 "Does what it is suppose to" | 2009-05-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: AZGFV6Q3VMJU |
| This is one of the best and easiest additions to any car or truck. I installed it in my 04 Liberty, and to avoid an issue with my car's amplifiers, I used a separate external speaker (crutchfield.com), all you need to know how to connect (after cutting 3 wires on the factory harness) is the 12v steady power, 12v Ignition power, and Ground, you then plug the external crutchfield speaker into the included harness and you have a fully functional Bluetooth car speakerphone, without the need to play with your radio (Also good if you want to listen to the radio on low while talking). Because this product does an excellent job of ambient noise reduction you can do that, and the other party only hears you, if the volume is reasonable of course. Overall, I would buy this again. The only issue, which anyone can avoid, is that the unit automatically tries to find the phone when on, and if you remote start, and the car is within 20-30 feet, the phone finds the car, but every phone can be set to avoid automatic pairing, I just find it really useful, I can leave the phone in my pocket and never need to think about it. |
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 "The good, the bad, the ugly" | 2009-05-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1UR2FSR2PPTXK |
The good:
Nice sounding unit, with decent pseudo-full-duplex ability (sorry, it's not real full duplex, most speakerphone technology is not due to the complexity of creating digital "hybrid" duplexing networks, but it's good none the less). Get the mic as close as possible to your head for maximum effectiveness.
Ergonomics are good, operation is intuitive and easy. Plumbing your handsfree kit through the car stereo is the only way to go, like this kit does. But that can involve a fair amount of wiring, so if there is a wiring harness available for your car, consider it money well spent.
Works well with my HTC Touch phone. Since using a touch screen phone while driving down the highway is the epitome of a Bad Idea, having the Touch play well with the Parrot is a nice thing.
The bad:
Works really badly with my LG UX8350 flip phone, to the point of not usable.
The Parrot incessantly beeps and continuously makes odd noises after one makes a call with this phone. I must shut off Bluetooth to make it shut up. Tried various suggestions from the Parrot tech support folk, with no improvement.
The ugly:
Updating the firmware in the Parrot is a maddening experience, combining the worst of Bluetooth, Windows, and voodoo magic. Version numbers of their firmware run bass-awkwards, so forget using any sort of logic to decide which firmware version you should be using. The dealer didn't have the appropriate cable to perform firmware updates, which struck me as both the logical way to perform an update as well as something basic a dealer just might have. This of course was precipitated by the problems with the UX8350, which culminated in Parrot's tech support telling me that I was LYING about implementing their recommendations (I'm not being hyperbolic here: they really did accuse me of not performing their very simple yet ineffective suggestions). Uh, okay. Didn't mean to offend the Parrot gods!
Summary:
Decent widget, assuming it works properly with your phone. Research on the web regarding your particular phone before purchasing. Buy from a dealer with a good return policy. Do not put up with any peculiar behavior; return ASAP to your dealer. It's not going to get better! |
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| "Works as described" | 2009-05-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2GPUSA8N0YCJD |
I installed this by my self (if you are bit technical is easy), took me about 4 hours all around. The system is working verry good in my 2007 Honda Accord with Navigation, if you have Navigation the installation is bit tricky but you'll get @.
People can hear me very clear and I like that all my stuff (CD, Navigation) are going silent when income call.
Easy to use, easy to connect with your phone (I have Nokia 6085)
Nice product! |
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 "Parrot CK3100 - Very Nice Product" | 2009-03-05 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3N3B7KH14SDCG |
This is a nice product. Got it in the Circuit City desaster at a good price.
I installed it in my 2000 VW Golf. I did not buy the harness to attach it to a Sony CDX serious car radio (another CC victim) so I had to soder the connections. Took a while to get all wiring plans (VW, Sony, Parrot - Crutchfield.com was great help)but I didn't mind the extra time. Getting the connections right was about 2 (very-careful-not-to- make-mistakes)hours.
Installation in the radio compartment of the Golf was a challenge (no room!!!) but after two hours I knew the inerts of my dash quite well. After the initial set up I needed to do some mic relocates (mic on visor - bad idea; mic on windshield - no comprende; mic on foot of instrument cluster - way to go!). And I found that the double-sided tape of the display doesn't work with the plastic interior of the Golf. It now resides on a good spot on the instrument cluster.
Pairing the Parrot to my LG VX 5500 took about 3 minutes - easy! The unit is set up for voice recognition, which works well as long as you remember how you pronounced a word during set up and turn the radio down when you want to make a call using this feature.
Conversations work fine, even at highway speed of 75. Unit mutes the radio and hangs up once the phone on the other end is off. Very nice.
One minus - not a big one and was to be expected: If one leaves the running car with the phone in the pocket and leave the Parrots range, it will get confused and does not reconnect once the bluetooth phone is back in range. Restart the unit (meaning - turn of the car and let the phone connect). Very nice little tool. |
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| "Well done" | 2009-02-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: AFD6F0BT5HK2I |
| Once you have this product it's very difficult to imagine driving without it. It works quite well. Installation can be a challenge if your car has a complex stereo system. I paid $80 for a special plug and play wiring harness and $80 to have it installed. Well worth it. |
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| "immature technology" | 2009-02-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2I5CTCGR221RU |
| I've had the CK3100 for a month now and it still bothers me that the basic ergonomics are not that good. There is no way to control the volume using your car stereo system, which I imagined would be available. Instead the 3100 has it's own amplifier with no hard controls and only rudimentary software control over volume - the system voice is usually way too loud with an ear splitting beep after the "say a command" message. And once you've cranked the callers volume all the way up via a 6 segment LED readout - that's it, too bad if the caller speaks quietly or there's a lot of road noise. No last call redial is also a pain. A basic intro to Bluetooth for the car, but that's it. Better for answering calls than making calls. |
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