Top positive review
1,162 people found this helpful
Why did I buy three Jabra Freeway Bluetooth Speakerphones
By Dr. Henry M. Donselman on Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2011
This is a review for Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone I'm not one to take my time to write reviews, but after purchasing three of these speakerphones I thought maybe it would be helpful to tell you why this is the best speakerphone I have ever used. We live in California and, by law, have to have our Cell Phones connected by Bluetooth if we use them in the car. I have probably used 4-5 different brands and configurations in the past 5 years - all with mixed results, until I came across the Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone. I really dislike using in-ear Bluetooth devices (for many reasons, but mainly because they interfere with hearing and make you look like a . . . . ). Speakerphones I have used in the past (including the less expensive Jabra products) seemed to never clearly pick-up my voice and transmit it to the caller. When I purchased my first Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone (after reading a glowing CNET Review) I started using it as soon as I charged it for a couple of hours. It is the easiest, most user friendly product I have bought in a long time. Getting up and running requires: 1. Charge unit (USB) 2. Turn on Cell Phone and put in pairing mode 3. Turn on Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone - it will find the phone and announce "Connected" 4. That's it, your done. Now to use it you only have to do one thing and remember 2 words: 1. Attach the Speakerphone to your visor and turn it on. 2. Remember 2 words when it announces by name an incoming call. a) Answer (connects you to an incoming call) or b) Cancel (phone goes straight to you voice answer message). It really is that easy. There is a lot more that the Speakerphone will do, and there is a one year subscription to a second party company that keeps all your contacts + more so you can call one number and transfer to anyone in your contacts, send text, etc. But you really don't need to know or use any of that. Oh, I forgot, the main reason I like the Jabra FREEWAY Bluetooth Speakerphone is that my clients have no clue that I am even on a Bluetooth device when I talk to them in the car. No extraneous noise, no wind noise, just a clear voice. That, plus the ease of use is why I keep buying more of these and giving them to my wife, children, etc. Did I mention that once you turn the Jabra Freeway on you don't have to touch/recharge it for a month or more (my experience, moderate use). It turns itself on when I get in the car, and turns itself off when I exit (motion detector). Pros: All of the above. Plus, iTune music sounds pretty good through the 3 speakers and podcasts are great (you can also transmit the music/podcast to you FM radio) - the Speakerphone "knows" to to stop the music/podcast if a call comes in. Cons: It takes a couple of minutes for the speakerphone to turn-off automatically when you you leave the car. For a short time, if you are fairly close to the car (in you home or office) the unit still picks-up calls. This has happened to me only once, and my iPhone asks if I want to not use the Bluetooth on the screen, so it really is a minor annoyance.
Top critical review
2 people found this helpful
OK but lots of Problems with Voice Assist & Recognizing Commands
By Cauchemar on Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2013
I've had this for one week now and overall I'm pretty happy with it, and I'm still trying to figure out how to use it best. The sound from the 3 speaker system is great, better than expected, and a vast improvement over a $30 bluetooth speaker I had been using in my car. If the FM transmitter feature didn't work, I'd still be happy with the sound quality I get for my music, which is probably the most important feature for me with this device. BUT THE FM TRANSMITTER DOES WORK for me in my 2002 Toyota Corolla, despite the problems other reviewers have complained about and the problems in general with FM transmitter technology. And I live in a dense urban area. It's great to have my tunes on my car stereo, as well as calls and my voice navigation or whatever else I'm doing. For me, I've found a couple stations that work fine for my commute to work and around town that I don't have to change stations for. I don't know how well it will work on a long roadtrip in other areas but we'll see. It does charge in two hours in my car or in any USB port, and the battery life is extremely good so far. The item is small enough to put in my pocket if I want to take it in the house to charge, or I can pop it in my glove box if I don't want it visible when my car is parked in a questionable neighborhood. Also, I've had no problem with the automatic on and off feature, works fine for me; and it's really no big deal to use the manual on/off switch anyway so I don't know why anyone would complain about that. The Jabra website has a more detailed and easier to read User Manual that you can download, which is easier to read and follow than the tiny little booklet that comes with the original packaging. Also, there's a new driver for download on the website which is easy to install (it doesn't tell you this, but just connect your Freeway to your computer USB port and then execute/run the driver download file that you've downloaded to that computer). New driver installs automatically. Other reviewers complained that the voice prompts are too loud, but they don't sound too loud to me, so maybe they did fix this problem with the driver update. The biggest problem I've had is with Voice Assistant. I made a couple calls with it. Not sure how useful it will be for me. Because Freeway does work with my android personal assistant app (Speaktoit Assistant) running on my Galaxy Centura phone (a Siri like app for android). This gives me the ability to make calls directly, and access numerous other apps on my phone (music player, Scout GPS navigation, social networking apps, calendar, etc. And my Assistant will read my incoming text messages, send texts or emails, get news, weather and search for anything. So I'm not really sure that I need Voice Assist anyway. It's also a pain to setup your contacts separately with your Voice Assist account and then I will manually have to keep updating/syncing my contacts with Voice Assist. That's a hassle I don't need. Also, I've now tried having Voice Assist read my emails. This is useful. However, Voice Assist has a really terrible robotic female voice, really primitive by today's standards. I can't believe they use such a terrible robotic speech engine. Very unpleasant. Also, although it pairs automatically with my phone with a very easy setup, for some reason I've had to repair it a few times when it hasn't connected automatically. Not sure why this is happening. The Freeway doesn't always recognize my voice commands--there are only a handful and they're simple like "Play" for play music, or "Battery" to check battery level, but it's frustrating when I have to repeat myself several times, and I'm not sure why this happens sometimes and not other times. I make and receive very few calls in my car, so if this was my most important feature I'd definitely have to lower my rating. Also, while Freeway is working good with my Speaktoit Assistant, I discovered it wouldn't work at all with an alternative top-rated android assistant I was trying out, Nuance's Dragon Mobility Assistant. I'll update my review later after I've had more experience. UPDATE: After two more weeks of usage, I'm downgrading this to 3 stars. The voice/command recognition, with or without Voice Assist, is very poor. It's very frustrating to repeat commands five or six times and still not have them understood. I have a clear loud voice, no accent. Very frustrating.
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