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Like a tiny, digital ant that can carry 50 times its weight, BlueAnt’s new Bluetooth accessories pack a wallop into compact and sleek packages. BlueAnt showed off their new V1 voice activated Bluetooth headset with dual microphones and noise reduction technology, their Supertooth 3 Bluetooth hands-free speakerphone, and their M1 Bluetooth speaker at CTIA yesterday.
The gem of their new lineup has to be the BlueAnt V1 Bluetooth headset. Not only does it keep the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth headset’s slim profile, but it packs in voice activation technology alongside all that dual-microphone, signal processing goodness. Want to check your battery level? Just ask the BlueAnt V1. Redial or call a particular contact? Just speak the command and the BlueAnt V1 will do you biding. The idea is to reduce the need to fiddle with tiny buttons and simply speak your commands.
As Bluetooth headsets get smaller and smaller, on-device real-estate for buttons become more and more scarce and less ergonomic. The solution? Add voice activation.
But, that’s not all BlueAnt has to offer. Ben already mentioned the other offerings from BlueAnt, so let me just offer my opinion on the Supertooth 3 and M1 Bluetooth speaker.
I found that the Supertooth 3 was somewhat lacking in style. BlueAnt does it up with style on their Bluetooth headsets, but when it comes to this hands-free speakerphone, BlueAnt seems to have skimped. The Supertooth 3 is definitely ultilitarian and gets the job done to a “T,” it it just a little bland and uninspired – minimalist design gone wrong, perhaps.
The M1 Bluetooth Speaker is another story entirely. The speaker system connects to your A2DP Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone over, well, A2DP Bluetooth and streams music directly from your handset. Sound quality was seemingly good, but it was loud in the showroom so it was hard to gauge sound fidelity. Sound output, however, was incredible. In that crowded room, I could hear the music quite well – the BlueAnt rep said the volume was “only on 5.” The unit itself is sleek and made with quality materials – no cheap plasticy feel here.
Now I just sit back and wait for the review units to come in. The next several months should be fun.
About The Author
Will Park
Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...
