- On-board volume, play settings, and phone controls|Built-in microphone with enhanced voice detection
- FM tuner with an Auto-seek feature to help find the clearest FM station
- Universal USB port lets you charge your Smartphone or MP3 Player while streaming
- Includes "line in" port and 3.5 aux. cable for connecting non-Bluetooth enabled devices
I love this thing, its not obtrusive, theres not a ton of excess wiring, just the gooseneck and if you want to charge it simultaneously you can just plug it into the usb port with the included 6 inch wire or use your own. The calls come in clear and great too, just as good as any bluetooth headset.
I highly recommend this if you dont have an auxiliary port in your car stereo, I was considering getting the gomadic one which is only 5 dollars cheapers, but has so much more wiring and the typical inconvenient control module built into the wiring. I'm really glad I got this one, I'm about to drive from DC to Portland and this thing will make the trip much more bearable and its not an eye sore in the car.I have been using this with an iPhone 4. The set up was very easy to connect via bluetooth. I made a phone call and the sound was fine. The person on the other end could hear me no problem. However, then I tried to play music. The sound quality is lacking HUGE when you play the music wirelessly through bluetooth. I am big into music and a musician so I know what sounds good, at least to some extent. There is almost no low end whatsoever playing through bluetooth. And the volume has to be very high on both my phone and car to hear it well. I thought I was going to have to return the product until I tried connecting my phone to the device with the audio cable. BIG difference in sound quality. Now the low end is there and the music is full. The sound quality is very high for a bluetooth device when using this method. However, in order to achieve this I had to disconnect my phone's bluetooth. Otherwise the device overrides the audio wire connection and plays the music wirelessly. The product is still new to me, so maybe I just haven't figured it out yet. But this means I can only listen to music or make and answer calls separately. Meaning, I have to manually connect and disconnect my phone's bluetooth to switch back and forth between music and making phone calls. This is definitely an inconvenience. However, my main purpose for purchasing this product was to listen to music in my car from my phone. Since my car does not have an audio jack this device gets the job done. There is minimal interference in the sound quality that only is heard in between songs, and the volume has to be pretty high. Also note that with the iPhone 4 the music controls on the device (play/pause, next/previous song) do not work. The answer and hang up buttons worked fine for making phone calls. So just be careful when purchasing this product. Make sure you know why you are buying it. I hope this helps you make the right decision for you.This product is an FM transmitter that connects to your Phone via bluetooth, and then transmits the audio to your car stereo through an FM signal. Just the same as other FM transmitters, but using bluetooth connection to your phone rather than a cord.
Setup:
I take a lot of trips up to Santa Barbara on the weekends and it's about 90 miles away. I use this with my Motorola Droid usually, but also with my friends' phones too. First you just plug the FLEXSMART X2 into the cigarette outlet in your car, and then press the power button. You see the LCD light up and you can adjust the FM station with the twisting knob. Just match the FM station on the FLEXSMART X2 and your car FM radio. To find the best station you can just hold down the twisting knob for a few seconds and it automatically finds a clear station for you. All you have to do to put the FLEXSMART X2 into pairing mode is hold the blue call button for a couple seconds, and then the lights start to flash. Then you go into your bluetooth settings on whatever phone you have and search for FLEXSMART X2 from the list. It usually connects in about 5 seconds. You here two beeps. One thing to notice is that when you want to disconnect one phone and connect a friend's, you have to unpair the 1st phone before connecting the 2nd one.
Sound for Music and Calls:
The sound quality for music seems to be very good. It's way less interference than other FM transmitters, I think it's possibly because there are no wires connecting the phone to the transmitter. Bluetooth music seems to be superior. One thing I did notice was a difference in my sound levels with the bass and treble. I just tweaked the bass and treble levels and got it sounding the way I like. Call quality is different. I can't figure it out...sometimes when I make or receive calls everything is perfect.. then sometimes the person I'm talking to says they can hear their voice echo in the background, BUT they sound fine to me??? It only happens maybe 1 out of 10 times.. but I can't figure out what causes it... maybe a bad cell phone signal I'm not sure. BUt for the most part calls sound good and I like how I can answer and end calls without ever toughing my phone
Controls:
You can answer and end calls by the controls on FLEXSMART X2, and you can even hold down the call button to call the same person you last talked to. The twisting knob is used for fm station tuning. Twsting it will change the FM station by 0.1 with each click. One cool feature is this Auto-Seek that finds clear stations for you. You just hold down the twisting knob and it zooms into a clear station...very cool. Also, the knob controls volume if you click it down just once. It seems like the best sound comes when you turn the FLEXMSART X2 volume up to 30, and then your car radio at about mid level(depending on how loud you like your music). I've noticed by turning up the volume on FLEXSMART X2 first the sound quality is really great. The play, forward and back buttons control your music. These controls worked great on most phones I've tried, but only the play and pause control worked on the iPhone 3GS we used.
