Parrot MINIKIT CHIC: iPhone Bluetooth Device Review
Posted by Cyprian on March 12th, 2009 at 03:02pm Comments
iPhone Bluetooth Device Review: Parrot MINIKIT CHIC
Reviewed by: Cyprian Peters
-Official website
Price: $109.99
Parrot is a company that makes a variety of different types of in-car Bluetooth, hands-free systems. Some are integrated into the car itself, others are plug and play, like the Minikit Chic. It should be mentioned off the top that this product is intended for women users. Parrot also has the Minikit Slim, which has the same capabilities, with a different design on the front of it.
The front of the Chic has a flower design on it, which I think is very tattoo-like. Even being a guy, and having shown it to a few other guys, we agree it looks cool, regardless of your gender. Alright, we know this thing looks good, but how does it work?
I was eager to see how this Bluetooth device matched up to others I’ve tried. I’ve had a hands-free system in my car hooked into the deck for a while now. Let me tell you, being able to talk into the air and listen through the car speakers is a great thing. The Chic, doesn’t quite allow you to do this as it is a plug and play, but it sure does its intended job well.
Now, being fairly tech savvy, I usually try and use something before reading the instruction manual. If all else fails, I do some reading. I took the Chic out of the box, turned it on, and started pressing buttons. I was quite surprised when it started talking to me out of nowhere. After I had it paired, a woman’s voice told me that my contacts were synching to the device, without me even pressing anything! I really didn’t know what kind of features the Chic had before I got it but it has voice integration, and it’s really cool.
Using a combination of three buttons and a knob that turns, you can do a variety of things. Change the volume, make a call, record a voice tag for a contact, scroll through your address book. Basically, once your contacts are in the Chic, you can go through your contact numbers list from A to Z and the lovely lady in the Chic will do her best to pronounce each and every name. Most phones will sync automatically, but if not, the Chic allows you to push your contacts to it manually. Obviously, because it is a computer, don’t expect your name to sound exactly how it’s supposed to. Some get butchered!
In the same way you can find contacts, you can also make a call using your voice. It is as simple as pressing the green ‘talk’ button and saying a name. You can also choose which number you want to call, for example: ‘Call Dan at home’. Now, for names that aren’t very basic, the voice recognition isn’t the best. You’re better off recording your own tag or manually finding them with the knob. It’s great for easy ones like ‘Home’ though. A very cool feature you can use to impress your friends.
The Chic is intended to be used in the car and has a clip on the back of it which you can attach to your sun visor. I found if you put the visor down, you get better sound quality for the person on the other end. Since it is a stand-alone unit, the volume output isn’t incredible. It can be tricky to hear if you’re driving with the window down, have music on, or you have a loud car with not great sound proofing like me. If you do get it decently quiet though, hearing is fine, and the people I talked to told me they could hear me fine.
The Chic has a rechargeable built in battery, and comes with a car charger and USB cable. The latter can be used to hook up to your Windows only (for now) computer and update the firmware. I tried out this process and it has nice instructions with a step by step wizard you can use from the website.
If you’re looking for some sort of Bluetooth device you can use in your car, or anywhere for that matter, the Chic is a great product. Great for those who don’t like the look or feel of wearing a headset. The price is a good one too, especially with the voice activation and automatic synching built in. I showed this to a bunch of different people and they were all blown away. A solid silver and would be higher with better voice recognition. Have a look at it!
Score:
9/10
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