Jabra Evolve 80 MS UC

I got back from a short conference trip to find a box waiting for me.  The nice folks at Jabra sent me a squeaky new Jabra Evolve 80 MS UC.

Here is the market-speak straight from some professional writer up in Jabraland:

“The Jabra EVOLVE 80 MS Stereo is a professional headset designed to improve concentration and conversations. Premium noise-canceling technology gives you peace to work in the noisy, open office effectively creating a concentration zone around you, so you can stay focused on the job. The speakers are built for style and comfort with leatherette ear cushions, and are specifically designed to reduce office noise. When combined with active noise-canceling technology, you get maximum protection against office noise. The concentration zone is completed with a busy light indicator that signals user availability to colleagues.”

And in the “Optimized for Lync” category: 

“The Jabra EVOLVE 80 MS Stereo is optimized for Microsoft Lync, providing instant “Plug & Play” installation for your headset. The headset works perfectly with your Microsoft Lync, so you can focus on the conversation.”

Blah, blah, blah.  Except that when you ignore the hyperbole, the Jabra Evolve is a very, very nice headset.  Can I go past “seriously nice” and maybe go all the way to the first ever Tsoorad 10/10 award?  No, nothing is perfect.  But I think I can go to 9.9.  Everything claimed by Jabra seems to be backed up with performance.

What I like

The noise cancellation is excellent.  And once you have it enabled (a switch on the bottom of the right ear cup) you can disable it with a press of the toggle switch in the center of the ear cup.  Very nice. 

The hype about the “concentration zone” is no BS.  Comfort is as good, or better than anything else I have used.  The inside of the ear cups did not give me the willies. The microphone boom doesn’t stick way out in front of your face.  Did I say these things are comfortable?

Audio quality is (searching for a superlative) really awesome.  I tried Pandora, real stereo unit, my iPhone, iPad, laptops, workstations.  In each case, the Evolve 80 performed much better than my Bose Quiet Comfort 2.  When connected to something that does two-way communication it just gets better.  The “Listen in” feature is slick.  Having a separate 3.5mm connector built right in is a great idea.

The Jabra busy light concept is … different.  The inline module has a center button, and if you press it, both the module and the headset light up.  This is separate and can be enabled without being in a call.  A virtual hideout.

The Jabra PC suite is nice.  I actually downloaded it and played with it.

What I don’t like

Pushing the inline module mute button does indeed mute. Rotating the microphone boom up mutes also.  I would prefer a button or touch point or something on the boom or ear cup to do the mute.

Weight.  I understand that to get this thing to the high level of goodness that the Evolve 80 does indeed demonstrate, that a certain amount of weight is needed, but I can also see where this might be off-putting to some folks.  When my principal tester (my SO) first put them on, that was the very first comment.  That and the headband pushed into the top of her head.  *I* did not notice the headband issue. This will NOT get in the way of me using this headset – just something to which I will need to accommodate and in no way impedes my previous comment regarding comfort.

Conclusions

The Jabra Evolve 80 is a great awesome wonderful seriously nice piece of work.  You can get one right here.

YMMV