Customer Reviews

Jabra SP100 Bluetooth Speakerphone

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

When I first tried this speakerphone, I was in a quiet room. It worked great. I couldn't wait to try it in my car. The next day, in my car, it couldn't seem to understand my voice dialing commands. I finally tried dialing directly from the phone itself. I could hear the person on the other end fine, but she said she could barely hear me through all the static. Later I tried it with the car sitting still and the engine off. It worked ok then, but as soon as I started the car, it got drowned in static again. The same thing happened in my office where there are a couple of PCs running. The ambient noise made it impossible to use. Now neither my car nor the office are very loud places, but the minor ambient noise seems to be too much for this speakerphone to handle. And the static renders voice commands useless, as the phone cannot understand what you're saying through all the static. When I called the vendor for a return authorization, she told me they'd had several of these returned for the same reason, so I don't think mine was just a faulty device. There seems to be a serious design flaw here. I'm surprised at that, because my Jabra BT250 works perfectly.

Problems connecting with phone to start. Once connected - sound quality on both ends was horrible. Stay away from this product. Gonna try the Motorola version next.

This speakerphone is crap!!! Too bad I can't give it 0 stars. The voice quality is so bad, that the person that you're talking to can't understand anything... so buy it and trow it away like 2 days later when you realize it's no good!

I bought 3 of these on clearance as gifts thinking it was a great deal. I was too embarrased to give them. I kept one for myself - and have learned to suffer through it. The included batteries wouldn't take a charge, the speaker consistently quits (speaky, but no heary). can't get the light to quit flashing as instructed. I hope the newer version actually works!

Folks, I'm sorry to say this is not a category where you can expect to get a decent piece for cheap...at least not this Jabra.

The design is attractive, and HUGE kudos to Jabra for the inclusion of both AC and car chargers (YAY!!!!!!!!)...but it just doesn't work well at all. It's totally simplex, so it's like being on a two-way radio...only one side can speak at a time. On a desk, it's annoying. In a car, it's totally unusable.

I know this item is tempting, because Jabra usually builds really good stuff and the price of this is half as much as its nearest competitor...but its performance is completely inadequate. Suck it up and spend the extra bucks on the Motorola HF820. It's VERY much worth it. The Motorola is ADEQUATE for the job; this one just doesn't cut it.

Maybe the SP500 will live up to Jabra's excellent reputation, but for now I'm happy with my HF820.

I concur with the previous review. It's a half-duplex speakerphone that cuts out the other end at the slightest ambient noise. There is no way to adjust senstivity. Totally useless in a car. I spoke to Jabra tech support, who basically agreed.

In a quiet environment like my home, it works quite well with Skype. My folks claim to hear my loud and clear. I would have given it at least 4 stars but for other problems. I have not tried it in a car with a mobile phone.

The unit as it arrived, would not turn on or charge up. The green light kept flashing. Strangely, this charging light is located under the microphone instead of at a more prominent location. I guessed what the problem was - many battery charging circuits refuse to charge up completely dead batteries (zero volts on them). I took the batteries out, manually charged them and finally got the thing working. It later turned out that one of the rechargeable batteries would hardly hold any charge - defective from the start - but instead of dealing with tech support, simply replaced with with other ones I had lying around. An irritating thing is that the device does not work on mains power unless the batteries can be charged inside. If the charging circuit sees an error, the entire device stops working.

Now onto the second problem - One day I dropped the device onto the carpet. It stopped working - plugged it it - and the batteries would not take charge. Curious, I first opened up the battery compartment and the battery immediately fell out. It turns out the mild drop had bent and flattened the leaf spring holding the battery in place. If they had used a traditional coiled spring as the negative terminal, this would not have happened. While I managed to bend the leaf spring back in place, the metal now has enough stress that it will break on the next drop. Very stupid design.
Jabra seems to have lost its way a bit - a headset I own is just going great - after a year! (see my other reviews)

This product is worthless, you can hear the incoming call fine but they cannot listen to you. It's pretty frustrating trying to have a conversation using this. Save your money and buy something else that works.

The microphone is very bad, they never listen to me, when I speak.

I feel deceived.

I can recommend this for the current price of under $40. Perhaps I've been lucky, but I've had no complaints from the people I've called. I don't use it a lot, just for conference calls in a home/office situation, and a short call home from the car. Some things I've found:
- I have it paired with a Sprint Samsung A900, which seems to work well including voice dial.
- It will work a lot better if the unit is no more than 12 inches from you in home/office, and 6 inches in the car (basically it has to be on the driver sun visor).
- It is not very loud, and will probably not work in a lot of older cars due to the background noise. It becomes much more difficult to hear on the freeway. It works fine in my 2005 Subaru Legacy, which is a fairly quiet car.
- Batteries are standard AA NiMH rechargeables that you can replace.
- There are transmission sources (cell towers?) you can drive by that will cause the unit to start making a tone as if there is an incoming call - every day this happens to me on the same patch of road. When this happens you have to power cycle the unit to reset it.
- The flashing blue LED indicating it is active is annoying at night - but you can turn it off by holding down a button.

In summary it works great for the short call home on from the office while I'm still on surface streets - much better than fumbling with a headphone and wires. But if you are a heavy duty freeway user, then this is probably not the solution for you.