I own the newer Motorola Roadster and the slightly older Motorola T505. So it made sense to do a head-to-head comparison to see which unit is better.
Design: Both units are compact. The Roadster's layout is somewhat more appealing to my eye. The Roadster's controls are labeled and easy to find. They are also illuminated. The T505's controls are not as well labeled or illuminated, but it is easy to use nonetheless.
The T505 has a reversible mounting clip, so it can work with cars like my Audi, which have sun visors that swing from front-to-rear rather than the usual rear-to-front. Roadster's mounting clip is not reversible, so I must mount it backwards in order to use it. Once the unit is mounted backwards, throw those easy-to-read labels and icons out the window. The T505 is made from plastic. So is the Roadster, but it also is partially covered by a nylon or poly cloth material that could prove to be less durable. While the Roadster features a more updated look, the lack of a reversible mounting clip gives a slight advantage to the T505, as the Roadster is hard to use when mounted backward.
Pairing. Both bluetooth units pair very easily, but the advantage goes to the Roadster, which announces that it is ready to pair and then does so quickly. Things couldn't be much easier then that. But the T505 is also easy to pair, just not quite as easy as Roadster. Also, the Roadster turns itself on when you enter the car, which is nice. The T505 must be turned on manually.
I paired both units with a newer Palm Pixi Plus and a slightly older Palm Treo 755p. While Roadster initially paired with this somewhat older 755p, after a couple of days it would no longer pair. I tried everything I could think of and got to pair eventually, but it later developed the same problem, dropping pairing and then refusing to pair. The T-505 paired and remained connected without issues. While the Roadster pairs easier than the T505, I had no issues with the T505 and I had several problems with Roadster's pairing. Advantage: T505.
Streaming Music: Both units can stream MP3s from your cell phone through your car stereo. When advancing from one track to the next, Roadster required me to hold down the advance button for much longer than I'd like to, creating a distraction while driving. A single touch on that key pauses the music but it must be held down for awhile to advance the track. I had to hold the button down to the point where it was annoying. Also, the advance takes longer than I'd like and is accompanied by a very loud beep and then a clicking sound. Also, with Roadster, I cannot revert to the previously played track. With the T505, I simply click on the right side button to advance and the left side button to go back. Changes from track to track only require a short touch, the change is immediate and it is not accompanied by the obnoxious beep tone or clicking noise. Advantage T505.
Speakerphone: The Roadster's built in speakerphone is louder and clearer than the T505's. If you are using the speakerphone and not streaming to FM stereo, the advantage goes to the Roadster.
Output to FM stereo: Both units have similar output strength to FM. It could be better but both units are much better than a Jabra unit that I tested earlier. I'd consider the output to FM on both units to be on the better side of acceptable. Roadster can select a specific FM frequency that you'd like for the unit to broadcast on each time. The T505 cannot do this. T505 will automatically scan for a frequency and you can select a preferred frequency, but it will generally select whatever it likes. I'd probably call this a draw, although I do prefer Roadster's frequency-selecting ability.
Call quality: I spoke with my mother on the Roadster first and then with the T505. I was driving a convertible with the top up. The car is not noisy but is slightly more so than a hardtop vehicle. The Roadster's microphone was so sensitive that it was picking up much of the background noise and forcing the duplex to me even when I wasn't speaking. That meant that I couldn't hear much of what mom said because Roadster picked up the road noise and shut off mom's conversation. The T505 didn't have this problem. Big advantage T505.
Incoming calls: When an incoming call arrives, both units announce the caller's name and number, if available. Roadster allows you to say "answer" or "ignore". With the T505, you simply tap the telephone icon to answer. Slight advantage Roadster.
Texting: It's my understanding that Roadster can read back texts and allow you to reply to them. I did not test this function, but assuming it works properly, it seems like that would be an attractive feature for someone who texts a lot. Advantage Roadster.
