Dual BTV30 Test Drive

From my experience it is difficult to find a portable Bluetooth unit that offers the functionality and sound quality of a hard wired unit, especially for under $100.

This Dual unit took me by surprise, especially since Dual is better known more for their entry-level quality. Right out of the box the BTV30 was semi-charged and ready to pair with my phone. Being familiar with the poor sound quality you normally get with these units I like to get make a test call, before wasting my time loading my address book onto a unit I don’t plan on keeping.

Amazingly the unit was loud enough to hear, even with my cars poorly sealed cabin.
On the other end of the call I was told that the microphone could benefit from a little more sensitivity but that there was almost no feedback or echo. The low volume was easily remedied by me utilizing the magnetic visor clip and positioning the unit directly in front of me, as recommended for best quality.

As for the call announcement, it doesn’t get any better. The bright LED clearly gives me caller ID of the person who is calling and I have the option of 3 Ring Tones that can easily be distinguished from the music I am listening to at the time of call. I can Accept/Reject the call simply by pushing the green/red phone button on the Dual BTV30 similar to the buttons I have on my cell phone.

Another feature I liked was the “Hotline” button which is clearly marked and big enough that my paw of a hand had no trouble accessing it. I programmed the hotline button to my mother’s number. Since I frequently call her while sitting in traffic on California’s congested freeways; I figured it would be nice to have her on speed dial just in case traffic starts to move when I want to dial.

The phone I was using, the Motorola Razor, has voice-recognition capability so to make a voice activated call I simply hold the green call button for 3 seconds and speak the name or number I wish to dial. The yes/no prompts ensure I don’t accidentally voice-dial the wrong person. For my business phone which does not have voice recognition the unit allowed me to upload my phone book via Bluetooth transfer, so I don’t have to sit there and enter every name and number one at a-time. With my phone book now uploaded into the BTV30 It doesn’t matter that my phone does not have voice recognition because the unit now has the names and numbers stored in its memory.

About the size of a Nextel side-kick the Dual BTV30 has incredible battery life, approximately 8 hours of talk time, and 200 hours of standby time. The fact the unit is rechargeable is great because there is no distracting power card dangling from my cigarette lighter to my sun visor, which is an even bigger distraction than holding the phone to my ear. The magnetic visor clip is also genius and makes it easy for me to remove the BTV30 and take it with me when I’m not in a safe area, or when I want to take it down to charge.

A few negative points would be the small hard to reach volume key and the fact that the accept/reject keys are located behind the LCD which make it difficult to distinguish one from the other until you get used to the unit. Other than that, the compact size, incredible speaker volume and quality of the mic make this unit truly, best in its class.