New High-End BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Speakerphone for Treo & Centro Offers Text-To-Speech in Six Languages with Contact Name or CallerID Voice Announcements + Voice Answer + Full DSP Noise & Echo Cancellation With 15 Hours Talk Time & Up to 800 Hours Standby Time
As you may know, for nearly a year now my Editor’s Choice Bluetooth Speakerphone has been the Jabra SP5050 (see my review) – a superbly designed product that offers great sound, terrific value and which has consistently been a bestseller in this category.
Having said this, the recently released BlueAnt Supertooth 3 (pictured above) has now claimed the #1 position as the bestselling Bluetooth Speakerphone thanks to a rather complete set of exciting unique features. For starters, the BlueAnt Supertooth 3 (ST3) is the first Bluetooth Speakerphone that I’ve had the opportunity to review which includes Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology. TTS offers a voice to announce various events such as: the name of a Contact calling, CallerID, Bluetooth device status (volume up/down for example) and other instructions in 6 languages (British English, American English, French, Italian, Spanish and German).
The voice announcement for CallerID is straightforward and just audibly tells you the number of your caller (for example: One, Two, One, Two, Six, Five, Seven, One, One, Four, Five). The voice announcement for a specific Contact works a little bit differently and requires that you first upload your contacts via Bluetooth to the ST3. The BlueAnt Supertooth 3 is extremely compact and light (barely large than a Centro and weighing only 115 grams) while offering excellent audio quality. With full duplex and full DSP Noise Cancellation + Echo Cancellation as well as Digital Volume Control most of my callers were impressed to hear that I was calling them from a Bluetooth speakerphone as the quality was so good. Additionally, the ST3 can be paired with up to 8 devices and offers up to 15 hours of talk time and 800 hours of standby time.
The Supertooth 3 also offers a Voice Answer Mode which when activated allows the user to accept a call by loudly and clearly saying “Accept Call”, “Accept”, “Answer” or “OK”. The ST3 will disconnect if your phone goes out of range for longer than 20 seconds (exiting your car for example) and BlueAnt has an interesting “Automatic Vibration Sensor Reconnection” which automatically reconnects your phone when the unit feels vibration (like your car door opening). Last but not least, the BlueAnt Supertooth 3 offers a complete accessory kit including two metal clips for your sun visor, a miniUSB wall charger and miniUSB car charger. You can also charge the unit via a miniUSB cable (not included) from any available USB port on your PC.
Overall the BlueAnt Supertooth 3 offers an impressive set of features and functionalities as well as excellent call quality. The Text-To-Speech and voice announcements are also a welcome bonus. As long as you have fewer than 2,000 entries in your phonebook the audio announcement of your Contacts is fun as well as the audio CallerID.
Important Tip to Upload Your Treo or Centro Phonebook Contacts to BlueAnt Supertooth 3
1. Make sure the BlueAnt Supertooth 3 is turned OFF.
2. Press+Hold the Volume Up button and then also press the green button to reset the unit.
3. After completing the above reset, turn the ST3 OFF again and wait at least 10 seconds.
4. Turn unit back ON and select language when prompted.
5. Follow the voice prompts and pair the ST3 with your Treo or Centro smartphone as normal.
6. After pairing has completed you will hear the ST3 announce “loading phonebook – please wait”.
7. When the automatic phonebook transfer has failed do not press the red key key on the unit but instead immediately (without touching any buttons on the ST3) go to your Contacts, select your "All" pull-down category and then select "Send Category" from the Menu (see screenshots below). Please Note: 1) if the Supertooth 3 fails to upload all of your contacts on the first try you will need to unpair it and then restart the above process and 2) you will unfortunately not be able to upload any other category than the “All”. [In my own case, I was able to upload my entire 3,000+ contacts on my second try].
