Would love to say thanks to Christina from BlueAnt for sending me the Z9i to review.

The BlueAnt Z9i is said to be one of the best hands-free devices out today - my thoughts? Correct, one of the best ones out there. It may even replace my current favorite - the Jawbone 2, but I'll leave that fight to another post.

The BlueAnt Z9i reminded me of the Jawbone 2 in many aspects: the size and feel are almost identical, and both models have great noise cancelling qualities, which successfully filter out background noise such as wind, running water, car radio - basically any background white noise.

As other BlueAnt devices, I love the amount of love the company puts into the package. I truely feel like a young boy on Christmas morning greedily opening up his gift.

How does this go?
Everything up to here was perfect, the charging was fast, the connection was painless, but wearing the hands-free earpiece was hard. I wasn't sure how exactly it's supposed to be worn, and took me a good few minutes to get it "on". It still feels a bit loose, but attached nonetheless.

Sound Quality
I was happily surprised with the sound quality on the BlueAnt Z9i. The incoming voice was loud and clear, as if someone was whispering into my ear - perfecto. Outgoing quality was great as well.

Noise Cancellation
The noise cancelling features here were not as I'm used to. The "cancelling" mode must be turned on when speaking in high-noise areas, and later turned off when back in quite areas. I don't understand why it can't always have the cancellation turned on.

Pairing Up
This model is famous for it's ability to connect with five [yes, 5!] devices simultaneously. Meaning you could connect to your cellphone & laptop, talking on Skype online, and when a call comes in, the Z9i would automaticlly switch to the cellphone, something like that. I'm a basic Bluetooth user and have no need for this, but always good to have anyways.

Accessories
The extra accessories that arrive with the Z9i are suffecient, but not perfect. It comes with an A/C adapter, USB cable, but no car charger. I've noticed that no hands-free devices comes with all three chargers [A/C, USB & Car], sighs. But unlike most devices, the BlueAnt Z9i comes with different ear-hooks and ear-buds for a perfect fit. Yay!

Conclusion:
Great sound quality, takes a while to get a comfortable fit, but it has different ear-pieces that I didn't try. Very small & light, average battery life. Almost as good as the mighty Jawbone, at half the cost.

I'm convinced, where can I buy?
I'm glad you asked. You can get the BlueAnt Z9i at Amazon and JR.com at around $65-$70, very affordable price indeed.

There you have it, the BlueAnt Z9i

Some Jawbone History: Around two years ago, Aliph released the original Jawbone, a bulky device that supported "Noise Shield", a high-tech noise cancelling feature. Personally I haven't used the old one, but heard it was great, except for it's large size.

In 2007, the headset was awarded an International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award, was named “Wearable Gadget of the Year” by Engadget and received CNET’s highest-ever rating for a Bluetooth headset.

New Jawbone:

May 2008 - "Aliph, the established market leader in noise eliminating Bluetooth headsets,  introduced the new Jawbone® Bluetooth headset. The new Jawbone design is 50% smaller than the original award-winning Jawbone, and features breakthrough noise elimination technology to provide even better voice quality than the original in a smaller and more ergonomic package."

Features: The Jawbone has a incredible feature, called NoiseAssasin. This military-grade patent filters out background noise from your conversation while amplifying your voice, through jaw vibrations. So what does that mean for us? No more "I can't hear you! Turn the radio down!" - the other side of our conversation will hear us crystal-clear, as if indoors. See the Jawbone in action within our Jawbone preview post.

Packaging: The headset comes in a beautiful package design. Behind a clear-plastic case, the incredible Jawbone floats in the middle, as if knowing it's that good - I would be lying if I said I wasn't impressed.

For me, the packaging shows how high the company places their products. Like Apple, Aliph has dedicated a lot to the packaging and design of the Jawbone, which says a lot. If they put all this thought into the package, I wonder how much was put into their actual product? So far, looks great for a hoping-to-be great product.

Slowly opening the package, careful not to tear anything, the accessories of the Jawbone are revealed: First box, a very cool charger that doubles as a USB / AC charger, which is very smartly designed. In the smaller box, many sets of earbuds / earloops for customizing your Jawbone for your face.

My Jawbone came with a pamphlet strongly advising to make sure the Jawbone fits your face perfectly, the headline: "If it doesn't fit, it doesn't eliminate" which says the Voice Activity Sensor of the Jawbone must touch your face to ensure superior performance. So make sure you try all the different fits [earbuds/earloops] for the perfect setup.

You can continue reading this review by clicking the "Next" link below. I've also included a few unboxing pictures for you guys to envy over: