Motorola Roadster In-Car Bluetooth Speakerphone Review

The Motorola Roadster got lucky on this review, although I don't think it affects the review, our new Droid Bionic and the Roadster came at the same time. Motorola love was on...

DESIGN:
Well, we reviewed other Bluetooth devices but this is our first speakerphone. Based on a lot of the other items in the marketplace, the Roadster is relatively small, short and wide, it makes great use of its space. As you can see above, there are seven buttons, from left to right its mute, answer/end call, voice dial, then on the bottom its play/pause for media, volume up and down and then finally the FM transmitter control.

Mesh covers the speaker and the dual mics. Along the right side is the power switch and the micro USB charging slot. It feels really strong and is very well put together. Its a nice looking addition to any car visor.


HOW DOES IT WORK?:
The short version, great. With all of the bells and whistles, this thing rocks. First off, lets start with the most important part, audio quality.

The microphone quality is flat out phenomenal. Everyone that I have talked with has yet to notice that I am on a bluetooth let alone a BT speakerphone. The dual mics and noise cancelation has been a superstar so far. That is a huge plus. The speaker quality is okay, it is really loud and that will often distort the quality. Of course you can adjust the audio but there is not much in between loud and off. Not a huge issue, we just noticed it.

Next up connectivity. Just because we have a Moto phone and the roadster, don't think that this works easier. We paired this sucker with iPods, iPhones and a Blackberry with no issue. That part is really nice. One of the nice features of the Roadster is its ability to wake itself up and connect to your device when you get close. A lot of the time, and I feel like a rockstar when it happens, when ever I open the door of my car it connects and if I am on a call, it will transfer right away to the Roadster. Nice to have! The big downside to that is the battery life. A week of normal use (I live in a state that requires BTs) and you will need to charge again. But if you dont leave it on and take advantage of that feature you will enjoy a longer battery life.

Although its not really necessary the device will also stream audio from your device and then it will even play that using the FM transmitter. Its an odd addition because it turns the Roadster into a microphone and I HATE FM TRANSMITTING because you have to have the radio to that frequency. Can't dock them for adding it, just don't use it.

Then as a cherry on top, the Roadster works with MotoSpeak, Motorola's text/email reader that will also allow you to respond to messages with just your voice. Great add that works amazing. It will take some time to work on dictating and working on talking slowly but it is great. Download the Moto Speak app on the Android Market, App Store or App World.


On the bad side the Roadster relies on your handset's voice dialer, and is without a voice command system of its own and the wire-loop visor mount could easily be smashed if handled roughly.

But here is the big win, you can find this on Amazon right now for less than $70. That should sell it right there. 

PROS:
+ Great size and build
+ Great call quality
+ Bells and whistles add bang for your buck
+ Umm price!

CONS:
- If you leave it on and use "sleep" mode the battery can run down

GRADE:

A