Along with making good sense to keep both hands on the steering wheel while driving, several States have enacted laws prohibiting cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle unless you use the phone with a hands-free device.
The popular hands-free method is a Bluetooth headset but not everyone is a fan of these headsets. There’s the installed system with cradle, speaker and microphone but not everyone wants something hard-wired to their car. It can be frustrating to find a comfortable, desirable way to use your phone hands-free while driving.
Enter the BlueAnt Supertooth Light Bluetooth speakerphone ($79.95). The Supertooth Light is a visor or vent mounted, all-in-one device (speaker and microphone) that’s installed in minutes and can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle in the matter of minutes.
The Supertooth Light measures 4.8 inches long, 2.4 inches tall, .7 inches thick and weighs in at four ounces. Expecting something larger, I was pleasantly surprised at the devices lightweight size. The unit comes with a wall charger, car travel charger, and visor mount (the unit I tested came with a bonus AC vent mount). The unit is available in two colors, black and white.
The Supertooth Light has an extending microphone boom that doubles as a on/off button, a set of volume keys as well as the answer/hang up buttons which also are used to activate special features such as last number redial, ignore calls, initiate Bluetooth pairing and voice recognition dialing (if this feature is available on your phone).
The Supertooth Light has an indicator light that will alert users with different colors to indicate battery status, Bluetooth connectivity, charging status and pairing mode.
The BlueAnt Supertooth Light magnetically attaches to a clip that fastens to your visor. The clip is ambidextrous to allow you to lower the visor without having to flip the clip around. All you need to do is remove the Supertooth Light, lower the visor and reattach the Supertooth Light. This simplistic design makes for easy installation and makes the Supertooth Light easy to transfer from car to car.
To turn on the unit, simply press the on/off button which also extends the boom microphone. When you first turn on the Supertooth Light, it automatically enters pairing mode. It took my Samsung BlackJack II seconds to discover the device and once I entered the factory security code, I was in business. Total installation and set up time; maybe two minutes.
The Supertooth Light will maintain pairing information for up to five phones. Any initial pairing will automatically delete the pairing information from the phone that has not been used for the longest time. After pairing is established, once the unit is turned on, it will search for the phones that it has in memory for pairing. Some phones may require you to verify the connection but once paired, my Samsung BlackJack II reconnected automatically
The Supertooth Light will chime for incoming calls and to answer the call, simply press the green “answer” button. To end the call or ignore an incoming call, press the red “hang up” button. Users can redial the last number by pressing and holding the green button for three seconds.
Volume on the Supertooth Light speaker is good. At first, I was concerned because when the volume on the device was maxed out, I had to turn off the radio and roll up the car windows to hear the speaker. To boost the volume, I took a chance and increased the phones earpiece volume. In doing so, the volume on the speaker increased significantly.
The microphone volume was very good. It picked up my voice clearly when using a normal tone and volume. There was not static or interference from electronic devices in the car. The microphone filters out a good bit of background noise as well. I could maintain a conversational volume, have the radio playing in the car, and the microphone seemed to filter out most of the background noise to keep my voice clear.
I did notice that with the microphone boom, you have to fully press the boom into the speaker to get it to stay closed, turning the device off. If you stop when the boom is flush with the side of the speaker, it won’t stay compressed. It can be a little frustrating at first but you have to push the microphone in another ¼ inch or so for it to stay put.
Battery life is reported by BlueAnt to be up to 15 hours of talk time and up to 800 hours of stand-by time. When the battery level gets low the status light will blink red. After three days of use, I saw no indication of a low battery.
While the BlueAnt Supertooth Light lacks the portability of Bluetooth headsets, it is a strong alternative for hands free cell phone operation while in the car. Call reception is loud and clear with the microphone having no problem clearly picking up your voice. Battery life is very generous and should last for the longest trips. Even in the event you’ll be stuck in your car for a month, the Supertooth Light comes with a travel charger so battery life should not come into question.
The Supertooth Light offers basic speaker phone operation in an easy to install, semi-portable, hands-free solution. The only thing this unit lacks is an LCD display that could be used for caller id, battery levels, and other operational information. Such an information display would further reduce the need to handle your phone while driving. Regardless, I was impressed with this lightweight device.
If you need a hands-free solution and don’t care for the headsets or hard-wired systems, the BlueAnt Supertooth Light Bluetooth speakerphone ($79.95) might be just what you are looking for.
Ratings (out of 5)
Overall:
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By George Ponder
March 27, 2008 9:32 AM
File under
Bluetooth Headsets
, Featured
, Reviews
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