This makes it arguably the best choice for using in the car as a Sat Nav, as trying to read the map on a tiny screen whilst in the middle of the road has obvious drawbacks!  Its large size also makes it harder to hold securely in the car, though, so here’s my rundown of some of the best HTC Desire HD car holders that will keep you safely on the straight and narrow.

Firm & Flexible…

Brodit Active Holder

Brodit Active Holder with Tilt & Swivel for HTC Desire HD
The Brodit Active Holder is a great choice for those who want the ultimate in flexibility, featuring as it does a specially-designed tilt and swivel ball which lets you position it at the optimum angle.  This makes the screen easily viewable when using your phone as a navigation system, as well as helping to avoid bothersome light reflections.   This HTC Desire HD car holder also offers extra charging versatility, as when the phone is placed in the holder it connects to the charging circuit and keeps your phone topped up.

The Brodit Active Holder can be screwed onto your dashboard using the pre-drilled holed, or placed anywhere in your vehicle using the Universal Suction Mount. £34.95

Pros:
Adjustable & flexible
Charger included

Cons:
Needs to be drilled into place (unless you use the Suction Mount)

Cheap & Cheerful…

The Dash Genie

The Dash Genie
At only £14.99, this little piece of kit is about the simplest and least costly you can get.  For the price, though, it’s a brilliantly sturdy item, and will attach easily to any dashboard or windscreen surface with its super-strong clamp system.  The real genius of the Dash Genie is in the specially-designed sticky material, which allows you to simply stick your phone on and go.  There’s no need to attach anything to the back of your phone, and the Genie won’t leave any sticky residue on your phone after detaching.  I have one in my car, and the efficacy of the stick does wear out over time as it attracts dust and dirt – but a wipe with a damp cloth sorts it out and restores it back to its former glory.

Pros:
Easily applied – just stick on & go!
Adjustable
No sticky residue
Universal – almost any device (within reason! I can’t imagine it’d hold an iPad…)

Cons:
Needs cleaning
No charging capacity

Active & Environmentally-Aware…

Bike Holder for HTC Desire HD

Bike Holder for HTC Desire HD
Of course, we don’t all get everywhere on four wheels – for those a little more intrepid, you can also pick up an HTC Desire HD bike holder for your two-wheeled steed.  Cycling is a great alternative mode of transport for people making shorter journeys; it’s good exercise and much more environmentally-friendly.  Having access to your phone whilst on your bike makes it easy to track your exercise progress, or find your way around using Sat Nav.  The Bike Holder rotates  by 360°, so apps can be viewed in either landscape or portrait, and your phone will be held securely in place as you ride.

Pros:
Adjustable & flexible
Environmentally-friendly
Access to exercise apps

Cons
You’ll have to put a bit of legwork into it!

Go the Extra Mile…

HTC Desire HD Car Upgrade Kit - CU S400

At £61.23, HTC’s own car upgrade kit is pricey, but for those who want real top quality then it’s definitely worth the extra expenditure.  This one was actually designed originally for the HTC HD2, but is compatible with the Desire HD, giving a tight fit and full support.  With a fully adjustable stalk, the Upgrade Kit has all the tilting benefits of the Brodit (see above), and also comes with an HTC car charger to keep your phone powered up during the drive.  The kit can be attached to your windscreen, and also comes complete with a suction pad if you prefer to attach to the dashboard.  What truly sets the Upgrade Kit apart, though, is the feeling of sturdiness and quality to the piece; this is an item that will truly go the distance.

Don’t just take it from me though – take a look at Roy Tanck’s review of the HTC Desire car holder version of the kit.

Pros:
Oozes quality
Charger included
Suction pad included
Adjustable & flexible

Cons:
Originally designed for the HD2
Pricey

A wide range of other HTC Desire HD accessories are available on the main site.

