Mr. Handsfree Bluesmart

Becoming hands free in the car with your phone is now becoming more of a necessity by law than a luxury of convenience.  One of the easy solutions is to get a Bluetooth speakerphone for your car.  But it can be challenging picking out which one is best, easiest to install, and which one has the best sound quality.  Well, I have reviewed the Mr Handsfree BlueSmart which has a unique option of actually hardwiring the unit into your car or simply using it as a plug and play speaker phone by simply plugging it into the cigarette lighter.  To see if this one holds up to our standards read on.

QUALITY OF BUILD / DESIGN

Mr Handsfree BlueSmart certainly is unique.  The core of the unit is a black box that feels solid.  From here you plug in a wired microphone, the power supply (which can be hardwired to the car or use the cigarette power adaptor), and the wired remote control unit.  Since I do a lot of rental cars, I did not hardwire my unit into my car.  The installation looks fairly straight forward if you have a basic knowledge of installing stereos in cars, but depending on your car or stereo setup, you may be better off having it professionally installed.  Here is everything you get right out of the box:

If you permanently mounted the unit in your car, you could easily hide all the wires connecting the microphone, power, and remote control in the console.  But if you don't, you do have to find some way of managing the wires so that they do not get in your way.  This unit does not have an internal battery so it turns on and off with the car.  When you hardwire it into your car you will be able to listen to your calls through your car speakers and use the remote to mute your radio during a call.  (I am seriously thinking to doing this in my wife's car).  Please note that depending on what version of the Mr Handsfree BlueSmart you buy, you may have to purchase an extra cable to integrate with your car.

The remote control is simple to use and operate.  You have an answer and hang-up button along the top.  In the center is a wheel that doubles as a button.  You turn the wheel to navigate through the menu of the unit and press the wheel when you want to select something.  All of the menus are verbally spoken as you go along. 

USING THE SPEAKER PHONE & SOUND QUALITY

Mr Handsfree BlueSmart does have a lot of features.  Speed dial memory: 10 numbers, Voice menus, Auto-answer function, full duplex communication (Speak and listen at the same time), Multi-pairing: up to 2 phones, and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) technology for echo cancellation and background noise reduction Microphone with VDS (Voice Direction system). 

There is little doubt that the sound quality when hardwired in will be dependent on your car's speakers.  If you choose to use the speaker-box included, you will be surprised at how loud it actually is.  I also found the box sound to be tinny and wished it had more bass in there to balance it out and to give a more full range of sound.  But with that said, I was able to understand all the conversations just fine, and when listening on the other side it was hard to believe we were talking on a BT speakerphone in car.

Pairing the phone was easy.  Just turn the wheel until you hear the pairing menu option and then push the wheel to select.  Start the pairing mode in your phone, type in the usual 0000 code, and you are done.  Fast and painless.

SUMMARY

What I like about this unit is that you can integrate directly into your car's sound system and have all the wires hidden under the dash and console.  Or you can use it with the included speaker box and move it from car to car, though you do have to manage the wires in this way. 

It is easy to pair and sound quality on both ends are very nice.

JUST THE FACTS

Here is a detailed product sheet with all of the specifications.