Tried & Tested – Bluetooth Hands-free Kits

Although numerous modern cars come with Bluetooth capabilities, there are still many on the road without the luxury of being able to make telephone calls hands-free or listen to your favourite music from your phone. It is a known fact that using your phone whilst driving is a criminal offence and the penalties in the UK have recently become stricter, yet many drivers are still willing to take the risk.

Six points and £200 fine for mobile phone use while driving

There are a wide range of hands-free kits available to buy, with the majority not needing any kind of modification to your car. many of them are a simple case of clipping to your sun visor, pairing to your phone and away you go. We’ve put 4 of these devices, with varying prices, to the test so you can see which one is right for you. Many of these devices, including all the ones we tested, allow you to pair up to two devices at the same time, which is ideal if you have both a personal phone and work phone.

Please note: prices correct at time of writing

Jabra Drive (Amazon price: £40.00 Link)

Jabra offer a wide range of high quality audio devices at reasonable prices and this Bluetooth hands-free kit is no exception. It’s aesthetically pleasing as it clips into the sun visor and has a minimal number of buttons - one on the speaker to answer and end calls and volume control – making it very simple to use and the sound quality is very good on both ends of the line thanks to it

A free app is available for both iOS and Android, called Jabra Assist, which acts as a personal assistant that can read out text messages and notifications from apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp, as well as remembering where you parked your car. The device is compatible with Siri and Google Now voice services, allowing you to use these with ease. Battery life offers 20 hours of talk time and up to a month on standby.

SuperTooth Buddy (Amazon price: £38.99 Link)

For just short of £30, this device doesn’t offer much over the previous two. It offers the same battery life, but features noise cancellation and audio enhancing soft microphone, resulting in clear phone calls. It fits to the clip by a magnet, allowing easy removal for charging. The downside, however, is how it fits to the magnet; when you push a button, it can be very easy to knock the device off the magnet. Not ideal whilst you’re driving.

PARROT MINIKIT Neo 2 (Amazon price: £55.00 Link)

Parrot are pioneers of in-car hands free devices. Many Parrot kits require you to have them professionally fitted, but this Neo 2 simply clips onto your sun visor and offers a lot of features. The call quality is excellent and is the only device out of the ones we reviewed that offers good quality sound for music played from your phone. A free app is available for your smartphone that allows you to make the most of your hands-free kit and has handy features such as prompting you to take a break if you’ve been driving a while and a parking timer so you don’t go over the limit at the service station, to name a few.

Battery life is not as impressive for talk time; only offering 10 hours. On standby, however, this device can last up to an impressive 6 months! Regardless, if you’re out and about a lot and need access to your phone regularly, this is the one to go for.