Jabra SP700 Bluetooth Speakerphone

So when presented with the opportunity to try yet another Handsfree Bluetooth in-car visor product I did not climb over the office furniture or rugby tackle fellow colleagues to be first in the queue.  However  on this occasion a particular feature of the Jabra SP700 caught my imagination – it claimed to offer  both voice and stereo music streaming direct from my Bluetooth enabled mobile phone to my in-car entertainment unit.

In the Box

The compact and stylish Bluetooth speakerphone also comes supplied with a visor clip that is already fitted, a USB charger cable, USB car charger and ‘plain English’ and compact user guide.

Jabra SP700 Bluetooth Speakerphone Box Contents

Getting Started

Just connect the USB charger cable to a spare USB port on your computer and up pops an illuminated  red battery icon to indicated that it is charging. When fully charged this icon then changes to green.  If you do not have easy or regular access to a computer then think about  purchasing a USB Mains Charger and use the USB charger cable  provided in the box when not in the car.  On the front of the unit are a range of icons that illuminate to indicate what status the speakerphone is in.  I will discuss these in detail later.

There is no dedicated off/on button, and although not immediately obvious, this function is activated by  pressing  and holding the front of the speakerphone; 2 seconds to switch it on and  4 seconds to switch it off.  If like me, you tend to exit your vehicle and forget to switch the speakerphone off then do not worry, the SP700 has an auto-power off when the phone is out of its Bluetooth range.

Pairing the SP700 to your mobile phone couldn’t be easier; when you switch it on for the first time it automatically enters its pairing mode which is clearly indicated by an illuminated Bluetooth Status icon appearing.  Next, just activate the Bluetooth function on your phone and set the phone to “discover” the SP700, enter the pin code (0000), mount it to your car visor and you’re good to go!

The Jabra SP700 clips neatly to your sun visor in the car

Controls

Now the SP700 is not big on controls, I have already mentioned the lack of an on/off button and it does not have any audio adjustment controls aside of a volume up & down button on one side of the unit, and there is also a FM transmitter button located on the opposite side.

Features

Now the SP700 provides the basic functions like any other like handsfree kit, as well as supporting extended features of some phone models like voice dialling – which as you may have already experienced is a potential Olympic Linguistic event in its own right.  Also the SP700 features advanced noise reduction and echo cancellation that insures excellent sound quality on both sides of the call.

When using the SP700 the current status is clarified by a clear voice announcement – available in 10 languages – a treat no doubt for those multi lingual potential users out there or those wanting to practice some basic phrases before arriving at their international holiday destination this summer!

The voice announcer switches from a female to a male voice for different status alerts.  However the announcement that caught me by surprise was the one that announced the caller ID of an incoming call – brilliant – and by pressing the front of the speakerphone I could answer or end the call.  The announcer also confirms when the speakerphone is switched off and also when it has made connection with your mobile  phone.

I found the clarity of the incoming call to be excellent by comparison to other Bluetooth visor speaker phones that I have used in the past, and I can confidently say that my voice was clearly received by my caller.  I must admit that my vehicle  suffers from very little cabin noise generally – however I also tested it in my wife’s 1.4 about town vehicle which isn’t a tractor by any means – but with mischievous and noisy kids in tow I still found the SP700’s speakerphone to be equally as impressive.

The Jabra SP700 has a classic, slim line design

The best feature is the FM transmission -  A simple press of the FM transmission button illuminates the FM transmission icon and speakerphone mute icon, then kicks the voice announcer into action as she clearly tells you the FM frequency to tune your car radio to.  If this frequency is congested by existing  radio stations then you can make adjustments by 0.1MHz at a time using the volume keys, the announcer will recite the new frequency selected each time you make a change.  My radios’ RDS function displayed the word JABRA to indicate that I had sourced the correct frequency and I promptly saved it to a spare preset number.   This remains the fixed FM frequency unless you make a change as previously mentioned or reset the unit to factory settings.  The only thing I did not have time to test was how the selected FM frequency would stand up to long journeys whereby you may drift into localised radio stations sharing the same frequency; however, the ease I found in changing frequencies leaves me quite confident that such an event occurring would not be a major problem to resolve.

