Blueant V1 Review

This headset is really interesting, especially for motorcycle riders such as myself. While talking on the phone while riding isn't something I would recommend, sometimes you do need to take or make a phone call. With protective gear like helmet and gloves, a wireless headset that offers truly hands-free operation like this could be a godsend. I wonder if it can be 100% hands free with a Windows Mobile 6 phone's voice command (i.e. Treo Pro/800w)?

I have the Jawbone 2, and I for one don't find it comfortable. I tried all of the included combos of ear pieces and rubber connectors, but nothing fits well. I finally bought a set of Jabra clear gel addons for the earpiece, and now I can wear it all day without the wired connector on top of the ear. Still, when spending this much money for something like this, one shouldn't have to modify it to get it to work. Search amazon.com and you'll find that lots of others have complaints with the fit. It does have great sound and functions well, beyond the fit complaint.

That being said, this BlueAnt headset looks like it would be pretty comfortable. If I were in the market right now, I'd give it a whirl.

Check out the NX6000, be curious to hear your comparison wrt/noise cancellation

Would this work for voice dialing on the Palm-based Treos and Centro? Has anyone actually tried?

That's the biggest annoyance with the 750p and Centro--that they don't support voice dialing.

If you can't answer a phone without ring-through technology, is there a button on the headset to allow calls to be answered?

Good Grief! If the writer finds mastering this headset "complex" and the learning curve "steep," s/he must not own a Treo nor use a PC. Sheesh...

I tried this headset and it wouldn't work with my new Treo Pro. It pairs but I could only hear the voice commands and not the calls. Palm said it is not compatible and they only support the headsets that are listed on their website. BlueAnt said it may be fixed with a future firmware upgrade but there is no upgrade yet.

By the way, the "Comply Foam Tips" are the only ones that I really liked but these have only a 3 month warranty compared to the 2 years warryanty for the device.

@Janknitz - the BlueAnt V1 works perfectly well with all Palm OS Treo and Centro smartphones as well as Windows Mobile Treos such as my current Treo Pro.

Literally the only function that doesn't currently work (BlueAnt is actively working on a fix) is the "Voice Answer" command (say... "answer" to pick up an incoming call) but you can easily disable this function while enabling all others. Naturally you can simply answer a call by pressing the main V1 button on the headset instead.

Additionally, please note that all the Voice Command functionality of the BlueAnt V1 is built directly into the headset and is completely independent of your smartphone.

@Kevin - I personally feel that investing the time to master a smartphone such as a Treo or Centro has a rather superior "return on investment" than doing the same for a simple BT headset. I'm happy for some things in my life to be a bit complex but I expect others to be as simple as possible...

@Jaime - I tested the V1 with my Treo Pro and found virtually no problems at all (to the exception of the incoming calls that I mention above) so I'm rather surprised to hear of your experience. If you still have the V1 I would suggest deleting its Bluetooth profile on your Treo Pro, resetting the V1 (via voice command) and then re-pairing it with your smartphone.

Cheers, A.

Andrew -- I've reset both the V1 (via voice command) and the Treo Pro several times but still didn't work. Voice command works, it pairs to the phone but the call doesn't come through. I was able to pair the V1 with a Palm Centro without problems. The problem may be with my Treo Pro. I'll test it with another bluetooth headset.

My speed dial on my Treo 700wx only works for the first one 1-voicemail. I have the speed dial set to 2 for home but the V1 is not able to activate it.

I had the original jawbone. What a waste. That's why I bought the V1. I'm much happier. I bought it twice (I lost the first one).

I used Palm phones for 10 years and just "migrated" to the Blackberry Storm, pairing it with the Blue Ant V1.

No going back. The two together are an awesome combination and renders any Treo completely antiquated, by comparison. There is only ONE thing I am missing, and that is the ability to input contacts from my address book directly into an appointment. Oh, and yes, there is no Pocket Express yet for the Storm.

Other than that, I would highly recommend making the move.

Here is the review I sent my Best Buy salesperson on both, because he asked me to do so....And I don't agree with this review above that you have to be an engineer... quite the contrary. All you have to do is push the ant and ask "what can I say?"

______________________________________________

It didn't take me long to love and want to give you a review of this Blue Ant V1. That's especially cool since I wasn't digging the Jawbone at all--even when it did work right.

The Blue Ant kicks the hell out to the Jawbone, in my opinion. The voice commands make this thing amazing. Not only can I use the 10 speed dials in the device (including free Google Directory Assistance by simply saying "Goog-411") set up with the device, I can simply say Phone Commands and then access the Storm's (my) contact database. But one HUGE plus is that the Blue Ant announces the number of the caller in my ear, so I don't even have to look at the Blackberry to see who is calling. And then it asks me: "Answer or ignore?" I say what I want to do, and that's it. There's more on the voice control, including the fact that you don't have to memorize the cryptic commands of the Jawbone, but just some of the features mentioned above are enough to give it a major advantage over any other headset available now.

Pairing was more than easy with the voice commands. It practically did the whole thing automatically.

The Blue Ant has a higher quality feel than the Jawbone II (and is smaller--the original Jawbone looked better in my opinion), including the way you connect it to the charger, and it includes the car adapter. It's also more comfortable. The reviews I read indicated the Blue Ant comes close to the Jawbone in sound quality (and I made a few calls tonight and everyone sounded fine, and said I sounded great), but its battery lasts longer.

And my only gripe was the flashing blue LED ant logo while in standby mode, and lo and behold, there's a voice command "LED LIGHT OFF".... perfect!

NO CONTEST. I love this thing,, and it makes me not hate the idea of having that thing in my ear, since it's so practical. I hope I love the second one I'll have to get when I lose this one!!!!