The Winner: Of the two units, I prefer the T505. It's less fussy than Roadster. While Roadster's pairing failed several times, the T505 was always rock solid. Music streaming track advances were much quicker and smoother on the T505. The microphone was way too sensitive on Roadster, although this might not be a problem for those with a very quiet car.
Both are decent units, but I'm using the T505 daily while Roadster sits in its box. Roadster isn't bad, but I can't give it more than 3 stars based on my experiences.
Before getting this I did quite a bit of searching on the web, and couldn't find anything that explains exactly how well this speakerphone works with iPhones. Several other reviews outline its main features, and a few mention that they use it with their iPhones but don't discuss the limitations of that mode, so what follows is intended just for those who hope to use it with an iPhone. (I've got the iPhone 3G, but I can't see any reason it would work differently with the iPhone 3GS or 4).
It's clearly designed for droid phones, and on those phones you can download the MotoSpeak app and have it read texts out loud and even allows you to compose texts hands free. Still, the basic and most essential functions appear to work with any Bluetooth enabled phone, and certainly with my iPhone 3G.
It hooks easily to the sun visor of the car, and the charger plugs into the cigarette lighter. It links easily with the iPhone, once you go into the settings and enable Bluetooth. After it's linked, the Roadster recognizes your phone, and turns itself on automatically, apparently triggered by the sound of an opening or closing car door. Once on, it speaks out loud that it recognizes your phone, and even says the name of the phone it's linked to. It also tells you whether it's fully charged or not.
If you receive a call, it tells you there's an incoming call and if your phone recognizes the caller it tells you who's calling. You can then say either "Answer" or "Ignore" and it will either pick up the call or drop it. You hear the call either through a speaker built in to the Roadster or you can set it up so it transmits directly to your car stereo through an unused FM frequency. The onboard microphone picks up your voice all you have to do is speak at an ordinary level and it works fine. My wife reported that it sounds just like it does when I'm calling her directly through the iPhone.
Pressing the call icon on the Roadster will redial your most recent call. Another feature built in to it is that you're supposed to be able to click on the dial tone button and speak a phone number but when I press that button the Roadster tells me that the feature is unsupported by my phone. It strikes me a bit odd that the Roadster can control my iPhone enough to dial the most recent call, but not to dial a different number, but that's the way it is.
You can also play music from your phone through the Roadster it sounds awful if you try to do it through the speaker on the Roadster, but when you've got it on the FM transmitting mode, and assuming you've got it set on a clear station the music sounds pretty decent, about as good as you'd get it from a decent but not perfect signal on a regular FM station. In my case I hook the iPhone directly to my stereo with a USB cable, so I wouldn't ever bother with this.
So what this is really useful for on my iPhone is answering calls hands free and in my case that's the main thing I wanted it for so it works pretty well for me. If you want to make phone calls a lot while driving, or want to receive and send text with voice commands, you'll need a different kind of phone, with Android 2.2 or higher. Having said that, those features would make this an excellent device for owners of Android phones; the more basic features still make it quite useful for iPhone users like me.
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I am really not sure what is up with the bad reviews(1 star). Regardless of the bad reviews, I still purchased the product and to be honest I think it is great. People seem to complain for absolutely no reason. Don't compare a device to another device. This is not a comparison review. The product delivers as advertised.
This is my first motorola product I purchased from amazon.
-Quick delivery +
-Easy pairing. What a breeze for any non techies out there. +
-Speaker phone works great. + Everyone I spoke to so far had no clue I was on speaker phone. Its loud too except if the volume is on full blast it can be slightly distorted. Simple fix(don't put it on full volume)
-FM transmitter works fine. + Here is where I don't get some of the reviews. What do you expect? Dolby Digital, THX certified sound coming out of your car speaker from this device? You don't even get that from your handheld phone. If you find a clear FM channel and play around a bit, it will come in fine. Not 100% clear but what do you expect? Its a FM transmitter people. I think its perfectly fine and once again, nobody said they heard anything strange on the other line.