The Nokia E71 phone was used to test the SP700 for streaming music to my car stereo, on hitting the play button on the phone, music came belting out almost immediately through the car speakers.  The quality was fairly good, however I found that the SP700’s lack of audio controls came to haunt it as the volume controls previous used to adjust the FM frequency remain set to this function while in FM transmission mode,  so you have to rely on your in-car audio controls to equalize the sound and adjust the volume.  This sometimes is a problem when you switch back to the radio or CD mode as the volume can sometimes be far too high for those built in sources.

Taking calls using the FM transmission mode was a delight, however be aware that your calls may be picked up by a stranger who is tuned to the same FM frequency and in close proximity to your vehicle, so keep this feature just for music or calls that are not of a private or sensitive nature.  On a final point if you turn off your radio or forget to change the status of the SP700 back to its own speakers, then the SP700 automatically disconnects from its FM transmission status following a period of non-use.

The SP700 boasts up to14 hours talk time & up to 255 hours standby however after a week of testing I am yet to re-charge.

Conclusion

I must admit the SP700 has not changed my preference which is to avoid taking calls while driving if I can, however when circumstances dictate that this is unavoidable or for those of you or where this is a day to day necessity then the SP700 does not disappoint, mainly because of its ease of use, functionality, portability and quality.  The Ace up its sleeve however is the FM transmission that adds a more practical and up to date feature for all music lovers who have migrated their favourite playlists into the fashionable multi-media Bluetooth mobile phones that are currently available – a smart move by Jabra.

I grabbed a Nokia HF-310 and tried it out to see how the new Nokia car kit shapes up.

In the Box

With most ‘plug and play’ Bluetooth car kits, you normally get the loud speaker, visor clip and a charger of some description, you get the same with the Nokia HF-310, but you also get a couple of extra items – a windscreen suction holder and  a suction pad that you can use anywhere in the car.  The charger that the HF-310 uses is a Nokia DC-4, the same 2mm car charger that most of the current Nokia handsets use, so you won’t need to buy a seperate charger for your phone.

Nokia HF-310 Box Contents

Mounting Options

Nearly every simple car kit I’ve tried either clips on your sun visor or plugs into your cigarette lighter, now this may seem like convenient places for them to go, but in reality it often means that the built in micorphone is nowhere near you or your mouth which can lead to the person on the other end of the phone really struggling to hear what you’re saying.  The Nokia HF-310 has a number of tricks up its sleeve to overcome this problem. The HF-310 is a small kit so you’ll find you can mount it just about anywhere.  The HF-310 measures 80mm x 21mm so it’s roughly the same size as your tax disc.

Visor Mount
Unlike most kits, the visor clip on the Hf-310 isn’t just a clip. It clips on to your visor and a velcro strap wraps round the visor and secures the clip in place so there is no chance of it falling off when you pull your visor down. A tip for you when you’re fitting it is to fold your visor down and swing it out if you can – the velcro got stuck to the roof lining on my car and proved a little tricky to pull off again! Now, you’re not going to want to keep undoing this strap each time you want to use the kit, so Nokia have given the HF-310 a twist-lock bracket that makes it quick and easy to remove the kit without having to remove the strap. Just grab the speaker, rotate it 90 degrees and it comes off. Simple.

Nokia HF-310 on Visor

The only downside that I found with using the visor mount is that if you pull the visor down, the speaker is then facing the windscreen and there’s not a quick way to turn it round to face you, so you may struggle to hear/be heard while the visor is down.

Suction Mount
Nokia must have realised that using a handsfree on a sun visor can have it’s problems as they’ve also included a suction mount for the HF-310.  I can’t think of any other car kits that have this as a mounting option, but its actually a great way to use your HF-310.  The suction mount isn’t like some of the budget ones that you may have seen where you have a long bendy arm coming towards you, it’s a compact design that fixes by pressing it against the glass and twisting the base. To remove it twist it back and it pops straight off.  It has the same twist-lock fixing as the visor mount so it’s easy enough to switch between holders.

