Stuff you should buy: Parrot Bluetooth car speakerphone  |  May 12, 2009  

Backbone magazine runs a gadget section in every issue. Those are small overview pieces; over here in blogland I am going to start highlighting notable devices with a more thorough review. First up: the Parrot Minikit Chic Bluetooth car speakerphone.

Why you should buy it: excellent voice recognition and support for your address book. Plus the law says so.

I’ll open with the law: Ontario recently passed Bill 118, which bans the use off hand-held devices while driving. The law will kick in sometime in the fall. Similar legislation exists in other provinces and we may see a national version sometime soon, so if you’re not already hands-free behind the wheel, now is a good time to get on it.

The Minikit Chic (silly name, I know) retails for about $130. For that, you get a speakerphone that clips to your car’s visor, links to your cellphone over Bluetooth and lets you make and receive calls. The unit recharges through USB. All of that is fairly standard; there are a number of these on the market.

The Chic stands out in two areas. First, it imports contacts from your cellphone and then gives you voice access to them. So you’re driving down the road and you realize you forgot to make a call. Push the call button on the unit, say “Aunt Bea” and the Chic will connect you. And if Aunt Bea has more than one number, the Chic asks which one you want (Home or Cell, for example). You can also select a name by turning the device’s large control knob.

For incoming calls, the unit reads out the name of the caller as stored in your contact list. 

The second stand-out feature is large, easy-to-use controls. Too many hands-free kits are hobbled by small buttons and dials that are almost impossible to use with your eyes on the road. The Chic was designed for car use, and the controls are large and simple: one button hangs up or rejects a call; the other button accepts a call, redials or turns on voice recognition; and the big knob adjusts volume and cycles through contacts or menu options.  These are all easy to use, although in my tests I mainly used voice commands.

In the nothing is perfect department, we have sound quality that can sometimes become muffled and the compete lack of an on/off light, which more than once made me think it was off when it wasn’t. But these are minor quibbles.

The Minikit Chic delivers good voice control in an eyes-on-the-road package.

Before buying, check compatibility with your device at the Parrot site.

Peter Wolchak