I'll break this up into different sections to try to give you the best detailed review possible.DESIGN:
The Commute's design is solid. I have to admit it's a little bigger than I anticipated, but it puts out the sound to justify it. The volume buttons are, in fact, not buttons at all. Just slide your finger from left to right to turn it up, and right to left to turn it down. I kind of like that and kind of don't. I think I would have preferred buttons (it's easier to feel buttons without looking than figuring out if you're about to slide your finger at the right place) but I've figured out how to do it just fine. There's a place in the middle of the top of the Commute that launches the voice control, hangs up phone calls, among other things. Again, I would have preferred an actual button to know exactly where I'm pressing, but you get used to it.
The usb cord to charge it is rather short and the manual says it takes 3-4 hours to charge. Doesn't seem like I'll be charging it in the car. We just bring it in the house with us and charge it overnight
SOUND:
It really really sounds good. When using it in the car, the sound is amazing. Every word the caller says is crisp and clear. When talking with someone using it for instance when I'm at work calling my wife in the car it barely sounds like she's using a speakerphone. There is absolutely no background noise except when she's talking...then I just hear what sounds a little like wind, but it's really not much at all and doesn't bother me one bit.
I haven't tried to use it with the gps from my phone so I'm not sure how the voice navigation is. Nor have I listened to music with it. The one thing I will say is to make sure that your phone is not on vibrate...otherwise it does not alert you when you get a text.
EASE OF USE:
The Commute's integration with Siri is practically flawless...just say "Launch voice control" and Siri talks to you over the Commute. The only problem that I've had is that it sometimes says that handsfree is connected but it won't be ready to "listen" for my voice controls. Instead, I have to push the button in the middle. After I've done that once, handsfree mode works perfect from that point on.
Hanging up from a call is sometimes difficult. I'm sure once I get more time with it, I'll figure out all of the tricks, but I've just struggled with it so far.
SETUP:
Nothing could be easier...period! Connects with phone and loads contacts flawlessly.
CONCLUSION:
The only reasons I took 1 star off is because it's not always ready for handsfree use even though it says it is and the fact that I would have preferred regular buttons (again, that may just be my preference though). Other than that, this thing is a must for any man to buy for his wife to have in their car. My wife is really happy with it and the fact that she can text me back while driving gives me peace of mind that she is safer. Well done Blueant!
The sound output is good but the spoken "trigger" activation is sometimes set off by the car audio.
Although it took several minutes to upload my contacts Commute cannot make a call using them and must defer to Siri in my
iPhone. I can speak "phone commands" to activate Siri easily enough but other brands I have owned were more seamless.
Battery life is adequatecomparable to other models.
People receiving calls complain about the sound quality.
But the biggest complaint is the power on/off switchit seldom activates on the first try, and I have to cycle off and on again for the unit to power up.
Good unit, not a perfect unitthe Jabra units when new have been the best but they have proven to be very unreliable. So I am still looking for the right balance of quality, functions, and reliability...I ordered this based on reviews I read on Amazon. If my review was based solely on the call quality this product would've received the full 5 stars from me. The deduction in stars came from the fact the product does nothing it advertises to do. Pairing easily is about the only thing it claimed that was true. I have a Samsung SG3 and I used and tinkered around for about a week and I could never get this to read any of my texts which is one of the main reasons I purchased this unit over one of its competitors. With the exception of answering and making calls nothing else was hands free.
The other issue was the volume. I drive a Jeep Wrangler, so needless to say there is a lot of background noise. The noise never disturbed a call, in fact people I talked to said they never noticed the background noise. Some even went as far as to say they didn't realize I was on a speaker phone. As far as my end went, the volume on the incoming calls was fine, even on the freeway, and the calls were clearer than clear. The volume issues came when I was trying to stream from phone. I tried to listen to my Pandora and music I had stored on my phone with the same results, I struggled to hear anything. So as much as I like the call quality, after a week worth of use I had to return it to AmazonI have had the Blue Ant Commute for about 10 days.
It is amazing in all respects. Best part is how well the sound quality works in both directions. And the speech recognition works.
I highly recommend the Commute!
Alan
I use the Blueant Commute with my Galaxy S3 and decided to make a video to cover call quality as that is always my biggest concern with these items. Many of the faults with this item lie with the android voice dialer or S-Voice bluetooth interaction itself. The unfortunate need to hit the command button a few too many times is what knocks this off to 4 stars.
I neglected to show off how it plays music, but I will say for one speaker it does a serviceable job. It comes across as clear and loud as the Biueant voice in the video review.
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