Review: Roundup: Face Savers

Strapping on a Bluetooth headset doesn't have to mean casting off dignity. We put 4 to the test to find which skew more cool than tool (you know, relatively speaking).

1. Aliph Jawbone Icon

Headsets don't have to be hideous. Just ask Yves Béhar, whose handsome design for the original Jawbone has been further refined in the Icon. It sounds great, too: Noise filters eliminate virtually all external racket—wind, gunfire, loquacious hobos. The folks at Aliph are also apparently BFFs with Apple; a separate battery indicator for the headset appears onscreen when you pair an Icon with an iPhone.

$100, jawbone.com

2. Plantronics Explorer 395

Plantronics has serious geek cred. Neil Armstrong wore one of its headsets during the 1969 moon landing. Too bad the Explorer 395 has all the visual panache of the crew in Mission Control—you know, short-sleeved shirts, black glasses, and pocket protectors. But solid audio quality makes up for the weak design. In addition to the usual digital tricks, Plantronics' engineers created a specially shaped mic port to mask outside noise. It picks up voices perfectly while ignoring anything short of a hurricane-force gust.

$50, plantronics.com

3. Motorola Endeavor HX1

This whopping, tanklike hunk of plastic requires Paganini-level fiddling to position correctly in your ear. But once inserted, it operates like a sonic sponge, soaking up every sound within 40 yards. It offers some cool features, too. Passing on trade secrets at work? Just hit a button to activate stealth mode, which captures vocal vibrations and translates whispers into (somewhat garbled) speech.

WIRED Stealth mode makes you slightly less annoying on public transit. Low on juice? The HX1 gently chirps a reminder in your ear.

TIRED Flimsy ear loop barely supports the headset's bulk. Burns through battery life: Even Emperor Palpatine didn't have this much appetite for power.

$130, motorola.com

4. Jabra Stone

Most Bluetooth headsets are Frankenstein monstrosities of rubber and plastic. Not the Stone. This little shaving of sheer elegance has no moving parts and nestles into your auditory canal rather than violating your ear. But awesome design is where the good stuff ends. The Stone choked on nearly every task we set for it. Syncing stinks, battery life is anemic, and audio is as mellifluous as a blender filled with tenpenny nails.

WIRED Superb packaging. Egg-shaped charging base is as pretty as the headset.

TIRED Most of the outward-facing side of the Stone is one big End Call button. Press it by accident and you'll cease transmission. No charging port on headset—you have to plug into the base station to juice up.

$130, jabrastone.com