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It has been just about one year since Aliph announced what was referred to simply as the “new” Jawbone and now they have announced the followup, which has been dubbed the Jawbone Prime.  If you remember back, the “new” Jawbone took a much nicer appearance as compared to the slightly bulky original Jawbone, however the Prime has retained much of the same look and size focusing more on the technology.

As far as any external changes, while the overall size is just about the same the external pattern has changed just slightly.  Aside from that, another noticeable difference (aside from the newly brightened colors) is the lack of earpiece.  Aliph has gone in favor of new ergonomic earbuds, which are noted as being able to “keep the Jawbone in place without an earloop for most wearers.”  Of course, they have still included an earpiece in the package just in case.

Some of the other features include:

• Noise Assassin 2.0: This feature is part of what makes the Jawbone so nice, it helps to reduce any background noise and has been improved on the Prime.
• AVAD: Acoustic Voice Activity Detector: This will help to make sure your noise reduction keeps working.  The Jawbone has a little nub (Voice Activity Sensor) that will rest on the side of your face, that sensor activates the Noise Assassin, however with AVAD you will still get similar results even if that sensor has moved away from direct contact with your face.
• Wind Reduction: According to Aliph, they have “developed a unique all digital Sensor Signal Fusion system to reduce wind noise.”  However they put it, in the past the Jawbone has been very good when used in the wind, I can only imagine the Jawbone Prime will continue that tradition.

Additionally, the Jawbone Prime also offers support for Bluetooth 2.1+EDR as well as 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0.  The Jawbone Prime also has up to 4.5 hours of talk time, up to 8 days on standby and weighs just 10 grams.

The Jawbone Prime is currently available for pre-order and is priced at $129.99.  As far as color options, you will have the more subtle Blah Blah Black, Coffee Talk or Going Platinum, but you can also choose from the EARCANDY edition which comes in either Frankly SCARLET, YELLO!, Drop Me A LIME or LILAC You Mean It.

While available for order, the Jawbone Prime is expected to begin shipping on May 2.  Of course, as we have seen in the past, this may be a good time to pick up a previous model Jawbone headset at a nice discount.  Sure the latest and greatest is always nice to have, but so is saving a few bucks.

Product [Jawbone Prime]