BlueAnt Wireless Supertooth 3 Hands-Free Bluetooth Speakerphone

Your phone needs to support the phone-book sync, though; consult your phone's specifications to see if it supports automatic synchronization. If it doesn't, you can instead send your contacts from your phone manually via Bluetooth. But your phone may not support that function, either--if it doesn't, when a call comes in, you'll hear only an announcement of the number. Nevertheless, you can still dial by voice using your phone's feature. In tests the Supertooth 3 listened well and picked up my commands, although I did have to raise my voice a bit.

Call quality was inconsistent. Some calls sounded fine, with crisp voices, but lots of other calls were laced with interference. A couple of callers grumbled about hearing radio noises in the background--but my radio was not switched on at those times. We heard echoes and crackling sounds, and one caller thought the ambient noise sounded as if it were coming from a churning washing machine. Half the time, the interference wasn't a deterrent, but at other times it made lengthy business calls impossible.

One thing to whine about: The Supertooth 3 has a teensy, blinking blue light when turned on, and that proved very distracting, particularly at night--the pipsqueak of a flash would catch the corner of my eye.

Compared with the $100 Parrot Minikit Chic, which also offers automatic phone-book transfer, the Supertooth 3 is a more expensive way to go. In my tests the Parrot's call quality came out slightly ahead, to boot. But the Supertooth 3 offers a feature that the Parrot does not: a choice of languages. You can select British English, American English, Spanish, French, Italian, or German, whereas the Parrot offers one language per unit.