BlueAnt Supertooth II review

The Supertooth II is basically a wireless speakerphone for your Bluetooth phone and not a true hands-free device. Its lack of native voice recognition means relying on your cell phone's voice dialing, which may not recognize words spoken through the Supertooth II's microphone. Styling is a little disappointing, but the large, simple controls make it easy to use when on the road. Pairing is simple and fast, and it can be done with two phones. Battery life is good, with a promised 20 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. The sound is decent but not as clean as we would have liked. There were a few minor quibbles, such as having to wait for the Supertooth II to ring before using it to accept a call, even though our cell phone had been ringing for several seconds. The street price is in the $110 to $140 range.

Larger than a cell phone
The Supertooth II is by no means a small device, especially for a cell phone accessory. Measuring 5.4 by 2.4 by 1 inches, it's two to three times larger than most of the phones it's likely to be paired with. The oversized controls and the large speaker also don't do anything to minimize the feeling of bulk, and when combined with the silver and matte-black finish, the unit has a bit of a toylike feel. However, the large volume knob and call-pickup button make it easy to use when driving.

The Supertooth II attaches to the sun visor with a clip that is held on by two strong magnets located on the back of the unit. As this unit is likely to be occasionally transported in the confines of a purse or a briefcase, we are a bit worried about how these magnets might affect any magnetically sensitive items such as credit cards, a BART ticket, or even a driver's license.

In keeping with the simple controls, there is no On button on the Supertooth II. Instead, there is a microphone arm, which also holds the call-answer button, and you can lift this to either a 55- or 210-degree position to activate the system; this also makes it easy to tell when the device is on or off. Also, the two microphone positions provide for driving with the sun visor either up or down. Unfortunately, with the visor down, the volume control and the call-reject button (located under the microphone arm) both become awkward to use.

Limited features
Although a bit short on features, the Supertooth II does sport a long-lasting lithium-ion battery, which should yield 20 hours of talk time or 800 hours of standby time and can be recharged in approximately 3 hours. Depending on the phone, the unit can be used in either hands-free or headset mode, as well as paired with two different phones but connected to only one at a time; this makes it easier to share.

Unfortunately, the Supertooth II has no built-in voice recognition, so we hesitate to call this a truly hands-free device. Since our Sony Ericsson T610's built-in voice recognition didn't work very well with the Supertooth II--the phone requires recording voice tags directly through the phone, so it doesn't seem to understand words spoken from a distance--we found ourselves using the keypad to make nearly all our outgoing calls. The kit also includes an earpiece for keeping conversations a bit more private, as well as an A/C adapter and a car charger.