Sp!ke
Administrator
Its not often I recommend a gadget but I'm so impressed by this concept that I thought I'd give it a mention.
I stumbled across the LG HFB-500 solar powered car kit the other day and was so attracted by the idea of not needing to remember to charge it combined with a freedom from ugly cables, I took a punt at £20 inc shipping from Amazon.
The basic idea is that you stick this to your windscreen near the top of the A pillar and leave it there without the need to ever charge it or move it again. I'm only a couple of weeks in but so far, it certainly seems to be doing the job. The battery indicator shows full battery status despite being used every day for the past fortnight.
Call quality is surprisingly good for such a small unit (about the size of a pack of Swan Vesta matches). The volume is loud enough to hear clearly even at above legal motorway speeds even in my little W201. It is full duplex with a noise cancelling microphone which seems to work well with no issues either end of the call.
It can pair with 2 phones simultaneously and switch automatically to the phone that rings or is in use. It will automatically turn off after 30 minutes of no bluetooth connection so you don't even need to remember to turn it off .
At work and at home I just leave it permanently in the windscreen but if I did park in a rougher area I would probably remove it from view when away from the car although I'm thinking about testing the device higher up the windscreen hidden from view behind the upper tinted section. Only time will tell if this area still allows enough daylight to keep the charge topped up.
If I were to give it any minus points, it would be the lack of a dedicated mute button (you have to hold the volume button down for 2 secs to mute and unmute).
Overall I give this an 8.5 out of 10. A great concept with good implementation. I've no doubt the market will be flooded with similar devices in the coming years but LG got there first.
I stumbled across the LG HFB-500 solar powered car kit the other day and was so attracted by the idea of not needing to remember to charge it combined with a freedom from ugly cables, I took a punt at £20 inc shipping from Amazon.
The basic idea is that you stick this to your windscreen near the top of the A pillar and leave it there without the need to ever charge it or move it again. I'm only a couple of weeks in but so far, it certainly seems to be doing the job. The battery indicator shows full battery status despite being used every day for the past fortnight.
Call quality is surprisingly good for such a small unit (about the size of a pack of Swan Vesta matches). The volume is loud enough to hear clearly even at above legal motorway speeds even in my little W201. It is full duplex with a noise cancelling microphone which seems to work well with no issues either end of the call.
It can pair with 2 phones simultaneously and switch automatically to the phone that rings or is in use. It will automatically turn off after 30 minutes of no bluetooth connection so you don't even need to remember to turn it off .
At work and at home I just leave it permanently in the windscreen but if I did park in a rougher area I would probably remove it from view when away from the car although I'm thinking about testing the device higher up the windscreen hidden from view behind the upper tinted section. Only time will tell if this area still allows enough daylight to keep the charge topped up.
If I were to give it any minus points, it would be the lack of a dedicated mute button (you have to hold the volume button down for 2 secs to mute and unmute).
Overall I give this an 8.5 out of 10. A great concept with good implementation. I've no doubt the market will be flooded with similar devices in the coming years but LG got there first.
