Jabra SP200 Bluetooth speakerphone review: Jabra SP200 Bluetooth speakerphone

Not everyone likes Bluetooth headsets when driving in the car; it can be a pain to wear all the time, and sometimes you can forget to bring it with you. A possible solution is to choose a Bluetooth speakerphone instead, which you can easily hang on your car's visor. Jabra came out with the Jabra SP700 Bluetooth speakerphone last year, and it had a ton of features like stereo Bluetooth and an FM transmitter, but it was a bit high-end at around $90 retail.

So, for this year, Jabra launched a cheaper and lower-end version, dubbed the Jabra SP200. It doesn't have as many features as its older brother, but it still works great as a speakerphone and only costs around $50. However, you can also get the more advanced Jabra SP700 for $50 these days if you shop around online. Still, the SP200 isn't as complicated as the SP700 to use if all you need is a simple Bluetooth speakerphone.

The Jabra SP200 looks a little like the SP700, except smaller. It has a flat oval shape, with dimpled dots along its front. It measures around 4.8 inches long by 2.2 inches wide by 0.8 inch deep, and is small enough so that it won't look unsightly on your car's visor. On the face of it are a large Answer/End button at the top, a small LED light in the middle, and a circular speaker grille at the bottom. At the very top of the SP200 is a large volume wheel. On the back of the SP200 is a metal visor clip.

You position the SP200 on the underside of the car's visor so that the clip faces the ceiling. With this in place, we found it really easy to find and tap the Answer/End button even with our eyes on the road. The same goes for adjusting the volume, due to the large scroll wheel. The power switch is on the device's left side, while the charger jack is on the right. We appreciate a dedicated power switch, so it's easier to shut it off and conserve power when the SP200 is not in use.

Features of the SP200 are fairly basic as far as Bluetooth speakerphones go. You can answer, end, and reject calls, plus it has voice dialing support, last number redial, call mute, and you can transfer calls from the phone to the speakerphone and vice versa. Also, when you disconnect your phone, the speakerphone has a sleep mode that makes it turn off after 15 minutes. Simply tap the Answer/End button to turn it back on.

We paired the Jabra SP200 with the Apple iPhone 3G. Call quality was quite impressive. Callers could hear us even over the din of engine noise, perhaps due to the SP200's noise reduction and echo cancellation. They could still hear road noise though, so it wasn't perfect. Still, we managed to carry on a conversation without a lot of static or muffled sounds. On our end, the callers sounded loud and clear, though a bit tinny and hollow at times.

The Jabra SP200 comes with a USB charger and an in-car charger. It has a rated talk time of 10 hours and a rated standby time of 23 days, which is quite impressive.