BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Handsfree (Black)

I must say that I am writing this first to warn other shoppers and second in the hope that BlueAnt will address this issue. This is not a bad device as long as it is used with one phone - in fact in that scenario its quite good. The good is that once its set up you dont need to touch it. It shuts itself off when you leave and connects when you get back to your car - awesome. Things get very messy though when you introduce a second phone and it seems that if one of those devices is an iPhone, now the #2 selling phone in the US, things totally fall apart. Although its specs say it supports up to 8 phones, the long and short of it is that its simply not true if one of those phones is an iPhone. See this reply from BlueAnt Tech Support:

"The Supertooth 3 is able to pair up to 8 devices but there is something on the Iphone that makes it differ from other phones. Once the Iphone is paired to any bluetooth device it takes priority. So if you were to switch the Supertooth 3 off of the Iphone and connect it to the other phone then try to re-connect back to the Iphone it would require the Supertooth to be completely re-paired to the device. This is only a issue with the Iphone as it does take priority over any bluetooth device. If you have any other questions or concerns please let me know."

I have no idea whose fault this really is but the effect is that the ST3 becomes a huge pain to use if you expect to use it with more than one phone and one of them is an iPhone. Re-pairing with an iPhone, although you'd think would not be a big deal, is a long and noisy process. The complication of having to re-pair comes from ST3's feature of downloading all your contacts from your phone to the ST3 so that it can announce callers by name. The problem is that this download process is slow and noisy, the ST3 verbally announces its progress over and over again as it sorts though your contacts: "10 contacts please wait.....20 contacts please wait.....30 contacts, please wait..." Having a few hundred contacts in my iPhone, which is not that hard since it syncs to my professional address book in my computer, this is a long long noisy process which I would be happy never to hear again. Again this process must occur anytime you switch any other phone back to the iPhone. Its very annoying to the point that I no longer wish to share the device with other drivers. Not really meeting the spec of support 8 phones at all. And nothing about this problem is indicated on the BA website in any area, even one called "Compatibility". It just shows an Apple logo - oh well.

According to BA they have no means to update the firmware on the ST3, so if any fix is to be had it would need to come from Apple. Not holding my breath.

I also was very disappointed that so much handling is involved to switch from one phone to another. My hope was that if a phone had been previously paired with the ST3 and only one of the phones is present, the ST3 and the phone would recognize each other automatically. This is sadly not the case. Even when things work properly, meaning neither phone is an iPhone, even in the normal case, the user is required to dig thru his or her phone's settings to re-request a connection to the bluetooth device. This seems unnecessary since from the handset's perspective, the ST3 was gone and is now back, there is no concern about another device having been used with the ST3. All this matters to me because I sometimes am sharing a vehicle with a less tech savvy user. My hope was to install the ST3, pair both phones and then depending on whether I was using the car or the other driver was using it, the ST3 would be smart and connect to whatever phone was present. Not the case. The other driver will need to learn to dig into phone's configurations and learn to deal with BT audio device selection. This is simply not going to happen. I don't think this scenario is uncommon. Many times there will be one geeky person who can set things up, and others for whom things just need to work. A husband and wife, the wife might geek out and make things work. If the husband uses the car, it should just work for him. Not the case with the ST3. Each user, whenever a switch from one handset to another is needed, would need to go into phone settings and ask for the audio device. Its a little nit on the surface. In practice it kind of dooms the device given that often when using the ST3 the driver find that the ST3 is not connecting. This means that the driver then needs to re-jigger the settings on his phone or face a call with no speakerphone, which is now a violation. The hope with the ST3 was that these sort of tasks would be eliminated for driver, its a success for one phone and sadly not the case of a shared vehicle or many phones.

If BA can address the scenario of a shared vehicle better this would be an amazing device. It should simply find any of the paired handsets and work with it with no user intervention. If more than one paired device is present it should have some sort of logic to resolve this or a smart way to handle it.

Speakerphones in cars are not like headsets. They are potentially shared by many users with varying levels of technical knowledge, these devices to be great need to handle those conditions better. Hopefully we will see BA improve here. If they do all the other strengths of this device would make it great.

