INTRODUCTION


Ever get tired of holding that cellphone up to your head (especially during summer)? Or, alternatively, do you get weary of having a headset hanging from your ear? What you need is a speakerphone. Problem is, most speakerphones that are built-in to our cellphones aren’t great. Tekkeon has released their new alternative, the Bluetooth enabled ezSpeak (ET6000), hoping to help with the listening doldrums. How were the results? Read on for the review!
AT A GLANCE
  




     Outfitted in silver and black, weighing in at just over three ounces, and as big as my XV6700 phone, the Tekkeon ezSpeak is no small figure (although, it is very lightweight, considering). The speaker is located on the left side, the screen in the middle, and the microphone hole on the right. Above the screen is the charging light (green for charged, red for charging), and the Call End/Power button. On the top and bottom of the unit is volume control and main answer button. The buttons have a nice feel to them, and the silver paint has survived the abuse I’ve thrown at it thus far.

The back of the speakerphone is fairly plain. It has a reset button, the clip area, an I/O port (for which no cable is included), and four feet with rubber ends (in case you use it without the clip). The surface on this side of the device is almost like brushed rubber – soft, yet tactile.
  
Power is provided via the lithium polymer battery (with a talk time of up to ten hours), and when that is about depleted (indicated on screen), you can recharge the unit in two hours with the included lighter adapter. Attached to this CLA is enough cord to stretch from one end of the cabin to the other. There is an optional wall charger available, if desired.
  
Also included in the kit is a visor clip and two mounting methods: straight or swivel. The clips doesn’t mount quite as tightly as I expected, but I never had a problem with it falling off during use either.

     When you power on the ET6000 (after a standard Bluetooth pairing and connection), the backlight fires up, and your phone name will appear. After about eight seconds, the display will turn off, but the unit will continue to run. In standby mode, the ezSpeak can maintain power for a whopping 220 hours! The Bluetooth version for this model is 1.2, and is backwards compatible with 1.1; pairing with up to seven devices.

Pressing the volume keys adjust the volume and indicator accordingly. The volume of my XV6700 speakerphone equates to approximately five bars on the ezSpeak unit.

To use the Voice Dial capabilities of your phone, you simply press and hold the call button for a few seconds.

     Tapping twice on the call button will make the ezSpeak redial its last call. It doesn’t show the last number that was called though. There is another redial feature for that. By holding the plus button (or volume up), you can cycle through the last ten calls that came through or went out. Find the one you want, and press the call button to connect.

One of the really great features of the ET6000 is the caller ID (assuming your phone supports it). When someone calls in, their number will show up on the screen. Sadly, no name, even if there is one on your phone – just the number will appear.
  
     When a call is active, the screen shows, guess what, Call Active! So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that when you are calling, it says just that. While it may seem a little verbose, I’m actually thankful the notifications exist. Without them, you’d always have to be checking your cellphone screen for status updates.

At the end of the call, the display shows, well, Call End, as expected.

     The ezSpeak easily mounts to ones sun visor, as you can see in the example. The screen is a fairly to read from this angle, especially with the backlight. The performance and call volume, while in my car, was great. I did hear some complaints when I used the speakerphone in my home office, but this could have been due to my phone as when I moved to the kitchen, the problems were lessened.

I found that mounting the ET6000 on the "OSH" of my car allowed me to hear the speaker a little better without having to keep the volume at an ear-blasting level. It does have a drawback though, this configuration doesn’t allow me to see the screen very well.