We all like to drive safely and one of the biggest causes of accidents today is the use of cell phones while driving.  Supertooth has a number of products aimed at making your mobile life easier and the Supertooth BUDDY is one of their products.  We’ve reviewed the Supertooth HD Speakerphone system and Supertooth Disco Bluetooth cordless speaker system and they’ve al l been top quality products so my expectations are already set high.

Who are Supertooth?

Supertooth, headquartered in Nébias, France, created the concept of Bluetooth speakerphone to be fitted on the sunvisor in 2004. SuperTooth has a presence in more than 35 countries, reached 46 million USD turnover in 2009, and has sold 5 million units since the brand was created, including 1 million SuperTooth speakerphones sold in 2009

What is the Supertooth BUDDY?

The Supertooth BUDDY is Supertooth’s latest compact visor mountable speakerphone system.   It’s a compact rechargeable speaker phone system you take on the road or use as a mobile speaker phone system in your home or office.  It’s small, light and incredibly easy to use and mount.

Product features:

• Bluetooth 2.1 speakerphone.
• Size; 14.6 x 49 x 129mm and weighing only 64 gms
• Battery; 20 Hours talk time an 1000 hours of stand-by time.
• Full Auto Pairing; Automatic pairing between your phone the Supertooth BUDDY.
• Auto Connect; Automatic reconnection between your phone and the Supertooth BUDDY.
• Multipoint; Pair 2 phone simultaneously.
• Zero installation; The Supertooth BUDDY requires no installation

The Supertooth BUDDY has five buttons on the front to control your connection and volume and a USB charging port on the rear along with a magnet used to mount the Supertooth BUDDY to the supplied visor clip.  On the front left hand side of the Supertooth BUDDY is the DSP controlled, echo cancelling microphone.

Pairing your phone to the Supertooth BUDDY is incredibly simple.  Hold down the Multi-Function button (MFB) on the front for a few seconds, browse for the Supertooth BUDDY from your cell phone, hit connect and your done.  Making a phone call is as simple as picking up your phone and dialing as usual, except the Supertooth BUDDY will take over your phones regular voice and speaker functions.  To make things a little safer, you can also use your phones built in voice dialing, if supported, but pressing the MFB on the front of the Supertooth BUDDY for about a second.

Call Quality

I’m always skeptical about third party speaker phones, especially ones being so small.  I’ve always found that no matter how loud they are, I always have a problem hearing them over any road and traffic noise.  It all depends on the vehicle you have too as some vehicles have much better sound dampening than others.

I was pleasantly surprised how clear the voice was using the Supertooth BUDDY.  With the system mounting on your sun visor, it brings the Supertooth BUDDY as close as you could possibly get to your head.  This means that the MIC and Speaker both work very well.  I’ve made a few test phone calls and people have said they can tell I’m on a speakerphone, but I’m still very clear.

I like to drive with my Windows cracked open a little, which only makes using speakerphones even worse, and the Supertooth BUDDY was no exception.  As with almost every Bluetooth speakerphone system, windows closed while making phone calls is almost a necessity.

Issues

There was one problem I found with the Supertooth BUDDY.  You can’t leave your device plugged in and charging while it’s attached to your sun visor as the USB charging port is on the rear of the device. This is the same location as the mounting magnet that attaches the Supertooth BUDDY to the sun visor so the USB charging is blocked when mounted.  They should have put the USB charging port on the side of the device to make this easier.  It’s not a huge problem as the Supertooth BUDDY has a very long battery life, you just have to remember to charge the device when your not using it.

Conclusion

Overall, the Supertooth BUDDY is an excellent and incredibly compact mobile Bluetooth speakerphone that is a great addition to anyone’s mobile product arsenal.  The sound was clear and loud and the Supertooth BUDDY was very easy to configure and use.

If you want more information, you can head over to the Supertooth website and check out the range of products they offer.