Let's be clear on one thing: I am not the target market for the Jabra Steel. The company is pitching its Bluetooth headset at outdoor workers who need something durable, reliable and with good noise-cancelling technology: people who spend their days working on building sites but need good handsfree functions for their phones, or spend their days working on harnesses at heights. It's safe to say I am neither of those.

But I do work in a noisy office and need to type a lot. The Jabra Steel may come in handy for cutting down on the background noise when making calls.

There is one issue I faced when I took it out of the box: the Jabra Steel isn’t meant for small ears. I have the same problem with in-ear headphones; they need to have the soft silicon buds with interchangeable sizes. The Jabra Steel comes with a few options for fitting in your ear, but the size of the device means it is never going to fit me comfortably.

For most people, this won’t be a problem. And even for the small-eared minority, it is usable. Jabra includes two ear hooks as well as the replacement ear gels so it’s possible to hold it in place. It seems reasonably secure – it passed the shake test – and the audio volume is still good.

Setting it up is simple. There is a power button on the underside of the device; turn it on, wear the headset and follow the voice prompts from the very enthusiastic woman welcoming you to your new Jabra device.

You can either manually pair it with your smartphone or use NFC if your phone supports it.

There’s also an app – Jabra Assist – that you are prompted to download. This controls things such as reading out your messages and locating your headset if you misplace it. That’s entirely possible, by the way, as the headset is quite compact.

Despite this, the buttons are a decent size, so you can use them even with gloves on. Well, I could. If you have larger hands, the size of the answer/end button may be an issue when wearing gloves – a small but important consideration, given the target market.

There is a dedicated voice control button too, allowing you to access Siri or Google Now, depending on your phone, through the headset and pick up calls with voice commands.

As with anything aimed at use in rough environments, the Steel is designed to resist dust, water, grime and dirt. The buttons are sealed to stop anything getting inside the the device. You can drop it from a height too. Just don’t take it swimming.

The readout function can also access your calendar for alerts, or read out your email, but the latter requires configuring your email account with the app. It would be far more useful if this was done from within an existing email application on your phone.

Despite my reservations about wearing a Bluetooth headset in public – I feel instantly self- conscious about it – I tested it outdoors, on a busy road. The audio my end held up, and there was little complaint from the call recipients, despite the heavy traffic passing by. In a noisier environment, it may struggle – say, for example, a construction site where there is excavation work going on. Part of this could be down to the fact that it just didn’t fit in my ear. However, some other users have suggested trying different ear gels to solve the issue.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, this isn’t really a product aimed at me. Bluetooth headsets are a bit of a niche market in general, and this headset is aimed at a small subsection of that market.

The good

The audio quality on the device is pretty good, and the noise cancelling technology works well on a busy street. The readout function also comes in handy, although having to configure your email in the app is an extra step.

The not so good

This is not for smaller ears. If you have trouble with regular earphones, this may be an issue with the Steel. The volume may also be a problem for noisy environments.

The rest

The Jabra Steel comes with a five-year warranty, which could come in handy if you push it to its limits in terms of the environment you’re using it in. Although the fine print does exclude “abnormal use or accidents”, so that could dramatically reduce its usefulness.

Two windsocks are included in the pack for windier environments.

The verdict 

Decent headset but has a couple of issues around volume that could be an issue for some users.