Why You Can Trust CNET BlueAnt V1 Bluetooth Headset review: BlueAnt V1 Bluetooth Headset
The V1's basic functionality is good, but its voice control feature is superb. This is the perfect headset for anyone looking for something to connect their phone to while they're driving.
Design
Do you think it'd be weird to wear a flesh-tone Bluetooth headset, something that would camouflage easily against your ear and cheek? We started to wonder this after BlueAnt delivered the V1 to us for review. Its size and shape are about what you'd expect from a Bluetooth headset, but its faux-metallic exterior make us wish it were black, or flesh tone.
BlueAnt V1 Bluetooth Headset
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Aside from the colour scheme, the V1 features a minimal and comfortable design. It comes with two ear hooks and two ear-bud sizes so you can select the best fit. The V1 unit features three buttons only; two for volume control and a multi-purpose "BlueAnt button" for accessing all other headset features, including pairing and taking calls. The V1 doesn't have any visible battery meters or information panel, but as you'll read later, this is hardly a drawback.
The V1 is bundled with a car charging kit, plus a standard wall charger and USB cables. The charging connection on the V1 looks like a standard mini USB port, but is in fact smaller, and only compatible with the included cables.
Features
BlueAnt's V1 title refers to the headset's use of voice guidance for all input with the headset. When you power the headset on, make sure you're wearing the V1 because a gentle, reassuring voice will immediately start guiding you through how to use it, starting with how to pair your phone to the headset. This is called the BlueGenie Voice Interface and it's such a simple, well implemented concept it had us wondering why other companies don't make use of similar systems, having us instead rely on the manual and those tiny LED screens we tend to see on Bluetooth units.
Voice is also used to control the V1, and BlueGenie is capable of understanding a range of pre-instructed voice commands. For example, pressing the BlueAnt button and saying "check battery" will have BlueGenie reply with the remaining battery levels, and pressing the same button and saying "voicemail" will dial the speed dial setting number 1 on your phone which is usually set to dial voicemail numbers by default. If you forget which commands you can use, saying "What can I say?" will have BlueGenie recite the available commands.
Performance
The BlueAnt V1 gets the big thumbs up all round from us. Using the voice commands is easy and accurate. The V1 we reviewed featured an Australian voice and recognised our accent flawlessly. The system is very user friendly and reasonably powerful, once you've personalised it. The unit accesses your phone's preset speed-dialling options, so once you've set up your nine most frequently dialled numbers, calling them is as simple as making your demands into the microphone.
Call quality was excellent during our tests. We reviewed the V1 side-by-side with the Sony Ericsson HBH-PV740 and the V1 came out a clear winner. We called the same people to test our connections and everyone agreed that the audio during calls was louder and with less distortion.
Overall
The V1 is a solid unit that does the basics well, but it's the V1's BlueGenie voice interface that has really won us over. BlueAnt has stripped out something that frustrates us about Bluetooth headsets and replaced it with an ingenious system. Using the V1 is so easy and the performance is so good that we're more than willing to overlook the parts of the headset's design we don't love as much. Voice commands make the V1 an excellent choice for people who use their hands-free headsets while driving.