Today, we’ll be taking a quick look at the Jabra Evolve 80 Headset. This particular headset is designed and aimed at the business user, who wants a high-quality corded headset for the office environment.
It comes with some pretty unique features for an office headset, such as active noise cancellation, a listen-in feature and a busy/active indicator on the ear cups itself. Let’s find out if the Jabra Evolve 80 Headset is the one for you!
For those who don’t know how Jabra is, here’s a little blurb taken from their website …
“Jabra’s story begins with a man named C.F. Tietgen, a Danish industrial mogul who established the Great Northern Telegraph Company (GN) in 1869. Tietgen’s original idea was to capitalize on Denmark’s location to create telegraph lines connecting superpowers France and Great Britain with Russia and East Asia.
Over the next 100 years, GN expanded the reach of its telegraph operations, including opening the first telegraph connection from Northern Europe via Siberia to Japan and Hong Kong in 1872. By 1907, GN was one of the leading international telegraph companies. Its network consisted of 15,600 km of telegraph cables, which connected an advanced network in Northern Europe via Siberia, the most sophisticated network in East Asia. “
Photo Gallery
Features and Highlights (taken from Jabra’s website)
The Packaging
The packaging is a bit basic and drab … you get a protective zipped pouch for the headset, a simple instruction manual, a USB dongle with volume controls and the headset itself. But no USB charging cable.
I guess the Evolve 80, being a headset designed and aimed at the business user, you don’t really need all the fancy packaging you normally get in a retail box.
A Closer Look
The build quality of the Evolve is very good – nice and solid. The ear cups are really comfortable, and they completely surrounds my ears to give you that full active noise cancellation when switched on. You can also see the Evolve 80 features a foldable microphone, which flat shaped and sits snuggly on the head band when not in use.
Now, the head band on most headsets can cause discomfort after a few hours of wear … You don’t get that with the Evolve 80. The bottom of the head band consist of a rubber cushion which soft and flexible, and sits nicely on your head.
The USB dongle/Volume control
The Evolve 80 comes with a USB dongle which plugs into any laptop or PC … perfect for any unified communication applications such as Skype, Jabber, Lync etc. It also doubles as remote control for volume, answer call and mute.
Conclusion and Verdict
I have to say, the Jabra Evolve 80 is a pretty decent headset. The build quality is good. It’s comfortable on the ear, and the active noise cancellation works well. I particularly like the busy/active indicator, which glows red around the speaker/ear cups. And the listen-in feature allows users to listen to office announcements or questions from your colleagues without having to take off your headset.
The active noise cancellation feature requires charging via a micro USB port and cable. thing is … the packaging didn’t come with a USB cable, which I find odd. A full charge will take up to 3 hours, giving you active noise cancellation usage of around 8-10 hours.
The good thing about this headset, is that you can use it for any purpose outside the office environment. The standard 3.5mm mini jack will fit into any portable audio device.
The sound quality is very good. While listening to my music on an iPhone, I was able to get crisp sound with good mid-range, and nice deep bass.
The Jabra Evolve 80 will cost you around USD $329.00, which I think is extremely expensive for a headset. At that price, it’s worth taking a look at other brands such as Bose or Sennheiser. But do shop around. I think you can get one on Amazon for just under $300.
Pros:
- Great sound quality
- Active Noise Cancelling
- Adjustable Headband
- Foldable Microphone
- USB connector/Volume dongle
- Unified Communication
Cons:
- Expensive
Final Thoughts:
If you’re in a business/office environment, and you want to use one headset for both work and music … then why not consider the Jabra Evolve 80 headset. It offers a good listening experience and comes with some nice features, such as active noise cancellation, listen-in feature, busy/active indicator, and what’s more … it’s compatible with most unified communication software. Downside … it’s pretty expensive.
