SuperTooth Buddy review

If you spend a lot of time on the road, a hands-free kit for your car is a must. It allows you to keep your hands on the wheel, and your eyes on the road, and a good one works seamlessly. The SuperTooth Buddy, daft name aside, is one of these.

Its speaker is loud and distortion free, and the microphone picks up clearly. Sound quality is exceptional, and we also used it as a remote speaker for Nokia Maps on an N97 handset, with excellent results.

It's not just about quality audio, important though that is. The Buddy is also crammed with other neat features. First, it's just about the easiest Bluetooth product we've come across to pair. All you do is make sure your phone is visible, bring it close to the Buddy and hit the green phone key once, and it will take care of pairing automatically.

Second, as it supports Bluetooth 2.1, the Buddy can be paired with two phones simultaneously; great for travelers who carry a work and personal handset with them on the road. And third, although not the most compact speaker system around, the mounting system is elegant and practical. The speaker unit attaches to the metal sun visor clip via a strong magnet, allowing you to quickly remove it and stow it out of sight.

Battery life is good too, with a claimed 20 hours of continuous use and 1,000 hours in standby – enough for weeks of use between charges. When you do need to charge it, there's a USB cable and charger unit supplied in the box. And there are a host of other useful touches, including large, easy to press volume buttons, plus voice recognition dialing for phones that support the feature.

The SuperTooth Buddy isn't the cheapest hands-free speaker kit at a comparatively pricey £43 exc VAT, but it’s the best we've used. If you take a lot of calls on the road, it's well worth paying the extra.

Author: Jonathan Bray