- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 68 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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0 out of 1 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Nice Voice Control feature. BAD non-removable presets."
Pros: Good incoming/outgoing audio as used with an iPhone 3G. Standard Voice Isolation works well. Max Voice Isolation eliminates all but the most transient loud sounds. Voice activated commands work great, pre-recorded prompts are clear and intelligible.
Cons: Sadly, BlueAnt's pre-configured calling commands/positions limit the V1 from being a great fit with the iPhone 3G. None of the included earbuds provide good seal/fit. While the sound technology is cutting-edge, the earbud technology is outdated.
Summary: While the Voice Control features work really well, BlueAnt sadly chose to pre-populate the first five voice-activated speed dial positions with voicemail/home/office/favorite/GOOG-411... meaning you have to speak those very phrases to dial your first four iPhone calling favorites and the fifth GOOG-411 entry overrides your phone's fifth favorite and cannot be changed. The decision to configure the V1 presets this way seems like a marketing choice and not a well thought out engineering choice. Simply configuring Speed Dial 1, Speed Dial 2, Speed Dial 3, etc, would have been far more functional and adaptable for most users.
Obvious to U.S. iPhone owners is that they don't need the voicemail retrieval entry, since they have Visual Voicemail, and since they have Google Maps app and Google Search app they really don't need an unchangeable GOOG-411 overriding their 5th favorite entry. The iPhone has such a nicely accessible interface for phone number favorites, it's a shame to have them pushed out of the way by a BlueAnt/Google contractual agreement.
BlueAnt ought to provide a firmware update to move the GOOG-411 down to the 9th speed dial position and just add normal voice prompts for positions 1-8. I think users of all types of phones would be lot happier.
Two earhooks are included, one metal, one plastic, two sizes of rubber ear buds (highly flexible mushroom-shaped... the center stretching over a notched stem), and two expanding foam ear buds meant to fit directly into the outer ear canal. I didn't care for any of them. I found that the clear silicone ear gels that came with the Plantronics 925 fit the BlueAnt V1 nicely, and provided a far better seal/fit for my ears (the V1's plastic stem protrudes through the ear gel slightly... something I plan to cut off since I'll never use the BlueAnt buds).
The BlueAnt Button ('BAB') is hard to discern from the back surface of the V1 as lacks any raised lettering to provide tactile feedback. While the body of the headset looks to be ribbed, it is not. It's actually quite slick. Unfortunate given the small size. A textured surface would be actually help.
I like that the flashing blue standby mode status indicator is easily disabled, but don't like that it must be done every time the V1 is powered on. Thankfully, the status indicator doesn't flash during a call whether or not Standby flashing is defeated.
BlueAnt has some really good ideas and cutting-edge Voice Control technology, yet they blew it with execution, and seem to be relying too much on their technology's promise and not the other features required to make a headset good... the difference between a "must have" and "pretty good".
Where to buy
BlueAnt V1:
$69.99 - $99.99
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$69.99 | Yes |
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$84.88 | Yes |
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$99.99 | Yes |
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$69.99 | Yes |
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$79.99 | Yes |
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