Nitrox hands-free stereo phone kits

Calls through your mono Bluetooth hands-free can be hard to hear – so is new stereo technology the answer? Nitrox has launched its stereo X735 headset and X835 loudspeaker, and we tested them to find out.

Clip the X735 to your seatbelt, attach the headphones to your ears and you’re ready to go. We certainly found we could hear callers much more easily in stereo than mono, and the kit provided good-quality voice reproduction.

But on cranking up the volume, we struggled to hear ambient noise around the car – so users should adjust the headset carefully.

The X835 stereo speaker fixes to the sun visor, and the fastener that grips the material worked well. There’s a clever multifunction button that you can click to redial and hold for speech commands.

But we weren’t convinced about the claims on sound quality with this set-up, as it wasn’t a big improvement over some of the mono units we have tested.

On top of that, our caller was unable to hear us on a few occasions – and as our phone had a full signal, this must have been down to the speaker. So the jury’s out on whether it’s worth upgrading to stereo.

Verdict

 * Contact: 01296 394614, www.nitrox.pro

 * Problems: X735 uses headphones, so isn’t ideal for drivers. X835 cut out when on the move.

 * So why buy? When it works, stereo Bluetooth gives better-quality sound than mono.