Aura (au-ra)
INTRODUCTION
Noun
pl. au-ras or au-rae
A particular feeling or atmosphere
Example: An aura of mystery surrounded her.
(
Multilingual Dictionary from Dictionary.com website)
Spracht Aura Mobile BT Speakerphone (Sp-rahck-t Au-ra
Mō-bil Spē-ker-phon)
Noun
pl. Spracht Aura Mobile BT
Speakerphones
A lightweight
Bluetooth speakerphone that turns your mobile phone,
PC/Mac (for VoIP calls), or cordless home phone into
a high quality conference phone
(Description from spracht.com website)
Exactly what "particular feeling or atmosphere" does
the Aura Mobile BT create? Read on to find out.
The "particular feeling" I had when reading the
WHAT’S
HOT
features list was that of being impressed:
- Clear and
natural two-way communications (full duplex) - Echo
cancellation and active noise reduction - Integrated
Bluetooth Technology for wireless connection to
your mobile phone - Clear,
understandable color and icon coded LEDs - Bluetooth or
wired connection to PC or Mac for VoIP calls - Compatible
with VoIP applications such as Skype, Yahoo
Messenger with Voice and others - Versatile
disappearing clip attaches to a car visor or
closes for desktop use - Charge
anywhere with home or automotive charger - Bluetooth 1.2
- 4 Hours talk
time / 24 hours standby time
Once you open the box you will see
SETUP
a very nice assortment of included accessories.
(all images link to higher resolution)
The
Aura is packaged in a very nice white and orange box
that shows off the device.
Included in the box is an AC adapter, an auto
charger, cordless phone cable, VoIP cable and an
external microphone.
Obviously, you need to charge the Aura first. You
have a choice of methods to do this as Spracht
includes both an AC adapter and an auto charger. I
would have preferred that a USB charging solution
was included in the package. The easiest way to
accomplish this would have been for the charging
port on the device to be a USB or mini-USB plug.
Spracht could then have included an AC adapter and
auto charger that accept USB cables. This would
still have required only 1 charging port on the
speakerphone and enabled additional charging
flexibility. One of the usage scenarios for this
device involve a business person taking it along on
a trip. When I travel for business, I try to keep
the number of chargers to a bare minimum. I would be
unlikely to take the Spracht along since it requires
another yet another charger.
Let’s take a look at the speakerphone
PRODUCT FEATURES
itself.
The
front top of the speakerphone has three clearly
marked LEDs: Bluetooth, status and charge.
I think Spracht is to be commended for their
implementation of LEDs. This sounds like a minor
thing, but most devices use 1 LED to cut costs. This
can lead to confusion when trying to remember what
everything means. On the Aura, you don’t have to
think that hard… there is an LED for each
function. Furthermore, the LEDs are colored
intuitively, for example the Bluetooth LED is blue,
the charge LED is red and the status LED is green.
The
bottom half of the speakerphone has an array of
buttons. At the bottom center is the power button
and moving clockwise you have buttons for mute,
Bluetooth, volume up and volume down.
The buttons are pretty straightforward except the
Bluetooth button. The icon on this button is of 2
stacked squares. I have no idea what that has to do
with Bluetooth. It would have been better to simply
place the Bluetooth logo or a "B" on this button.
The
top edge of the device contains 3 ports (from left
to right): DC in, line out and external microphone.
The bottom edge (not pictured) contains the
microphone.
You can also use the Aura in your car. I suspect
that this will be the main use of this device for
most buyers.
To accommodate use in a car, Spracht has designed a
very clever sun visor clip. This clip retracts flat
into the device when not in use and is spring
loaded. Unlike other speakerphone’s sun visor clips,
I found the Aura left no unsightly impression on my
car’s sun visor.
The
back of the sun visor clip is also the back of the
device. Spracht made good use of this space and
created a quick start instructions list for pairing
the Aura with a Bluetooth device. Very nice.
One thing I would like to add here is that the Aura
looks and feels like a high-quality product. The
buttons have a nice soft rubber feel to them. The
unit itself is attractive and well-constructed. I
didn’t find any seams that were out of place or
areas where it looks like Spracht cut costs in
manufacturing the device.
One advantage of the Aura is that you have 3 ways to
connect it to your communications device. First,
let’s check out Bluetooth. Bluetooth pairing is
easy… turn on the Aura by pressing the power
button for a few seconds, press and hold the
Bluetooth button on the Aura until the Bluetooth LED
flashes blue and amber, have your phone or PC search
for new devices and when the Aura is found, pair
them using the PIN code "0000". Both my PC and my
Treo 700w found and paired with the Aura without any
drama.
The second way that you can connect the Aura is to a
cordless or mobile phone using a cable included in
the package.
One
end of the cable goes into the middle jack on the
top edge of the Aura and the other end plugs into
the headphone jack of your cordless or mobile phone.
