Parrot Bluetooth Driver Headset Review

By PhoneArena Team

Updated: Sep 16, 2008, 8:03 AM

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Accessories

Introduction:

In our world, wireless connectivity and mobility are required from every business person and taking or making calls while driving is something that happens all the time. Even though not proven fact, driving and holding your phone is if not dangerous, at least very distracting if you are not using a suitable handsfree kit. That's why Parrot, who are a leader in Bluetooth solutions like car kits, have created the Parrot Driver Headset kit a headset with suitable car charger/holder which is designed for in-car use only. While it is not very comfortable that you have to put it on your head every time you want to use it, like a normal headset and not as a car kit, it's nice that you may keep your conversation (or at least the incoming voice) private, as the kit doesn't use any speakerphone but transfers the voice over the ear-bud.

Box includes:

Car Charger
Headset

Design:

The Parrot Driver Headset consists of two parts: headset, and a car charger that must be plugged into the lighter to use the vehicle as a power source. They are both made of black plastic with glossy elements, which look stylish at the beginning but just love fingerprints and get dirty really fast we'd prefer some mat material used instead. The charger is inserted in the car lighter via a fixed shoulder, which may cause troubles in some cars as you may not be able to install the kit in a way which won't disturb you while shifting gears for example (in our case we experienced some problems when putting the car in Reverse). It would have been much better if you were able to rotate the upper part, as it's the largest one of the car kit, housing the cradle for the headset itself.

There are no service lights for either indication or for illuminating the place where you should insert the headset in the dark, and you are supposed to guess where to put it or to use the car's interior lightning we'd like some discreet white light in the cradle's nest when the headset is not in it.
The latter may be inserted upside down and we did it the first few times we used the kit. In this case it sits pretty still and you don't have an idea that it is actually not charging. The right way is, to insert it with the ear bud facing the upper site, and once you do that the LED on the headset changes from Blue (indicating it is ON) to solid Red that indicates it is charging. Once the charging is complete, you don't get solid Green to show this but just back to flashing Blue, and you can't know if it is fully charged or disconnected by a mistake.

The headset itself has common prolonged design with about average size and weight. The ear-bud is inserted into the ear-canal and that is how the whole headset stays on your head. This allows it to be put on very easily with one hand, since it is expected that you are using the other one to steer the car's wheel.

Weight Comparison:

Manufacturer/Model	Parrot Driver Headset	Logitech Mobile Traveller	Gennum nXZEN PLUS 5500	Cardo Scala 500	Jabra BT800	Jabra BT250
Weight in Grams	14 grams	14.2 grams	17 grams	16.7 grams	22.7 grams	22.7 grams
Weight in Ounces	0.49 oz.	0.5 oz.	0.54 oz.	0.58 oz.	0.8 oz.	0.8 oz.

The Driver Headset passed very well our vigorous head shake test and did not wobble or fell down. The only small problem is that after having it on for a while, the microphone instead of pointing to your mouth, slightly twirls and starts to point at your neck.
Our expectation was that the in-ear-canal design would create discomfort after a short usage, but we were wrong even after an hour we hardly felt anything.

It has three buttons a couple of volume keys on the bottom and top and a power key on the front side it's relatively easy to use the volume keys as you hold the headset to press them, but pressing the power key pushes the whole device into your ear-canal, which after prologned used might create discomform.

TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL SPECIFICATIONS

Bluetooth wireless headset for drivers

- Headset with automatic pick up/hang up
- Volume adjustment via two buttons
- Button for call management
- Ringtone and LED for incoming calls
- Bluecore 3 processor
- 10 mm speaker
- 3 high-intensity LEDs
- NiMH 90 mA battery
- Reset controller
- 5 hours' talk time on a full charge off the cradle

Bluetooth®

Built-in Bluetooth receiver
Profiles supported: HSP 1.1 and HFP
Range up to 10 metres

Dimensions and weight

Cradle: L=130mm W=58mm D=35mm
Total weight: 60 grams
Headset: L=68mm W=25mm D=23mm (with insert)
Headset weight: 14 grams

Garantee

One year parts and labour as from the purchase date

BLUETOOTH® WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

The Bluetooth wireless technology enables voice and data to be sent via a
short-distance radio link. It connects a wide range of electronic equipment
without requiring additional cables.
Furthermore, it extends the communication possibilities for mobile phones
and a large number of devices.

PHONE COMPATIBILITY

Compatible with all Bluetooth phones.

During a call the incoming quality is very good with realistic voices and no noise, but the volume is low and in a noisy environment you will hardly be able to hear the other side. While we were testing it, we found ourselves pressing the headset as close to our ear as possible to make the sound louder. The volume loundness of course also depends on the phone the other party is using, but regardless of that Parrot should have designed the headset to have louder volume.

The party on the other side of the line also reported very clear sound, with almost no difference as if we were using a phone. The Driver Headset does not utilize any kind of echo or noise supression, but if the car windows are not rolled down, and if the stereo is not blasting, the other party had no problems hearing us.

The Driver Headset clearly shows its purpose by its name it is designed for in-car use only and for people who won't bother to carry the headset with them all the time. But as it is designed for that and is not just an ordinary headset with car-charger, we'd prefer a better charging station, with illumination in the port and better visual indications of the battery charghing status. The sound quality is excellent but the main drawback is its low volume which makes it unusable in noisy environment (windows down, playing music). If you are looking for a cheap in-car hand-free solution which will be just occasionally used, the Parrot Driver Headset is recommended.