Any good hands free to recommend?

Mishomeister

A number of cars have a built in hands free system nowdays so you do not need to put that weird earphone + microphone on your head etc.


But does the similar system exists for a non built in options?


So I could just connect my phone to some device in car and for that device to be able to hear me talking (obviously not directly in to it but a bit of distance away) and to have a speaker on so I could hear what is being said?


Any links would be appreciated.

Nodding_Donkey

Parrot are the best IMO

Stoke

I can't recommend the earpiece kits at all. I bought two sets a few years ago.... one for me and one for my (ex) missus.

We both shared the same feelings about how it 'felt' in the ear: at first it's fine, but after a few minutes it becomes kind of uncomfortable and even a little disorienting. Taking a call was a bit weird.... Obviously you have the initial discomfort of answering the call (done by pressing a button on the side of the earpiece), but then you've also got to turn your radio down, that kind of thing. The whole experience just felt weird and unpleasant.

There's the FM Transmitter option. My dad uses one of these and it's not bad. Sometimes road noise or fan noise from the vents can interfere, but it's on the whole a decent solution.

My favourite option (and has been for a good 6/7 years now) is the aftermarket head unit option. A good aftermarket unit will have Bluetooth and bring a variety of extra features to your car ICE. They're also designed to switch seamlessly between features, so you'll end up appreciating it a lot more and not feeling like taking a call is a pain in the !!!!. That said, there's the cost to consider and this is the most expensive option by some distance.

Mishomeister

I was gifted that FM transmitter thing but I couldn't manage to get it to work properly.


The phone seems to connect fine to it via Blue Tooth, but when I ring some one I do not hear that person.

Stoke

Mishomeister wrote: »

I was gifted that FM transmitter thing but I couldn't manage to get it to work properly.


The phone seems to connect fine to it via Blue Tooth, but when I ring some one I do not hear that person.

Might be a phone issue. It needs to route the audio a certain way for it to work correctly. Some manufacturers try to diverge from the standard way of doing it to incorporate some unimportant accessory you can buy, and then it breaks the functionality with certain devices.... I've found that with my Samsung S7 Edge and USB headsets.

Mishomeister

Stoke wrote: »

Might be a phone issue. It needs to route the audio a certain way for it to work correctly. Some manufacturers try to diverge from the standard way of doing it to incorporate some unimportant accessory you can buy, and then it breaks the functionality with certain devices.... I've found that with my Samsung S7 Edge and USB headsets.

Might as well be.
Both me and my Mrs have Samsung though different models. Did not work on either of those.
I need some device recommended that works with Samsungs

alan_d

https://www.parrot.com/uk/car-kits#discover-car-kits
Or replace the head unit with one with built-in bluetooth / hands-free.

Stoke

Mishomeister wrote: »

Might as well be.
Both me and my Mrs have Samsung though different models. Did not work on either of those.
I need some device recommended that works with Samsungs

I've found my current head unit works perfectly with my Samsung, as did my old one, and the one before that. However, my old one absolutely refused to work with some iPhone's. Was definitely a software issue as it varied between versions of iOS.

There is an element of 'luck of the draw' I find. I remember one of my previous head units having a very nifty feature, using WiFi it could download traffic information while you drove to work via your phones tethering (I think it used Waze or Here). It was erratic as hell. One of my phones it connected every time, with WPA-2 encryption. Another it would only connect with WEP, WPA-2 would essentially result in it refusing to connect 99/100 (always connected after a factory reset though). One device, it refused to connect, even with no security. Cannot explain that at all.

Nodding_Donkey

I-Phones don't do proper Bluetooth