OK, my short review of the Storm. I would not recommend it for a power Emailer/texter. Even with the trick of putting a business card behind the battery, which shortens the travel of the clickscreen and makes it easier to type (discovered on Blackberry forums), it's still hard to type fast AND accurately. Other than that, I love it. And once they have more apps and update the software, it'll be fantastic. I've read the many people's comments after the installed the beta version of the software update, and they say there are many speed improvements. I am waiting for the real version. The music sounds great--and I like the interface. I put about 1500 songs on it and still have almost 2 gigs of space left (on the card). Pictures look great that I transferred from my desktop files, although the camera is slow and those pictures aren't fantastic (I tried to capture some amazing sunsets but it wouldn't get the colors... very muted), but good for a phone, I guess. It's very easy to take stills or video and send them on the fly though... same thing with sending websites to people.

It's not really great in the pocket. If you have the beeps on, it beeps continually because the screen keeps getting pushed in. I got a holster, which I just can't love or get used to, so I am back to the pocket.. I turned off the beeps but I wonder if I am using the battery up with all the clicking that must be going on in my pocket. And the side buttons aren't rigid enough. They click too easily. Battery life just barely gets me through a day, and that's when I am not even on the phone a lot. So you need the car charger, for sure.

I do love the feel and the quality overall though.

It synched my contacts and appts from the Palm over fine, but now I have a quandary as I will have duplicate contacts galore if I then synch it with Outlook. So I am slowly updating manually, adding the Email addresses I have in Outlook to the contacts I had in the Palm program, which didn't have Email addresses.

All in all, it's not good for an internet addict like me. Way too connected now, especially with my Asus Netbook (not to mention my desktop). But I'll learn to moderate after the novelty wears off, I am sure (I think.).

I am having the same issues as Wally except I have the 700P. Speed dial 1 and speed dial goog411 work but speed dial functions, home, work, #6,7..etc, don't work.

Just been on the phone with BlueAnt and they swear my phone is the problem and I don't have the latest software (they're wrong - checked with Palm and Verizon on my 700p). Nothing like denile.

You cannot, as far as I can tell, set the 700p to Speed Dial by number. You can assign the corresponding QWERTY letter (R=2, T=3), but the V1 doesn't recognize/interface this with the Palm. Thus, the Voice Control Speed dial doesn't work, other than for the preset Voicemail. I also cannot get the V1 to manually accept inbound calls (per the instruction manual) to the speed dial function since the Palm doesn't recognize the call as active until you answer, per customer support.

I also cannot get the phone to answer by voice command, apparently due to the same issue. The caller ID doesn't always announce the number correctly either, even though it's showing on my phone correctly.

Otherwise, the headset has excellent sound and reasonably comfortable fit. It can still be used by pushing the button on the handset, so I'll end up keeping it for sound and comfort in the event I upgrade to a different phone down the road where it's better compatible.

Any Verizon 700p users that have better experiences, please let me know your work-around. BlueAnt apparently can't help.

Do not like the blue ant v1 at all. I am on my second one (they replaced first one under warranty with no hassles) and still have the same problems. I can hear fine but callers can hardly hear me and say my voice is all garbled. I have used it on three different phones with same results. I am currently using it on LG Dare. I love all the features but it is absolutely unusable. Had same problem with z9.

I have had the V1 for a week now and it is by far the best headset I have owned. I work as a paramedic on an ambulance so I have to make calls for doctors orders on certain medications. Sometimes we may be running lights and siren to the hospital. With other headsets, they could barely hear me. I called yesterday on a run and they couldn't even tell I was in the ambulance. I also have to turn the volume down on this headset where on others I could barely hear. This headset is definately worth the money.

I just purchased the BlueAnt V1 for my Sprint Treo 755p and it works extremely well. The V1 will answer the 755p by voice command and I do hear the voice caller ID just fine.

I primarily bought this because driving a 1979 VW Bus 4-speed leaves me without a free hand to use my cell.

The Bus is very noisy inside and no one has any problem hearing me at all. The noise cancelling works very well.

The V1 is almost weightless, well fitting and comfortable. You forget you have it stuck in your ear. It paired right up and I have had no issues at all. It does sometimes screw up on the voice commands if I mumble a bit but if I speak clearly the Voice Commands all work correctly.

I really like the "Tie Clip" and it does stay on my shirt as I walk around the office all day.

The only major compliant is with the Treo. As with other posters here, I can only do a Blue Tooth Voice dial for Voicemail. I do not understand why that should work and the 2-9 Speed Dial positions do not.

Reports say the Treo 755p does not work at all with BT dialing but it sure does with Voice Mail (1). On the 755p, the voice mail Speed Dial is hard coded and cannot be changed. I figured I could at least change Speed Dial 1 for my home or office.

BTW, if you want to try to enter a number instead of a letter in the Speed Dial Quick Key, simply press the MENU KEY on the 755p (The Menu Key is located in the bottom right hand corner of the 755p keyboard).

You will get a Menu and choose Keyboard. You can then enter any single digit number into the Quick Key field.

I know the V1 works with the IPHONE and it also should work with the Palm Pre if it ever gets released. Nothing like announcing the worlds greatest phone while you have many thousands of old Treo's still to be sold. Sprint must have had Osbourne Disease when they did this.

If anyone figures a way to get Speed Dial 2-9 working, please email me at [email protected].

Thanks for the great review. With the BlueAnt V1 is there a way to start and / or control Windows Mobile 6 applications on a Treo Pro, like I presently can do using my Palm Bluetooth headset with the Windows 6 Voice program? (e.g. "Start Google Maps"; "Play music"; "Next Track"; etc.)