Customer Reviews

Blueant S1 Sun Visor Bluetooth Handsfree

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Let me start with the basics - this car kit is not bad. It isn't great, but I've seen worse. The S1 is about $20 cheaper than the Supertooth 3 (the flagship carkit from Blueant). Sadly, the S1 loses the cool features found on the Supertooth 3 - voice dialing is one of them (the S1 does support a simple "answer" command for picking up calls.

The S1 does all the basics, plus it adds Bluetooth audio. This works, but don't expect it to replace your car stereo any time soon. The A2DP Bluetooth stereo lacks one minor little thing - AVCRP or Bluetooth audio remote. So, even though you can listen to music, you can't control it.

Now on to the big one - when you open the box, you see the S1, its visor clip and an AC charger. That is correct - the brainiacs at Blueant obviously felt that nobody would need a car charger for the car kit in their car.

This means you'll need to spend an additional $10 on a MiniUSB car charger cord. To me, this is an inexcusable flaw, and one that makes it seem like the product was poorly thought through.

I have been a long time Jawbone user, but have been trying to convince myself that a Bluetooth Speakerphone would better fit my needs/lifestyle, since I only use the Jawbone in the car anyway.

I finally pulled the trigger on a Jabra SP700, but returned it because it could realistically only be used with one phone. (It has multiple phone history, but will only connect to the most recently paired phone.)

I have friends who are happy with the BlueAnt SuperTooth 3, and since the S1 was newer I decided to give it a try.

Good:
Good overall volume and clarity. Multipoint technology which not only allows it to reconnect to the two most recent devices, it actually reconnects to both simultaneously if in range.

Not so good:
In addition to the standard Bluetooth Headset profile, the S1 also supports A2DP, like the Jabra SP700. The Jabra SP700 also has a FM transmitter, so it can basically act as a speakerphone/music streamer to the car stereo. The S1 does not have a FM transmitter, so music is streamed to its mono speaker. Herein lies my problem; my iPhone 3G will connect to the S1 for phone call duty and will also send music to it, instead of to my car stereo through the direct connect. I have not found a way to disable A2DP support on the S1 (or the iPhone 3G), and I'm checking with BlueAnt to see if they have any ideas. This will probably be a deal killer for me if I can't resolve it.

Also, the visor clip is extremely tight, taking a lot of effort to attach to my visor. The Jabra SP700's clip looked more fragile but clipped on well enough as far as I can tell.

Over the past week, I have used the S1 in two cars while I have traveled on noisy gridlocked LA freeways and residential streets. Additionally, in the back seat where my 5 year twins doing the usual 5 year old things like talking, laughing, asking questions, singing sometimes LOUDLY etc... The S1 passed with flying colors against this curtain of noise in the car and outside of it. I used the S1 in two ways. The first was as a regular speakerphone that did not lose a call nor was my voice ever "difficult" to listen to according to people on the other end of the line. I have used other bluetooth devices like Motorola and Parrot and the S1 is noticeably easier on the caller and the listener. Their voices came in quite well and easy to hear at all times especially in light of the noise intrusions from both inside and outside the car. The second way I used the S1, and the reason why I bought it, was to use the A2DP function with my Palm Centro phone which is able to stream any audio to the S1 with a 3rd party software program. The S1 paired easily and quickly with the Centro and I was able to listen to many podcasts, Internet radio stations, MP3 songs etc. The sound is quite acceptable for what the S1 is: a mono bluetooth speakerphone. I read many other reviews both here and other tech blogs about the S1 and I realized that those reviewers who are expecting stereo sound from ONE speaker, non-bluetooth artifacts from a BLUETOOTH product or better package contents from a $60 mid level bluetooth device are people who can never be satisfied with any product. I bought the S1 knowing that its function was to provide a reliable, transportable "loud enough to work" mono speakerphone addition/compliment to the bluetooth and cool to use A2DP functions of my phone. It's not meant to replace my expensive hi-fi set up in the car nor replace wired headsets that have obvious loudness and clarity caller/listener attributes that no bluetooth mono speakerphone could ever match. The S1 simply is an excellent value that does its job as well as other more highly expensive bluetooth mono speakerphones.

My experience has been up and down. I like the concept and when it pairs with my phone automatically it works great. The quality and clarity is very good. The issue I have had so far is getting it to pair with my phone consistently when I enter the car. I have set up everything properly so I know it is not a user problem. Once I figure out how to solve that problem I will be very satisfied

This is a very good product, the only things that would make it better would be a little more volume, and the battery life is a little suspect, If you listen to pod-casts thru it from your phone like i do it only lasts about 8 hours, not the time listed. The volume is a different story, it is barely acceptable if your sitting still or just cruising at a slow speed, but it's almost inaudible on the freeway. I have to take it off the visor and hold it closer to me to hear. I drive an 08 Ford F-150 and I always have the windows up with the AC on so I can't blame wind noise. Other then those 2 items it's a great device.

I received the BlueAnt S1 for Christmas 2009. At first it worked great, but after about 6 months everyone was complaining that I sounded like I was far away and they could hear a lot of echoing. It was so bad when I would talk to my Dad he would tell me to turn it off or hang up the phone. He's not old either, so it's not his hearing. All my friends and family had a very difficult time hearing me. Plus, the crappy visor clip broke and to get a new clip is $9 plus $10 shipping. Total waste of money, don't waste your time!

This device works great as long as you keep your head pointing at the device. If you start talking away from it there there is an issue with it picking up your voice. The multi phone connection seems to have an issue with making the voices sound odd, but that could be just from the phones that I am using, the blackberry has many weird quirks like that. Overall I'm very happy with the product and would definately purchase from this company again.

You can't understand anything on the one I got. I gave it to the wife to try for a week after she complained about my audio quality. She was correct. It was always the robot garbled voice that came through. Go another route. I do have a Blue Ant Z1 headset which works great.

This is a very good product. I like the fact that I don't have to reconnect it everytime I get into the truck; it connects itself when it finds the phone within range. The sound quality is not super but it is well within the my range of exceptabily. The one thing that I would like to see added is the ability to make a voice call with out having to touch the unit; ie say call jane. The auto answer option is a great idea and works just fine. On the whole it rates 4 out of 5 stars.

I tried a bluetooth device and just couldn't tolerate the thing stuck in my ear. Since I only needed something for the car, I decided to give the BluAnt a try. It took a while to get it linked to both my work and personal phones, but once I did (I actually had to read and follow the directions - go figure!) it worked great. The only issue I have is that if you don't hold the power button long enough to turn it off (5 seconds), it redials the last number you called (3 seconds). I feel much safer using this device than trying to drive and hold a cell phone at the same time!