Comments on: BlueAnt V1 Voice Control Bluetooth Headset Review

By: gilsron

gilsron — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 22:14:50 +0000

Jeff Hack, thanks for your input. I read in one pleace that the Z9i sound quality is changing from one device to another. In fact they mentioned Blackberry Curve 8300 as a device with which you get poor sound quality.
For me the sound quality, especialy how I am heard is the most importat issue. Can any one provide information on how V1 is preforming with Blackberry Curve 8300.

By: Jeff Hack

Jeff Hack — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:49:39 +0000

[quote comment="49922"]I like the Voice Control feature, but REALLY hate the default speed-dial presets!!!

Voice Control feature works well, yet BlueAnt (or Sensory) sadly chose to pre-populate the first five voice-activated speed dial positions with voicemail/home/office/favorite/GOOG-411… meaning you have to speak those very phrases to dial your first four speed-dial favorites… and the fifth GOOG-411 entry overrides your phone’s fifth favorite and *cannot* be changed.

Sad that such ground-breaking technology would be greatly limited by dumb settings. If you have an iPhone 3G like me, you’ll probably hate them too. Every time I call my wife I have to say, “Call Voice Mail” (since she’s set to speed-dial 1). Is that stupid or what? :-(

The decision to configure the V1 presets this way seems like a marketing choice and not a very well thought out one at that. Simply configuring Speed Dial 1, Speed Dial 2, Speed Dial 3, etc, would have been far more functional and adaptable for most users. Plopping the GOOG-411 present at #5 is completely presumptuous… they should have used slot #9, if at all.

Hopefully idiocy won’t prevail and BlueAnt/Sensory will provide a firmware update the sets the matter straight.[/quote]

William – if iPhone has Voice Dial, just use the “Phone Command” option on the BlueAnt V1 – works great with Blackberry’s Voice dial

By: Jeff Hack

Jeff Hack — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:57:21 +0000

Jawbone 2 vs. BlueAnt V1: I’m a software sales guy that spends a lot of time on my cell phone, so I’ve used bluetooth headsets extensively for the past year. I currently own both the Jawbone 2 and the BlueAnt V1. After using both, I can assure you the BlueAnt V1 is FAR superior (although it’s not as pretty!) They both have great sound quality, but let me give you some highlights from my perspective
-The JawBone 2 falls out of my ear all of the time (I have 3 kids!)
-BlueAnt V1 has WAY more options for comfort and a secure fit
-BlueAnt V1 is super easy to pair (and re-pair, using voice commands)
-BlueAnt V1 ships with 3 options for charging it (car, wall and USB)
-BlueAnt V1 also lets you check it’s battery life with a voice command!
-BlueAnt V1 has AMAZING voice command features, like the incoming caller ID, redial last outgoing and call back last incoming, turn off LED lights, turn headset off, and the ability to use my Blackberry’s built-in Voice Dialing(just hit BAB once, say Phone Command and the Blackberry’s Voice Dialing takes over!)
-Volume control is easy to access on the BlueAnt V1 and the buttons can also be used to transfer the call back to your handset (when necessary)

Finally the Voice Isolation control (Low, Med and High) gives you great options for quality.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention the BlueAnt V1 is actually less expensive too!

I’m not an editor for any magazine or blog site, just a user. I’ve used both the the BlueAnt V1 is FAR superior.

By: danny

danny — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:36:56 +0000

After reading countless reviews, I purchased the V1. The voice command is worth every penny. The presets I adapted to very easily, and if I want to call someone that is not a top ten person, I have found I say “call my phone”, and it switches me to my phones voice activation. Awesome! I no longer have problems with the person I’m talking to understanding me. If the background noise level is interfering, I push the button, and it filters the noise right out. Another Awesome! I have very average ears, you know…not too big, not too small, and the squared off edges of the device touch my ear no matter what angle I try to put it. After about two hours I start feeling uncomfortable with that edge. To compensate, I only wear the device when needed, and it has worked out fine. I could not be happier, and am looking forward to a future device with voice control that is even more user friendly and rounded instead of square. This phone is the first in what I believe is the future of all blue tooth headsets. Truely hands free. My device telling me what number is calling, and it asking me if I want to accept or ignore the call is at this time unmatched and to me…absolute best.

By: Jason K

Jason K — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:21:31 +0000

We always search for and compile the list of top 10 Bluetooth Headsets. BlueAnt V1 is a very solid headset and we found it to be easier to use and holds on better than the Jawbones. We always update our list. You can find it at: http://www.Top10ProductsOnly.com

By: Nick T

Nick T — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:25:47 +0000

Blueant is an Australian compnay. I can’t find ANY information anywhere clarifying why this DOES NOT APPEAR to be available in Australia. At all.

Cheers! (The Z1 is available, then it stops).

By: Hooch224

Hooch224 — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 07:28:26 +0000

Confirmed on the V1 w/ VC and Verizon xv6800 (so the preset gripe is officially dead in the water). Personally I feel the pre-programmed positioned Speed Dials were intended for people that do not own smart/ PDA handsets. After all … the VC setup IS in the manual…

By: NetApex

NetApex — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 03:18:25 +0000

Quick question. I am a big fan (sad to say) of Microsoft’s Voice Command. I currently have the Z9 (not the Z9i, just the Z9) and am looking to replace it with either the Z9i or the V1. My question is, will it work with Voice Command? Currently I can press my main button and my phone will dial whatever I tell it to (or open programs or etc…) I will go to the Z9i if the V1 will interrupt that process. Does anyone happen to know if that is the case?