The final way that you can connect the Aura is to a
PC or Mac that is not equipped with Bluetooth. To
accomplish this Spracht included another cable in
the box.
This
cable is designed to plug into a PC or Mac using the
line out and mic jacks. On the Aura end, only one
connection to the middle jack is required.
The
final item in the box is an external microphone.
This mic has a clip on the back and plugs into the
Aura’s mic jack.
The external mic is an interesting addition. At
first, I thought this was a great idea. Then, when I
actually started using the Aura, I found that the
external mic was not necessary. All it seemed to do
was add another cable. I had trouble trying to think
of a situation where the external mic would be
useful and couldn’t come up with one. The built-in
mic works perfectly well and people I talked with
could not tell the difference between the two,
except to say that my voice was a little louder when
using the external mic. Like I said, an interesting
addition but not one that really adds any value to
the package.
Let’s go through the likely usage scenarios and I
will comment on the usefulness and sound quality of
the Aura in each one:
- Use with a
mobile phone over Bluetooth indoors – Although
most mobile phones have a speakerphone function,
they rarely sound very good. If you need to use
a speakerphone function with your mobile, the
Aura is a GREAT solution. The sound quality in a
normal office or conference room is good, mostly
limited by the bandwidth of Bluetooth. - Use with a
mobile or cordless phone using the included
cable indoors – This is similar to the previous
usage scenario. The main difference is
connecting the Aura via cable instead of
Bluetooth. In my testing, this method did sound
better. I would give sound quality here a very
good. - Use with a PC
or Mac over Bluetooth – Even if you have a
really good speaker system and microphone for
your PC, chances are that they will not work
well as a speakerphone. In this scenario, the
Aura shines. When using a software-based VoIP
system, the Aura performs perfectly as a
speakerphone. I can see a scenario here where
someone would make software-based VoIP their
only home or desk phone. Again, sound quality
was good. - Use with a PC
or Mac using the included cable – This is
similar to the previous usage scenario except
the connection is made via cable instead of
Bluetooth. The sound quality here also improves
from good to very good. - Use in a car
with a mobile phone over Bluetooth – As I
mentioned previously, I think this will probably
be the most popular usage scenario for this
device. The Aura does a credible job filtering
out background noise such as the air conditioner
and road noise. The sound quality is again
limited by the bandwidth of Bluetooth, but is
still quite good. In fact, it sounds just as
good as the built-in Bluetooth speakerphone that
my car came with.
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Included in the box is a
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HELP SUPPORT
detailed instruction manual in 3 languages, a quick
start flyer and the Bluetooth pairing instructions
on the back of the device. All of the instructions
are well-written and easy to follow. If you lose
your instructions, you can download them from
Spracht’s website.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
To connect
by Bluetooth, you will need a Bluetooth equipped mobile phone, PC or
Mac. Otherwise, the included cables should allow you to connect to any
mobile or cordless phone with a headphone jack and to a PC.
BUGS AND WISHES
Everything worked fine for me while using the Aura.
That being said, I still have some wishes for the
next version.
My first wish is to change the charging system to a USB-based charging system. I would like to see
a mini-USB jack on the device and a USB to AC wall
charger included along with a USB auto charger. As
far as I am concerned ALL mobile devices should have
a USB charging option out of the box.
Second, the Bluetooth button on the Aura needs to
have a different icon. As I mentioned, the Bluetooth
logo would be ideal.
Third, I would like to see the next version of the
Aura support Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR for improved sound
quality.
Fourth, 4 hours of talk time seems a little bit
short, especially since the Aura has an 1100mAh
internal battery
Lastly, the external microphone is a needless
addition. Spracht can lose this from the next
version.
PURCHASING
I found the Aura listed for as low as $124.42 on
Froogle.com.
online
store for $149.99.
PROS
Bluetooth connection
using a corded connection
instructions on the back of the device
visor clip
CONS
odd
life
Value
Ease
of Use 
Features
Overall
OVERALL IMPRESSION
So, what kind of "particular feeling or atmosphere"
does the Aura project? The word that keeps coming to
mind is quality. When you hold and use this device
you feel like you are using a high-quality product.
Spracht thought through a lot of little details such
as the sun visor clip that make this a better
product that other Bluetooth speakerphones. In
addition, the sound quality is about as good as it
gets over Bluetooth 1.2 and is really very good
using a cable. Most speakerphones sound pretty bad
and the Aura shows them up by sounding very good.
The list price of $149.99 is very high for this
category of product. That being said, the old adage
"you get what you pay for" holds true here. The
build quality is better, the sound quality is
better, the connectivity options are better and the
details have been thought through. I would rather
pay more for a great product than less for an
average product. If quality and connectivity
flexibility are important to you, you found your
speakerphone.
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