Nokia HF-310

If you don’t want to position the HF-310 on your windscreen or on the visor then you have a third oprion. The kit includes a self adhesive suction pad that you can stick to any flat surface in your car. This pad provides the perfect base to attach the suction mount on to and means that you can position the speaker unit pretty much anywhere you want in the car.

Nokia HF-310 Mounting Options

Getting Started

Before I could use the kit, I needed to pair it with my phone and this was a quick and simple task.  The HF-310 went into pairing mode as soon as I turned it on and my phone found it straight away.  Once I’d entered the passkey (0000) the phone was connected and ready to use. The whole process took less than 30 seconds and was probably one of the easiest Bluetooth pairings I’ve ever had to do.

Simple Controls

Handsfree car kits need to be really simple to use and that’s exactly what this is.  There is just one button on the front of the speaker that answers/ends calls, can redial the last dialled number and activates voice dialling (if your phone supports it). I had this paired up with my Nokia N82 and it worked perfectly. At higher speeds road noise did affect voice dialling, but moving the HF-310 closer to me improved it.

The only other control on the HF-310 is the volume control, and at first glance you might not see it. The volume control is actually the outer dial and it works in the same way as it does on the Nokia CK-7W fitted car kit. Turn the dial clockwise to increase the volume anti-clockwise to decrease it.

Call Quality

The HF-310 has technology built into it that reduces background noise and echoes so using the kit while you’re driving should be a pleasant experience for both parties on a call, and to be honest it was. For town driving I didn’t experience any problems at all.  I could hear the caller perfectly well, and the caller could hear me.  Neither of us had to ask the other to repeat ourselves. Motorway driving was slightly different, there was the occasional missed word during a call, but this was in frequent and barely noticeable. At 70mph on the motorway, road and wind noise meant I had to increase the volume, but I was still able to hear the other person pretty clearly. Passing lorries and trucks did make it a little more difficult to hear but it was still possible.

Battery Life

Battery life in car kits is really important. The last thing you need is for the kit to run out of power while you’re on a call. The battery in the HF-310 will give you upto a massive 30 hours talktime and 960 hours (40 days!) stand by time from a full charge.  The kit will power off automatically after around 10 minutes if there is no phone connected to it.

Nokia HF-310 Vs Nokia HF-510

At the time of writing this, the HF-510 hasn’t arrived in to stock, but it’s essentially the same kit with the addittion of Caller ID. It has a small LCD screen above the answer key that will show you the name of the person that is calling you.  In order for this to work properly, you’ll need to send the contacts of your address book to the car kit using bluetooth, but this is a simple process that takes only a couple of minutes. If a number calls you that isn’t in the phonebook on the car kit, it will just display the number. The only other difference is that the screen uses more power so the standby time drops to 180 hours (7 days). To be honest, if you’ve got a car holder for your phone, you’ll see who’s calling on that, so I’d say that the HF-310 is a better option because of the massive increase in stand by time.

Summary

Overall, I’m impressed with the HF-310. Audio quality is great and it’s extremely simple to set up and use and I think by far its best feature is the flexibility you have when it comes to mounting the HF-310 in the car.  For the price, there are couple of extra features that would have been nice – Multipoint, Text to Speech, A2DP or FM transmitter, but that would then make it a much more advanced and complicated car kit and that’s not what the HF-310 is all about. The HF-310 is simple, effective and the build quality means you’ll be using this for years, not throwing it away after 6 months.

Rating: 8/10

For more images of the Nokia HF-310 in use head over to Page 2.

The Parrot MKi9000 features an external double microphone and new software which eliminates environmental and in-car noises with full-duplex and zero-echo crystal clear conversations. It includes an independent RF remote control which enables you to take complete control at the touch of a button. The MKi system is supplied with a music cable which enables you to connect your music player via USB or using a 3.5mm cable. The MKi9000 also supports streaming music over Bluetooth from any A2DP enabled device.
Order the Parrot MKi9000.