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:51:04 +0000

William/willjill –
Just to clarify, the V1 does not take anything over. You don’t have to use any of the preset voice dials on the V1 and you can have your iPhone exactly as it was.
To get the V1 to call voicemail simply put your voicemail in slot 1. There was some reasoning behind this, actually. Voicemail is the #1 most commonly preset dial for handsets and vendors that preset this virtually always use slot 1. That’s pretty much industry standard when built in.
Instead of saying, “call voicemail” to dial your wife, simply move her to speed dial 4 and then you can call her by saying “call favorite” and if you don’t like that, move her to speed dial 6 and say, “call speed dial 6”.
Also, you are mistaken about speed dial 5 being taken over by GOOG-411. You can put any speed dial you want into that slot and it will still work on your handset AND you can still say “call GOOG-411”.
As far as visual voicemail, Google Maps, etc., the whole idea of the V1 headset is to allow you to access commands and information without having to grab the phone to look at it while driving. “Call GOOG-411” lets you call any business in the US by voice with no charge and the “call voicemail” command gets you into your voicemail to hear it without having to pull over the car to read it.

By: CWT

CWT — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:48:28 +0000

So am I correct in understanding,
1- you can not say a full number to be dialed
2 – the incoming number is said and not the persons name, even if the person is in your speed dial.
If so can either of these things be switched somehow by using the headset a different way?
Thanks for any help!

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:20:03 +0000

Hey I use one of BlueAnt V1′s. I love it. It’s a great headset. The voice recognition works AWESOME. I’ve tried voice recognition before and it didn’t work well with my accent. It’s very easy to use, very comfortable. I like the ability to “call home” and call into my speed dials, because my phone doesn’t have voice recognition. Oh the battery life is especially good.

By: William

William — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:07:15 +0000

I like the Voice Control feature, but REALLY hate the default speed-dial presets!!!

Hopefully idiocy won’t prevail and BlueAnt/Sensory will provide a firmware update the sets the matter straight.

By: Beth

Beth — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:26:33 +0000

I work with Sensory the company behind the VUI software on the V1. I mention this not only in the interest of full disclosure but also that it has provided me the opportunity to check out the V1 early. So wanted to offer up my thoughts.

I REALLY dug the pairing process. You just put it in your ear and you were off. The headset began immediately talking me through the pairing process to my phone. Even though I am tech savvy enough to manage pairing of Bluetooth phones, I still appreciated the ease of set up the voice interface brought. Stores such as Sprint have implemented formal programs to help consumers set up their wireless devices (email on the phone, pairing via Bluetooth, etc.) so it’s apparent there is a need to make consumer electronics as accessible as possible to the least tech savvy consumer. The V1 will pair up to eight Bluetooth devices and you can use the V1′s VUI to set all of that up.

Also, I primarily use a headset while I am driving and I love how much the the VUI improves the driving experience. With my previous headset, I had to fumble with the phone to make calls and with incoming calls I looked at the phone display to see who the call is coming from. Now, I can just tell the headset who to call and when I receive a call, the headset tells me the number it’s coming from at which point I can say “accept” or “reject”. All of this is making me one of those people that constantly wears their headset (but only in the car ;-P).

By: willjill

willjill — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:44:15 +0000

Decent sound quality, good standard bluetooth headset functionality, great new Voice Control feature and yet poor earbud design and really bad non-changeable presets.

BlueAnt’s pre-configured calling commands/positions limit the V1 from being a great fit with the iPhone 3G. The Voice Control features work really well, yet BlueAnt chose to pre-populate the first five voice activated speed dial positions with voicemail/home/office/favorite/GOOG-411… meaning that you have to speak those very phrases to dial your first four iPhone call favorites and that the GOOG-411 entry overrides your phone’s fifth favorite and cannot be changed.

Obviously, iPhone users don’t need the voicemail preset for speed dial 1 since they have Visual Voicemail, and since they have Google Maps app and Google Search app they really don’t need an unchangeable GOOG-411 overriding their 5th favorite.

BlueAnt needs to move the GOOG-411 down to the 9th speed dial position and just add normal voice prompts for positions 1-8. I think users of all types of phones would be lot happier.

We’re sticking with the better sound quality on our Plantronics 925 headsets.

By: Janie

Janie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:55:46 +0000

How did “unboxing videos” get to be so popular online?

I would MUCH rather see a demo… than waste all that time watching someone
opening the box. (And in this case… struggling to open the box.)

How can this headset “redial the iphone” by listening for the “redial” command… when the phone itself doesn’t have any ‘redial’ feature?

By: refused9150

refused9150 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:11:07 +0000

I absolutely love everything about this headset. I was really thinking about getting a Jawbone as well but this is a must have. Perfect!!

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:26:10 +0000

I was just about to buy another Jawbone, but because of your review, now I’m thinking a bit about the blue ant. Thanks for sharing your detailed review.