Cruising with the Bluetooth
Over here, we have regulations that don't allow us to use cellphones while driving. Thus, you need a headset or something of the like to use your phone if it rings... unless you pull over to take the call. Yeah, right.
I once ordered a cheap Motorola (knockoff?) ear piece from eBay and it was absolutely the worst experience ever. The fact that you have to remember to put something that does not fit well in your ear is an absolutely ridiculous concept except if you are one of those people that walk around will the ear piece in your ear all-day. To you, I say, how do you do it?? I guess you have to be pretty important to have to do this, which, in any event, I am not!
Anyways, I put on my Christmas list to have a hands-free speakerphone. Luckily enough, my girlfriend picked
me and decided to get it for me. So here are my thoughts on the Jabra Cruiser
. First, it looks very sleek and it's very thin. There are four status lights in the front of the unit. Buttons include on/off, volume up/down, FM emitter, play/pause/stop, track forward, track backwards and finally, but not least, the answer button. The device comes with a cigarette lighter plug with a USB port and a USB-to-MicroUSB cable which I was very happy to see as I will be able to use this to charge my phone too.
For a while, I must admit that the "play" button was the "answer" button! I was a bit frustrated because it always started my music player! Then I did what any good tech person does : I read the manual! It turns out the answer button is the whole front part of the unit where the lights are located. Which makes sense. It's better to have a general are than a small button. the other thing worth noticing is that the metal wiring that clips to the visor is the antenna. I suggest not breaking that part!!
A neat feature of this model is that is can connect to 2 phones at the same time. Which means that if me and my girlfriend are in the car, whether her phone or mine ring, the call is routed to the device.
I ran into a couple issues. The first was that after syncing my Galaxy S, people said that although this thing has dual-microphones for noise cancellation, they could barely hear me but I could hear them loud and clear. I contacted support and they suggested I turned off my phone, pulled the battery for 30 seconds and do a factory reset on the Jabra (hold volume up/Answer/FM) and re-sync the Bluetooth. Apparently it seems to have fixed the problem and I must say that I was happy with customer support's assistance. My girlfriend's phone has not issue in that regards.
The second issue is that the device does not connect automatically to my phone all the time. The Jabra goes to sleep if not connected to anything for 10 minutes. When I get in my car, all I should have to do is click the Answer button to wake it up and have it connected automatically. This does not always work. Sometimes, I have to power off the device and power it back on and then it connects automatically.
Feature-wise, everything else works great. The FM emitter does a good job of transmitting audio to the car for both calls and music (though this is a feature I don't use much). The speaker is plenty loud, I can't use it at full sound, it's too loud! Also, the battery life on this device is ridiculously good. I have charged it the day after Christmas and I have yet to charge it again (as of Jan 14th). It is true that we make light use of it, but they boast 30 days of standby (I think) and that seems to be accurate.
So there you have it, I recommend this device although I'll have a better idea after using it for a bit longer. Also, I see that the Cruiser2 (shown left) is now out. It seems to have pretty much the same functionality but I like the new button layout especially for volume up/down.
I once ordered a cheap Motorola (knockoff?) ear piece from eBay and it was absolutely the worst experience ever. The fact that you have to remember to put something that does not fit well in your ear is an absolutely ridiculous concept except if you are one of those people that walk around will the ear piece in your ear all-day. To you, I say, how do you do it?? I guess you have to be pretty important to have to do this, which, in any event, I am not!
Anyways, I put on my Christmas list to have a hands-free speakerphone. Luckily enough, my girlfriend picked
me and decided to get it for me. So here are my thoughts on the Jabra Cruiser. First, it looks very sleek and it's very thin. There are four status lights in the front of the unit. Buttons include on/off, volume up/down, FM emitter, play/pause/stop, track forward, track backwards and finally, but not least, the answer button. The device comes with a cigarette lighter plug with a USB port and a USB-to-MicroUSB cable which I was very happy to see as I will be able to use this to charge my phone too.For a while, I must admit that the "play" button was the "answer" button! I was a bit frustrated because it always started my music player! Then I did what any good tech person does : I read the manual! It turns out the answer button is the whole front part of the unit where the lights are located. Which makes sense. It's better to have a general are than a small button. the other thing worth noticing is that the metal wiring that clips to the visor is the antenna. I suggest not breaking that part!!
A neat feature of this model is that is can connect to 2 phones at the same time. Which means that if me and my girlfriend are in the car, whether her phone or mine ring, the call is routed to the device.
I ran into a couple issues. The first was that after syncing my Galaxy S, people said that although this thing has dual-microphones for noise cancellation, they could barely hear me but I could hear them loud and clear. I contacted support and they suggested I turned off my phone, pulled the battery for 30 seconds and do a factory reset on the Jabra (hold volume up/Answer/FM) and re-sync the Bluetooth. Apparently it seems to have fixed the problem and I must say that I was happy with customer support's assistance. My girlfriend's phone has not issue in that regards.
The second issue is that the device does not connect automatically to my phone all the time. The Jabra goes to sleep if not connected to anything for 10 minutes. When I get in my car, all I should have to do is click the Answer button to wake it up and have it connected automatically. This does not always work. Sometimes, I have to power off the device and power it back on and then it connects automatically.
Feature-wise, everything else works great. The FM emitter does a good job of transmitting audio to the car for both calls and music (though this is a feature I don't use much). The speaker is plenty loud, I can't use it at full sound, it's too loud! Also, the battery life on this device is ridiculously good. I have charged it the day after Christmas and I have yet to charge it again (as of Jan 14th). It is true that we make light use of it, but they boast 30 days of standby (I think) and that seems to be accurate.
So there you have it, I recommend this device although I'll have a better idea after using it for a bit longer. Also, I see that the Cruiser2 (shown left) is now out. It seems to have pretty much the same functionality but I like the new button layout especially for volume up/down.
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