07 Mar Parrot Minikit Neo Bluetooth
Parrot, a global leader in wireless devices for mobile phones, has created an ultra-thin Bluetooth hands free kit, the MINIKIT Neo.
The MINIKIT Neo combines the best of technology in a compact and stylish design, which wraps around a car’s visor with a solid grip. Ideal placement for a Bluetooth as the unit is very near to your mouth and ear.
The Minikit Neo supports 2 phones at the same time and you can receive phone calls from either one, it can remember up to 10 phones paired, and can store up to 2000 contacts per phone, giving a total of 20,000 contacts stored.
A driver can make and receive calls without touching any buttons. By saying the magic word ‘MINIKIT’ at any time, the voice recognition is triggered, and then the driver needs to say the name of the contact that they wish to call. When receiving a call, a driver just needs to say ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’. The kit will then recognise any voice without the need for any programming, matching or training. This actually works surprisingly well, but you have to get used to waiting for the beep before speaking or it will not catch what you are saying.
The MINIKIT Neo also has excellent sound quality. The Digital Signal Processing drastically reduces echo effectively and the large 3W NXT speaker provides very good voice output. The unit also supports stereo audio streaming profile A2DP allowing you to receive any sound output via the speaker, great when using a sat nav app on a phone.
The Neo has two integrated buttons. The green one is pressed to accept calls, dial from your phonebook and activate voice recognition. While the red button is used to hang up and exit menus. Both green and red buttons use a rotary knob which, when pressed, activates the Neo’s audible menu. We were inititally wondering how good the menu system would be without any form of screen, but this thought was very quickly forgotten as the menu system worked surprisingly well. The centre button activates the menu and works as a select button and the rotary knob navigates through the menu.
The pairing process is extremely simple to do and the MINIKIT Neo will vocally guide you through the entire pairing process. When the unit is first paired, it automatically syncs the phone book, so that all names and numbers can be recognised when they are said. The MINIKIT Neo picked up names very well without the need for any voice training.
Battery life was very good on our unit and up until the time of the review it was only charged once. Parrot state the MINIKT Neo gives you 10 hours of talking time. To check battery levels a quick slide of the power button results in the built-in voice telling you the remaining battery percentage. The unit also has a Ultra Low Power Mode, which Parrot states gives up to 6 months standby time. When in this “deep sleep” mode the unit wakes up on vibration, so as you open/close a car door the unit beeps as it wakes up.
Overall an excellent car bluetooth that is definitely recommended. The dual phone support was extremely useful in our tests allowing us to sync our work and personal phone at the same time. During usage we very rarely had to use any of the buttons, and the minikit magic word worked very well. If you are looking for a car bluetooth unit you can now stop searching, as the Parrot Minikit Neo will take care of all your needs.
