a-Jays One+ Earphones – Review

Having heard many good things about the a-Jays range of earphones, and with most bundled headsets being very average indeed, I thought, for £40, these would be a great addition to my newly purchased Galaxy Note 2.

a Jays One+ Earphones   Review

In actual fact, the bundled headphones with the Note 2 aren’t bad at all, but I expected better from the a-Jays set.

One of the most important features (at least for me) of these headphones is the tangle free cord. I’m constantly getting mine tangled as it’s really annoying to have to untangle them for each use. In practise, the a-Jays set works brilliantly for this. Problem solved.

So how do they sound? Terrific. I’m no audiophile, but I always replace my stock headphones with something better, and to my ears, these sound among the best I’ve heard.

a Jays One+ Earphones   Review

The button included works to answer / end calls, and call quality is great, with the recipients of my calls reporting they can hear me perfectly.

The only issue I have, which isn’t really the fault of the headphones, is the behaviour of the single button. You see, in previous versions of Android, holding down the middle button can be assigned to various functions (volume up, down etc.) using an a-JAYS app in the Google Play market. Unfortunately this app isn’t compatible with Jelly Bean, as holding down the middle button has been reserved for Google Now.

Here’s where it gets weird..

Google now is activated by holding down the button on the inline remote, except for when the phone’s screen is off.  So, erm, what’s the point of using the headset then?

I’ve searched for a way of enabling Google Now whilst the display is in standby but can’t find one. Most odd.

Also a word of warning, the controls on this headset won’t work on my Nexus 7 at all, so check compatibility before purchasing.

All said though, if you have a jelly bean handset and don’t mind finding a work around for the volume control issue (skipping tracks, pausing and resuming works just fine) then this is a great headset. The anti-tangle cord works well, they sound fantastic, and look quite nice too.

If your handset runs Ice Cream Sandwhich or older, then strangely you’ll probably get more out of this headset, as the a-JAYs app will let you customise the button and it’s functions.

Thanks to the lovely people at MobileFun – where they have a large range of  Note 2 accessories