Why You Can Trust CNET Uniden BTSC1500 review: Uniden BTSC1500
It tries to pack a few too many features on to the one button, but otherwise the BTSC1500 makes for a good in-car companion.
Design and features
Wide and thin, Uniden's BTSC1500 slides easily on to either the front or back of a car's sun visor. Push too hard, though, and the metal clip on the Uniden's back comes off rather too easily. On the device's underside is a mono speaker and a multi-function button responsible for power, call, hang up, pairing, redial and voice control (if available on your phone).
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
With so many functions loaded onto the one button, it's difficult, especially at the beginning, to judge whether you've held the button long enough to issue the relevant command. Sometimes we held the button for too a short period and got redial instead of voice control, while at other times we inadvertently switched the device off by holding it for too long.
There's a small, blue OLED screen sited in the middle of the BTSC1500's leading edge that displays icons for mobile phone, battery and connection status, as well as incoming phone numbers. As the device is quite thin, at around 17mm, you'll need to angle the visor and the device just so to see it.
We successfully paired the BTSC1500 to a number of mobile phones from various makers. Indeed, the Uniden has a neat party trick up its sleeve: it can be paired to two phones simultaneously. Naturally there are a few caveats: both phones must be happy with this polygamous state of affairs and only one phone has access to the speaker at any one time.
Performance
Sound quality is decent and the volume range stretches from quite soft to LOUD! With the volume turned up voices do become a bit too sharp and shrill for our liking. Irritatingly the volume buttons, located above the OLED screen, cannot be held down for a quick volume change from quiet to LOUD! If you're willing to remember the right sequence, the volume buttons can also place callers on hold, switch between calls and recall previously dialled numbers.
Call quality at the other end is OK, with phone buddies judging our voice to be quite distant and a little soft to begin with. The included text-to-speech feature is capable of reading out incoming phone numbers, but given the fact that many of us can barely remember our own phone numbers, let alone anyone else's, it's a shame that it doesn't stretch to reading out callers' names.
The battery is rated for up to 12 hours talk time and 300 hours on standby. An in-car charger with a short, springy cable is supplied as part of the package, with the manual recommending three hours of charging before first use. To help extend battery life, the BTSC1500 will switch itself off after a number of minutes without a Bluetooth connection.
Conclusion
It tries to pack a few too many features on to one button, but otherwise the BTSC1500 makes for a good in-car companion.