Jabra Storm Bluetooth Headset

This is my favorite audio device behind Aftershokz' Trekz Titanium (a wonderful wireless bone conduction set of headphones which I highly recommend). As one who likes to listen to music at work and while jogging, I need headphones which allow me to hear ambient noise (unlike stereo earbuds). The two choices there are mono earbuds like the Jabra Storm and bone conduction headphones like the Trekz Titanium. It's good to be able to hear oncoming traffic wheezing by you on the streets, and hear your boss giving you stuff to do without having to play a game of wait-for-me-to-remove-my-earbuds-so-I-can-hear-you every few minutes. I decided to start using my Trekz Titanium soley for exercise, and still needed something to use at work, so I decided to try the Jabra Storm. The Storm is an impressive little device. The form factor just blows my mind. I can't believe that tech like this is possible. How did they manage to eek a 10 hour battery life from such a little guy? And it's by far the lightest, most comfortable earpiece I've ever worn. I can wear it all day and forget that I had it on. Its 4.8 ounces of all-day comfort, even for those with glasses like myself. I really like the style of this headset. I've seen wireless earbud style headsets which don't wrap around your ear or anything (something Jabra also makes), and those don't appeal to me because I appreciate having a microphone for calls, in addition to the added security of having something wrap around your ear. And I've seen large clunky mono wireless headsets which look like a tumorous techno growth which only an early 2000s business executive would wear. The Storm offers the security of an around the ear device with minimalist aplomb. I especially dig that the part which wraps around your ear is part of the headset, not just some delicate bit of plastic tinsel as with many other Bluetooth headsets. It's a stylish way to get a microphone closer to your face. The buttons are satisfyingly clicky and, in general, the overall design is sleek and on-point. It's a beautiful little piece. And the earbud part can twist around if you ever need to switch your ear, which is a great bonus. Normally, one would expect that a manufacturer making so many sacrifices for style would lead to some issues with quality and practicality, but there's really not much wrong with this device. In fact, it seems leaps and bounds above other, less stylish Bluetooth headsets in both quality and functionality. What's bad about it? Well, the sound quality isn't that great. But, I mostly listen to low-fi experimental rock music with less bass than a freshwater pond (har har), so that's not much of a problem for me personally. If you enjoy crappy pop music which has no redeeming qualities without its precious, precious bass, you probably won't want to use this for music. The sound is fairly decent for voice, and I also use the Storm for Zoom video calls, so it's quite serviceable for that purpose. I actually use a lot of Jabra's Enterprise-level products, and I wish they would make an office version of the Storm with a dock to switch between being a headset for a desk phone or a computer. The Storm doesn't have a charging dock, and can't easily connect to a computer Another potentially bad thing is there seem to be a lot of reviews saying that the device doesn't work properly. This happened to me as the first model I ordered simply would not pair via Bluetooth. I tried on my Nexus 6P, a Windows computer, and a Linux box, all of which had working Bluetooth, but no dice. I contacted Jabra support, and they suggested returning it to Amazon. I got my original Storm replaced, and its successor worked no problem. I would imagine that it's because this device, like many other micro earbuds, are ambitious technological feats which only recently became possible. Given that, manufacturing might be struggling to catch up to the design. I hope nobody else gets one that doesn't work, but if you do, consider having it replaced and giving it another try, because the device is more than worth it when it works.