The Parrot MKi9100 has the same specifications as the MKi9000, but with the addition of a blue OLED display screen that lets you see the callers name and number when receiving a call. When you connect your music player to the MKi9100 using USB or Bluetooth and the MKi9100 will display the track title and artist on the screen. The Display screen can be removed easily for added security.
Order the Parrot MKi9100.

The Parrot MKi9200 supports all the features on the MKi9000, with the addition of a 2.4 inch colour screen. With the colour screen you can assign photos to contacts, set a background wallpaper, see playlists and album covers. The display screen also has a built in SDHC Memory Card reader, supporting memory cards upto 32GB – completely eliminating the need for a seperate music player. Simply store all the music you want on your memory card, and play it directly from the MKi9200.
Order the Parrot MKi9200.

If you’re looking at getting a car kit, don’t forget to check out our guide on Car Kit accessories.

In order to keep their products up to date, Parrot have developed a Software Update Tool, a quick and easy way to update your Parrot product with all the latest software updates.

NB: The Parrot Software Update Tool is currently only available for Microsoft Windows .

Before starting your upgrade, please read the following guides:

	Download PC drivers for Parrot Bluetooth Dongle and Windows XP (.Zip, 85Mb) Download PC drivers for Parrot Dongle and Windows Vista (.Zip, 75Mb)
	Parrot Photo Viewer flash procedure (PDF)
	Parrot Sound System flash procedure (PDF) Download the Parrot Audio Configuration Tool ver 1.3.1.6 (.ZIP 3,6MB) Using the Parrot SOUND SYSTEM with Mac OSX Leopard
	Parrot Party flash procedure (PDF) Download the Parrot Audio Configuration Tool ver 1.3.1.6 (.ZIP 3,6MB) Using the Parrot PARTY with Mac OSX Leopard
	Minikit flash procedure (PDF)
	MK6000 flash procedure (PDF)
	MK6100 flash procedure (PDF)
	3200 LS-COLOR flash procedure (PDF) 3200 LS-COLOR sending photos to synchronized contacts (PDF) 3200 LS-COLOR wall-paper upgrade procedure (PDF)
	CK3100/CK3300/CK3500 (PDF)
	CK3000 Evolution (PDF)
	Rhythm n’Blue (PDF)
	Easydrive by Bluetooth® (PDF) Easydrive using a serial cable (PDF)

Change Your Language
Parrot hands-free car kits softwares are available in 19 languages.

Before starting the update, you can select your preferred language in the configuration menu of the Parrot Software Update Tool.

You can change the language on the following Parrot Kits:

• Minikit
• Photo Viewer ( available in 16 languages )
• 3200 LS-COLOR
• 3400 LS-GPS
• CK3100 LCD
• CK3000 Evolution
• Easydrive

Latest available versions
Check the software version currently installed in your kit (“Preferences” menu, “Information” sub-menu) and compare it with this list:

(Correct as of 11/02/2008)

To know the specifications, read the “release notes.”

• MK6100 : Version 1.03 (release notes)
• MK6000 : Version 1.03 (release notes)
• SOUND SYSTEM: Version 2.10 (release notes)
• BOOMBOX: Version 2.02
• Minikit : Version 1.03 (release notes)
• Photo Viewer : Version 1.03.00.C (release notes).
• Photo Viewer 7” : Version 1.03.00 (release notes).
• RHYTHM N’BLUE : version 6.03 (release notes).
• 3200/3200+ LS-COLOR : version 2.11 (release notes)/ version 2.11a (release notes).
• 3400 LS-GPS : version 2.03e (release notes).
• CK3100 : version 4.17 (release notes).
• CK3300 : version 4.15b (release notes).
• CK3500 : version 4.50c (release notes).
• CK3000 EVOLUTION : version 5.10c (release notes).
• EASY-DRIVE : version 1.05 (release notes).
• DRIVEBLUE+ : version 3.18
• CK3000 : version 3.18
• Software Update Tool : version 3.4.0.1