-Synch multiple devices. + This was really cool. I had two cellphones in my car and the device knew to switch back and forth between the two when I hit a button on either phone. I remember my old BMW which had bluetooth couldn't do this. I had to manually switch back and forth. So annoying while driving. This device did it no problem.
-Not sure about battery life since i've only had for a week but its seems fine. It would have been nice using mini USB charger instead of some strange connector from motorola.
-Haven't tried motospeak(speech to text) yet sorry.
Only Con: The buttons on the device aren't the best. I hit a button and doesn't seem like i'm even hitting it. FM, +, buttons in particular. No big deal. You shouldn't have to hit buttons often anyway. I changed from 4 stars to 5 because this is just being too picky. If I could do 4.5 stars then I would but I can't so 5 stars it is.
If I were you, I would definitely purchase it. Its a sleek little device and not bad for under $80 bucks. Works like a charm. Don't listen to the rest of these people that gave 1 star reviews cause they are used to their old devices or are just whiners by nature. LOL. Works as advertised.
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Just got this a few days ago, but so far I am very impressed by it. Charged it up in the house and it immediately connected to my phone. I leave it on in the car and it immediately connects when I get in--even faster than the "built-in" bluetooth on our other car. The sound is good--people have no problem hearing or understanding me while I'm driving in the car, and I have no problem hearing callers. Love the voice commands--I can just say "answer" and don't have to reach up for the button to answer calls. It also automatically connected to my phone's contact list so it tells me who is calling if they are on the list--otherwise just the phone number--and I can say, "Call Roy" and it does it! Now that's real "hands free". So far the battery seems to last well. I've had it on in the car for 3 days and the battery is still "high" (I never turn it off). I don't use the FM connection, nor do I stream music from my phone through it, so can't comment on those functions. However, I can't imagine that this speaker could reproduce music as well as the car's sterio system. I bought it strictly as a Bluetooth speaker for my cell phone for hands free receiving and placing of calls and it is doing that beautifully!
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The Roadster is a lightweight unit roughly the size of a cellphone but molded to fit properly on an automobile sun visor. It comes with a car recharger and small instructional booklet. I unpacked mine and turned it on. It immediately "spoke" through the built-in speaker, indicating that its battery level was low and that it needed to be connected via Bluetooth to my cellphone. I have an iPhone 4; I turned that on and selected the Settings app so that I could set up the Bluetooth connection. Following the instructions I'd just heard on the Roadster, I accomplished that within a few seconds. The Roadster then indicated that it was connected to my iPhone, using my iPhone's personal name through the speaker.
The next day, I put the Roadster in my car, plugging it into the lighter socket to recharge the battery. A blue LED on the lighter plug indicates that power is being received and the unit announces that it is being charged. A little while later, I received a phone call. The ring tone that I'd normally hear on my phone came through on the Roadster's speaker and I was quickly able to answer the call. While driving on the highway with some interior noise in the car, the unit had excellent clarity and my caller indicated that he had no trouble understanding the conversation.
While I can send the Roadster's speaker output to the FM radio band instead, I rarely have the radio on and so have not used that function.
I left the car at the airport, leaving the Roadster turned on and unplugging the lighter plug, and taking my iPhone with me. Four days later, returning to the car, as I opened the door I heard the Roadster announce that it had detected my iPhone and was setting up the Bluetooth connection. This required no action on my part. Battery level was announced as being high, so clearly the unit had turned off appropriately during my and my phone's absence. I initiated a call this time and the input/output was automatically directed to the Roadster's mic/speaker setup without any additional action on my part.
As you've read in other reviews, the Roadster has other capabilities, such as streaming music, voice response to certain commands, and so forth. I haven't utilized these capabilities yet, but the strength of this product is in the straightforward and easy setup, the clarity of the speaker and microphone, and the ease and speed with which it links to the Bluetooth connection of my phone each time I return to the car. I've observed no errors or problems in this regard over the first 10 days of use and am looking forward to a long relationship between my phone and the Roadster.
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