Parrot Minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone Review

New Minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone From Parrot Offers Superb Design + Unique Features Such As Flat Panel HiFi Speaker (NXT Technology)

I’m not sure why but lately I’ve becoming acutely annoyed at people who drive with one hand while holding their phone in the other – particularly when one of these people happens to be my girlfriend…

At first I tried to convince her to go handsfree with a Bluetooth Headset such as my favourite Jabra BT530 (see my review) but she didn’t seem to warm to this idea so instead I went out and got her the new Parrot Minikit Slim Bluetooth Speakerphone which I thought would be an ideal solution to get her to swith to handsfree talking while driving.

Leaving aside any specifications for now, the primary reason that I chose the Parrot Minikit Slim is that it is without a doubt the most beautiful Bluetooth speakerphone available on the market today – one that she would not dismiss with the words “I’m not putting that ugly thing in _my_ car!”.  Thankfully upon opening the box I knew that I had found a winner.

The Parrot Minikit Slim is not only rather gorgeous thanks to its rubberized black coating and silver accents, elegant curves, simple buttons (only three are required to operate the device) but also its small size (only 110 x 60 x 29mm), very slim profile and ultralight body (only 83 grams).

The fact that the Parrot Minikit Slim is beautiful on the outside is naturally only part of the equation and you’ll be glad to hear that the specifications are also quite stunning.  For starters, the unit benefits from a full Flat Panel HiFi Speaker (basically the entire rubberized black front is a speaker) which offers great volume and does not have any ribs or openings of any kind – further enhancing its elegant design.

Virtually the only things that I’m not too happy about are the backlighting (Green & Red) of the two main buttons which are extremely hard to distinguish in plain daylight plus also the fact that the drum sounds when turning the unit On or Off are a bit confusing (it would be much better if the unit could just use its text to speech to say “Power On” or “Power Off”).

Then there’s also the automatic synchronization with your smartphone phonebook, a multi-user (up to 5 paired devices) independent voice recognition, vocal synthesis of your phonebook (text to speech), voice tags (up to 150), announced caller ID (if contact or voice tag exists in Minikit phonebook), noise reduction and echo cancellation, high-sensitivity multi-directional built-in microphone, full duplex conversations and a high-capacity built-in battery that delivers up to 10 hours of talk time and 20 days standby.

Finally, the Parrot Minikit Slim also conveniently includes both a car charger and USB charger to ensure that the unit is always fully powered in the car, at home or at work.

Overall, if you don’t want or don’t like to use a Bluetooth Headset but still would prefer to have a handsfree solution when driving (or at the office for conference calling) then at the moment I cannot think of a better choice than this new Parrot Minikit Bluetooth Speakerphone – it’s gorgeous, delivers great sound and volume and has some absolutely terrific specifications.

Treonauts always have something new…