Performance -
With audio gear it is hard to be objective. After all different people like different call quality, volume and other items are all subjective. In general, you can cover battery life and build quality from an objective standpoint, but other items can vary from person to person. To make sure that I cover the audio products that we get here at DecryptedTech I like to have more than one opinion.  With something like a wireless headset that is meant for calls and texting things can get really complicated.

Ok first things first; ease of use. If you have a newer phone you can enable NFC temporarily to pair your new device. All you need to do is press the button on the bottom of the charging cradle until you see a blue light flash. The hold the bottom of the charger to the bottom of your phone. It will ask you if you want to pair the Eclipse and should ask you if you want to allow it as a trusted device for use through the lock screen.

If you do not have NFC, the pairing process is very similar. Push the button on the bottom until the blue light comes on and then search for the Eclipse with your device…

After all of that is out of the way and you want to start using the Eclipse the gestures/motions to get things going are pretty simple. If you have opted to use the voice command all you need to do it tap the headset twice and wait to hear the command prompt. From there speak what you want (“call bob”, “text bob” etc.) and it will do it for you. Very simple to use. Answering a call is also very simple, you can say “answer” and it will pick up, or you can double tap the Eclipse and it will also pick up. Ending a call is the same double tap. A single tap gets you information about the battery life and the connection (mobile etc.).

It is probably one of the easier to use headsets we have played with in years.

Call Quality -
This is one of those subjective things that we talked about so we will not just give you our opinion, but we will start out with it. For the most part even running on the normal quality call setting you can hear and be heard very well. Even in noisy environments you are still not going to get drowned out. As part of the test we made all call with a fan blowing directly in our face and things were still very sharp. The person on the other end did not hear the rush of the wind and only noted an “odd” sound in the call. Using the enhanced clarity feature added in a bit of noise in the higher frequencies while the enhanced bass cleared all of that out and we did not hear any hiss or popping on the line.

Our additional test subjects agreed that the call quality was good, but also noted a muffled sound when using the enhanced bass and at times when moving and using the headset. Interestingly enough people on the other end of the call noted a muffled quality to the audio when the wearer had any facial hair. This included a three-day growth that I had during one portion of the test. Shaving that off fixed the issue. This is not the first time we have heard a complaint about facial hair and a hands-free headset though so we doubt it is specific to Jabra (although you will want to keep this in mind).

Comfort -
The Jabra Eclipse is very light and built for comfort. They have included multiple ear pieces to ensure that you have the right one for your ear canal so you are not going to get an ache after extended use. For us, the length of time we could comfortably wear it was about 2 hours. After that it did get a little annoying, but not painful. Your millage may vary though.

Speech to Text and Text to Speech -
These two functions are becoming all the rage these days and for good reason. Reading or sending text messages while driving, biking, and even walking can lead to injury or death. You might laugh to hear that, but we now have people that have died while talking and texting. Having the ability to properly send a text by speaking and getting it read back are a very nice option to have. For now, text to speech is only available on Android devices (sorry Apple fans), but it worked out as well as any other service we have used. The Speech to Text function was very clean and accurate on both operating systems so there are really no complaints there.

Overall the performance of the Jabra Eclipse was impressive with a few minor security concerns that need to be worked out on Android devices.