Other cool things.....
I noticed that when you leave your phoen bluetooth on, FLEXSMART X2 automatically re-pairs it when you turn your car on. Thats pretty cool. It also comes with 3 usb cables which can charge iPods and almost any cell phone. It has a USB port on the side of it that you connect these cables to, so you could charge your phone or your friend's phone even though your cigarette outlet is being taken up.
The lights are also really cool at night. They go nice with my 2002 Volkswagen console lights. ALSO, you can use this just like any other FM transmitter if you have an iPod or something without bluetooth capability. It has a 3.5mm headphone cord jack and a two-way cable. It's cool that you can use it even with things(mp3 players / laptops) that don't have bluetooth capability.
What a cool product... for sure one of the coolest car audio products I've ever used...hahha and my friends like it too.Okay, so maybe everybody knows this, but this isn't just for the Android phone-it's compatible with the iPhone 4 as well. I wasn't sure of this (I've never really messed with bluetooth before) as they list the FlexSmart on here for the iPhone and the Android phone as separate products. The one listed for the iPhone is actually more money and is not Prime eligible, so I took a chance and just ordered this one. Success, it worked! So if there's anyone out there that's as silly as me wondering hey, will it work for both? The answer is YES. I have an iPhone 4 and my husband has the Samsung Galaxy (an Android phone), and we both connect to it with NO problems whatsoever.
The sound is super crisp. I've had an FM transmitter for my iPod before and not been impressed-it was static-y and wouldn't hold the signal. But this little gadget really knocked my socks off! Pairing it with 2 different phones was super easy, and the sound quality is terrific. My husband wants one for his truck now. :)
In the item pictures, it only shows the mini & micro USB and audio cords, but this comes with a little package of all the USB cords you'd need for charging if you're a multi-phone family like us (including iPhone/iPod cord). That is REALLY awesome because now I've got ONE device for bluetooth, charging and music! I can get rid of all those other cords! The cord plugs into the USB port and keeps my iPhone charged on long drives. :)
I also plugged my mom's iPhone 3G and my sister's iPhone 3GS into it, paired it using Bluetooth, and it worked flawlessly with those models as well.
I highly recommend this!!
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This my quick review, I'll use the given standardized attributes -Call Quality (4)
The quality is actually pretty good, but it wasn't 5 stars primarily because the voice volume is considerably lower than the music volume and this is with them set to be even on the phone, it's a big discrepancy in the two volume levels.
Compatibility (5)
Gave it a 5 for this because I tried it with a bunch of devices and it connected and worked NO PROBLEM! It re-pairs and reconnects effortlessly. It supports all the different pairing modes as advertised and paired with my Android phone I can control the music I play with the easy-to-use buttons.
Setup (5)
You don't have to be a Techie AT ALL to set this up in under 10 mins (and keep it setup). Pairing was easy, using was easy and intuitive. There is one little issue that I will mention at the end. What Is great is that they provide you ALL the cables you would ever need.
Sound Quality (4)
The sound quality is pretty okay, but not great.
Music Quality (4)
I gave this a 4 because the sound quality over bluetooth is noticeably less than when it is connected via cable (not too much of a surprise there). There's almost no bottom-end in the music over Bluetooth.
SUGGESTION to the manufacturers:
I really luv this product. There are two quick suggestions I have -
(1) Improve the quality of the music over Bluetooth (it needs to be able to carry bass).
(2) This next one is concerning the knob. It is very nice in every way, EXCEPT... I suggest to reverse the volume and tuning operations. When you turn the knob it changes the FM frequency (which is not something that you have to do much if at all)... HOWEVER, to adjust the volume (more frequently done) you have to first press the knob and then turn it to adjust. These need to be switched around.
If I discover anything else I will add more.
