| Jabra Cruiser |
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Last Updated
June 11, 2010 Editor's Rating 
 
With many states placing a ban on using handheld cellular devices, it may be wise to invest in a hands-free Bluetooth device to allow you to continue to talk on the phone without violating the law and being safer as well. The Jabra Cruiser is one of the newest Bluetooth hands-free devices that lets you talk on the phone and can transmit music from an MP3 player through your car's speakers. Before you can use the Jabra Cruiser, you have to connect it to a PC via the included USB cable to charge. There is also an included car charger for the device, but no AC power plug. Once the device is completely charged and on first power on, the Cruiser goes into pairing mode (and is announced via a voice announcement) and your device (cell phone, iPhone, BlackBerry, etc) can be easily paired with the device. Pairing devices went very well with several devices, such as a regular flip-phone and an Apple iPhone 3GS. Once everything is setup, you can stow the Jabra Cruiser where you'd like. The device does have a clip to clip it to the sun visor so it can be near the driver so it can easily pickup their voice. When a phone call comes in, you just press a button on the Cruiser (or the green call button on your cell) and you'll be instantly connected and can talk on and hear the call through the device. To hang up, you can either press the same button or end the call on the phone. You can also hold calls by pressing a hold button and answer a waiting call, but the button configuration can be quite daunting, so make sure you keep the reference manual handy until you get the hang on it. Depending on your cell phone, the Jabra Cruiser can voice dial and read the phone number on the caller ID. The audio quality through the speaker on the device is OK, but not the best. It can be a little on the quiet side and the audio quality can be poor when the cell signal is poor and OK when there's a good signal. Audio quality on the other end of the line is pretty good and the microphone does a good job of picking up the driver's voice and leaving out other ambient noise, such as road noise and small wind noise. To switch to FM transmit mode, there's a button on the left side of the Cruiser and the FM light goes on on the front panel of the device. The voice prompt will then read out an FM frequency and you tune your car's radio to that frequency as long as there's no radio station in your area on that frequency, if there is, you can scan for a new one. Any incoming calls you receive (or outgoing calls you make) will then play over your radio and utilize the Cruiser for the microphone. In this mode, the audio quality is excellent, but it will depend on your car's stereo. You can also play music from a Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player, such as an iPhone, and your music will play over the car stereo. Overall, the Jabra Cruiser is a good Bluetooth hands-free device that provides decent audio quality by itself and very good quality over a car's FM radio. Pairing Bluetooth devices works very well and no issues were encountered. It makes driving while talking on the phone legal in some states where bans exist and it makes it safer all-around. It's a fairly cheap device that works with all cars, from new to old.
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