I purchased the BlueAnt Supertooth 3 based on other positive reviews. The sound quality is a little tinny but very clear and people on the other end of the call have said they had no idea I was on a hands free device. That's a good thing!! The Supertooth 3 was very easy to pair with the iPhone and it automatically uploaded all my contacts without any issues. The voice answer doesn't work too well but I don't mind because I prefer to push the answer button on the visor anyway. Overall a great product. I just wish the iPhone supported voice dial...maybe someday!!

I have been using the Supertooth 3 for about a month now and am very pleased with it. I had tried another BT speakerphone (VR3) and returned it a week later as you could barely hear or be heard, plus it wouldn't automatically pair up. The BlueAnt unit solved those problems, it's plenty loud, people can hear me quite well 90% of the time, it pairs up and announces that's it has paired up. I find the British lady's tone much more pleasing than the rather harsh American lady.

I have the iPhone 3G and it paired and transfered the contact list perfectly the first time. One thing I'd like is to have the option to not upload the contact list. If you have to re-pair the unit with your phone it goes through the upload process again which takes about 5-8 minutes depending on how many contacts you have. I have ~150 it takes about 6 minutes. I have had to re-pair the unit with my phone a couple times after turning it off or if I have to reboot my phone.

The only thing I would like to adjust is the distance it will maintain the pairing, it's too far (~30ft). I would prefer either a manual sleep button or have it loose the pairing at ~10ft.

The microphone seems to work quite well but is somewhat directional dependent. If you have it on the visor, and it's tilted away from you, sometimes people on the other end say it's hard to hear you. The manual makes mention of this fact and suggests you keep it as directionally aligned as possible and I'd agree that it really helps. Most of the time people say they can hear me quite well.

The speaker volume IS dependent on the volume setting on your phone. You can adjust the volume on the unit but you also need to adjust it on your phone. Sometimes you will get better sound balancing the two as the speaker is very powerful.

The battery seems to last ~2-3 weeks depending on how much it sleeps. Having both AC/DC chargers was important to me and this unit includes both. It also uses a standard mini USB port for charging so you could use another charger if need be.

The included metal mounting clips work well and having two is a bonus as I use the unit in two different vehicles. The clip is designed such that you can rotate the visor down and reposition the unit on the other side of the clip (it has the magnet indents on both sides) which is very useful. Most other units don't work when you rotate the visor down.

The only reason I didn't give the BlueAnt 5 stars is I would like to see the following improvements;

1. A manual sleep button I could push when exiting the car or a range adjustment.

2. An option to upload the contact list or not.

3. A less directional dependent microphone.

4. Firmware upgradeable for possible future upgrades.

Overall it's an excellent product and I would recommend it, which I have to some family and friends.

Recently residents of the state of Washington (where I live) were required to convert to hands-free cell phone use. After struggling with the hassle of the little bluetooth ear pieces... remembering to charge them, sticking them in the ear as we get into the car, etc, my wife and I ran across this amazing, inexpensive alternative. It attaches magnetically to the visor above your face, automatically detecting your cell-phone and greeting you as you enter the car. It has various language options (including a classy British English), it memorizes your cell-phone address book and correctly pronounces words and names, its battery charge lasts a very long time (plus it notifies you when it needs recharging before it goes dead). Most importantly, it has very satisfactory sound quality both for you and the other party. My wife and I each bought one and can't recommend it highly enough.

I was excited to get the newest BlueAnt but it is a disappointment because the volume is not high enough to hear callers so you have to lean under it (attached to visor) to be able to hear which is distracting in traffic.
Also, my Blackberry does not auto-hookup to BlueAnt, you have to push buttons to get everything working. I would have thought that designers would have made that happen so when you come back to your car, once the unit is setup, that it would notice your phone, automatically reestablish connections and verbally notify you that that has happened. Makes sense to me. (DId I miss something in the instructions?)
Hopefully, they will update the software, which we can download to the BlueAnt, that will fix these shortcomings and make it a better product.