and then dissapeared at all. It seems to be a fault of codec, I can't tell whether all BT8010 encounter such a problem, or maybe I personally was lucky to test a unit with such a glitch. Anyway, our technicians examined it and wrote a letter to Jabra, maybe something will be done in the long run.

Select “Factory reset” to return to factory settings. But in this case all paired devices, call list, phonebook, personal equalizer settings and personal language will be deleted.

Select “About” to check the current headset software version.

You can customize your BT8010 in a number of ways using the BT8010 Control Center PC application: create and organize your headset phonebook, download a personal language to your headset, update your headset with the latest headset software release from Jabra. You can register your headset here.

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