The Parrot Minikit handsfree speakerphone promises to free your hands so you can do other things; like typing or driving for example ... why what were you thinking? But does it work? We get calling to find out.
Fairly bulky compared to offerings from Motorola and other handsfree speakerphone manufacturers, the Parrot Minikit has been designed to attach to the sun visor in your car and sit out of the way above your head. Communicating with your phone via Bluetooth, the speakerphone is likely to work with virtually every model phone on the market. The downside to the visor design is that it will always be on show; the upside is you don't have to wear one of those silly looking Bluetooth headsets that make you look like an extra in Star Trek.
The design is simple and black. There is a main knob for controlling volume and the like and two overly large buttons for accepting and hanging up your calls. Parrot it seems, and this is a good thing, don't want you fumbling for the right button mid-drive and there is no chance you'll miss what you are looking to press.
With such big buttons and a big 2 watt omni directional microphone and speaker hidden within there is no room for a screen, no worries say Parrot, because with the Parrot Minikit all the instructions and menu options are vocal spoken to you. "VOLUME...VOLume...volume".
In use and the sound quality is very good. Callers could be heard clearly in all our tests, while we had no reports back of bad sound being transmitted to the other end, and certainly no "You sound like you are in a crisp packet" comments as we've had with previous handsfree speakerphones we've tested here at Pocket-lint.
You also get both a car power adapter as well as a standard power socket adapter in the box to charge the device.
Our quick take
Designed primarily for the car the Minikit is easy to use, easy to pair and a great piece of kit to use. The volume knob rather than two buttons meant that turning the volume down or up while driving was easy without having to avert your eyes and we found actually using it in an office environment was equally as good.
Parrot might not have been your first choice when it comes to speakerphones, but it shouldn't be overlooked.
Parrot Minikit handsfree speakerphone - 4.5 / 5
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To recap
Parrot might not have been your first choice when it comes to speakerphones, but it shouldn't be overlooked