Review of the Motorola T505 SpeakerPhone: How Well Does it Work?

Review of the Motorola T505 SpeakerPhone: How Well Does it Work?
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Go Hands Free in Your Car

Talking on your cellphone while driving is dangerous to your safety as well as others inside and outside the car. However with today’s hectic pace of life it becomes a necessity to juggle responsibilities, hence we all talk over the phone while driving some time or other. The relatively safe way of communicating over the phone while driving is to use a handsfree device. We’ll take a look at the Motorokr T505, which is a car mountable handsfree wireless device, and see if it’s worth your money.

Design (4 out of 5)

The Motorokr T505 is a little bigger than a classic pager and comes with a clip that holds onto your sunvisor. The device is very simple looking and is intended to be used in-car only and so the size shouldn’t be an issue. The device has a simple look with two buttons on the front and a Motorola logo and the reverse side holds the FM switch and a mini USB port for charging purposes. The device can be charge by connecting it to the standard cigarette lighter port, though having it charge while fixed to the sunvisor could be a hassle since the charging cable will run down in front of the windshield. It’s better to have the device lying on the dash while charging and you can later fix it on the sunvisor while driving. On either side of the device are the volume up and down buttons which are easy enough to operate while driving. There is also a multicolored LED on the front which communicates the device’s status.

Features (5 out of 5)

motorola t505 front view

motorokr T505 rear view

Though the device looks very simple it has additional features over the average Bluetooth hands-free devices for cars. Since the unit lacks a display it depends on audio notifications, the device speaks out loud the caller ID of an incoming call and also allows voice based calling, provided that your phone supports this feature too. The Motorola T505 can connect to your Bluetooth enabled mobile phone and can also playback music streamed from your phone. The device is A2DP capable which means the streaming music is stereo unlike most mono Bluetooth headsets. The device incorporates echo and noise cancellation which should considerably enhance voice calling and provide clear audio to the recipient and the caller. The device has a operating range of 30 ft, which means there won’t be any problem with reception no matter where the device is located in the car. The FM functionality allows you to stream music from your phone directly to your car’s stereo system, so quality depends on the audio system that you use in your car. There seem to be no problems in the FM transmissions, when the phone receives a call while playing music the music is paused and the call transferred to your audio system and, after you’re done answering, it resumes the music. The Motorola T505 is reported to have a talk time of 18hrs on a single charge which is welcome since this 18hrs talk time is inclusive of FM usage. Coming to the actual phone functionality, you can accept a call by pressing the phone answer icon on the front of the device and can even initiate a call by pressing and holding the answer button to initiate a call to the last number called or received.

Performance (4 out of 5)

motorokr t505

Connectivity options on the device functioned flawlessly. The device was easily able to pair up with any Bluetooth capable phone and its FM functionality was clear. The T505 does an automatic frequency selection for FM connectivity and speaks out the FM frequency that you should tune your car audio system to and once that’s done its connected. This whole connection process is seamless and easy to perform. There is a slight loss in audio quality due to the FM compression however that does not impact much on the quality of audio call. The charging of the device completely does give a very extended usage period so talk time limitations are not noticeable. The only significant “problem”, if one could call it that, is the microphone/speaker combination of the Motorola T505. The audio interface on the Motorola T505 is a non-duplex system which means that the mic is deactivated when the speaker is in use and vice-versa, which actually reduces echoes and other background noises but introduces a “weirdness”. It takes time getting used to a non-duplex audio interface and this could result in an unnatural pause in conversations. Of course this is how walkie talkies work but we’re not naturally used to this on mobile phones and could be a little tricky when you start out. The speaker and microphone combination on the Motorola T505 are good, providing loud and clear audio with a little bit of hiss or buzz in the background.

Verdict

The Motorola T505 is one of the most feature rich Bluetooth handsfree devices available today at its price range. Rather than just being a “vanilla” handsfree option the Motorola T505 has included thoughtful features that definitely make it stand out from the crowd. Priced at around $55 the Motorokr T505 may appear to be a bit more pricey than other options, but it’s worth the few extra bucks.