Being on the phone while driving can be as bad as being drunk on the road, and although there are numerous solutions that help us to simultaneously talk and drive safely, it seems unpleasant accidents are not quite a thing of the past yet. Could it be that those solutions simply don't work, or are not designed with easy of use in mind, thus consumers are not finding them really helpful? To tell you the truth, we seriously doubt it. However, we wanted to take a look at one such offering, a Bluetooth speakerphone – the Jabra CRUISER2 – and see how it performs. Being one of the latest gadgets of its kind, let's see if does well in allowing us to use our both hands to drive.
Design:
The Jabra CRUISER2 is by no means spectacular in its appearance. It's pretty simple, all black, and embodies an overall safe approach. We presume it will suit most vehicles thanks to its conservative and standard looks.
Build quality isn't great – the device is evidently plastic and cheaply made. Certainly, you won't get the feeling that you want it by just looking at it. Should you not experience a dire need of such a handsfree, you'll hardly ever think of the CRUISER2.
The device is mainly controlled by four keys on its front – call, volume + and -, as well as mute. All of them feature a nice clicky feel and are easy to press, with the slight exception of the mute button.
Being a no-installation Bluetooth speakerphone, the Jabra CRUISER2 attaches firmly to your sun visor and stays there securely. However, its weight may make some sun visors lower a bit, but in the general case, it's not problematic. Functionality:
The pairing process is easy with the Jabra CRUISER2, plus it also supports pairing to two Bluetooth devices simultaneously. Fortunately, the CRUISER2 isn't shy when it comes to added functionality. After pairing with your phone, it will synchronize with your phonebook and will start saying the names of contacts who call you. It also voice-guides on some other occasions like when it wants to notify you of low battery or to give you instructions on how to set it up.Once you initiate a call, it uses Jabra's Noise Blackout technology for noise suppression and we found it to indeed work well. During our test conversations in a car with the CRUISER2, with windows fully opened, our callers didn't really hear much of the ambient city noise around us. However, although we sounded fine to them most of the time, the device's speakerphone couldn't output some nice, deep tones, but instead, they sounded pretty sharp, with distinct highs and too subtle lows. In terms of loudness, the Jabra CRUISER2 is close to nailing it. If you have your windows closed, you won't have any trouble hearing what's being said. If they are opened though, and there's lots of background noise, you might ask your caller on some (mostly rare) occasions to say this or that phrase again, which could have been avoided with a little more power.A pretty cool added feature of the Jabra CRUISER2 is its FM Transmitter, which allows you to stream calls or music (played from your phone) to your car stereo. Another positive aspect of the speakerphone is that it packs a pretty powerful battery, which is rated at 14 hours of talk time and up to 20 days of standby.Conclusion:
The Jabra CRUISER2 is a decent Bluetooth speakerphone that will do the job. It has some added functionality in the form of voice guidance, noise suppression technology and FM Transmitter, which make it pretty competitive. However, we can see why people aren't massively reaching towards these devices – they simply lack appeal. The very same is true for the Jabra CRUISER2, the value of which hides exclusively in its practical use.
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