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BlueAnt S1 Bluetooth Speakerphone Review
August 17, 2009, 8:34 PM by ROB
Posted in BLUETOOTH, REVIEWS, MOBILE | 1328 views
I was totally impressed with BlueAnt's Q1 headset and decided I'd give their S1 speakerphone a try. I'd tried Bluetooth speakerphones in the past with marginal success; I have a very noisy Jeep Cherokee, so midrange products like the SurfaceSound Compact from Contour Design and one of Tenqa's early speakerphones—while great for light use—don't perform well enough in the harsh environment of my 1998 Cherokee.
When I first took the S1 for a ride down the Interstate, I feared the worst—it seemed difficult to hear my callers on the other end of the conversation. Once I got off of the highway and onto city streets, my calls sounded spectacular; the people I was speaking to said I sounded clearer than on my usual headset.
That being said, living in a metro area, I do spend the majority of my commute on the Beltline and that means a lot of Interstate driving.
What's Hot: When I can hear it, call quality is awesome. I've got pretty sensitive hearing, and low-quality speakers on phones and headsets frequently hurt my ears. Even though I'm still pumping phone-quality audio through the speakers, it somehow sounds more like I'm speaking with someone else in the room rather than over a phone. The audio is also louder than any other Bluetooth speakerphone I've used (though not quite loud enough for my vehicle—see above).
The design is nice and the device feels solid. Its visor clip is detatchable to protect it from breakage in case something catches the speakerphone.
Another cool feature is A2DP Stereo Bluetooth for streaming audio. Outside of the car, the S1 has found itself serving as a portable speaker for pumping music from my iPhone.
Like the Q1, the S1 supports multipoint connectivity, but I didn't have a chance to play with the feature.
What's Not: Apart from the volume issue (which is only relevant to people with noisy vehicles like mine), the only complaint I have of the device is how the buttons work for making and placing calls. The "Call" button doubles as the on/off button, so on more than one occasion, I found myself accidentally redialing my phone rather than turning the speakerphone off.
The S1 does have voice answering features and voice dial capability, but I didn't have the opportunity to receive a call with voice and my iPhone doesn't support voice dial.
The Bottom Line: While it's not quite perfect for me thanks to my noisy Jeep, the S1 is the closest Bluetooth speakerphone I've found to being adequate for my needs. Coming in at around $60, it's a great value for the money compared to other models in the same price range.
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