Good looking handsfree kit, but needs improvement (Parrot Minikit Bluetooth Car Kit)

Member Name: jimothy

Product:	Parrot Minikit Bluetooth Car Kit
Date:	01/10/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple to use and good voice recognition technology

Disadvantages: Menu 'knob' control is not the best and build quality leaves a bit to be desired

I bought this car kit as it was easy to transfer it between my two cars - and, also, because it 'looks good'.

I was quite impressed with the ease of setting the device up and the ease that I had in transferring my contacts from my phone, via Bluetooth, to the device. You are able to name your contact and then specify whether the number that you're transferring is their home, work or mobile number. So when you make a call you're using the address book on the device to call your contacts by using voice recognition. To make a call, you press the green button and specify the contact's name and then specify the 'tag' that you have assigned to their number - be it 'home', 'work' or 'mobile'.

For those mobile phones that don't allow sending of contacts via Bluetooth, you can still use the device to connect to the voice recognition feature on your handset.

The call quality is good, the person that you speak to can hear you, although on a couple of occassions I was asked if I was in a swimming pool! I didn't have any issue with hearing the person who I was speaking to.

The downside of this device is that the knob, which controls the menu selection, is very sensitive - so, on occassion, I would find that when I was trying to set the volume, I accidentally changed the language which I wanted the device to recognise.

Also, on a few occassions, when I was getting out of my car, I would hit my head on the knob of the device (as the device doesn't sit very 'flush' onto the sun visor) - until one day the knob fell off completely. I could still use the device, but I was then unable to alter any of the menu settings.

I consequently gave up with the device when one day it stopped working. I thought that the battery had gone flat, so I recharged it fully, but the device wouldn't then switch on.

I had the device for about 6 months and I gave up with it and bought a different make and model with which I am more than happy (and it was cheaper than this Parrot device!).

On the whole, I would say that Parrot need to do a bit more work with this device in respects of reliability and, possibly, change the way that you can change the menu options - as the one 'knob' control isn't the easiest thing to use.

Summary: On looks alone this is a good device, but the functionality doesn't quite live up to expectations