According to the IIHS as of June 2012 there are 10 states with a hand-held cell phone ban. Cell Phone use by novice drivers is banned in 32 states, and texting while driving is illegal in 39 States. We live in world where our lives revolve around our cell phone use, whether it be for making work calls while on the go, or texting your friends to make plans for the evening. Nothing ruins those plans worse thank a ticket for texting and driving. Motorola has come up with the perfect solution for you with the Roadster 2. The Roadster 2 is the updated version of the original Roadster. You can see the original review HERE. Check out the review of the Roadster 2 after the break, and see how it fared.
The design and shape of the Roadster 2 is the same as the original. There are 7 buttons on the front plus the power slide switch on the side. Next to the power switch there are two lights. They are the charging light and the status light. The Roadster 2 is charged via a micro USB plug. Charging is very infrequent thanks to a power save feature and the large internal battery.
There are 7 physical buttons on the Motorola Roadster 2. They are pause/play for A2DP streaming, volume/channel up and down, FM on/off, mute, answer/disconnect cal button , and voice dial. All button are a soft rubber and offer resistance and a feeling of a click when pressed so you know you have pressed the button.
Once you open your Roadster 2 and get it fully charged, set up is a breeze. After you turn on the Roadster 2 you are given voice prompts on how to pair your phone with everything you need to do to connect your bluetooth enabled phone to the device. Once your phone is paired, if you device has the capability it will ask to have access to your phonebook. This is for voice dialing and caller ID.
You saw that I mentioned a battery save feature earlier. What this is, is when your phone is either manually unpaired with the Roadster 2 or your phone goes outside of the bluetooth range the device will shut down to a “sleep” mode. This mode saves battery power for longer life in between charges. The Roadster will “wake back up” when it hears a noise, say either a car door shut or a loud voice. Then if your phone’s bluetooth is active it will automatically reconnect with the phone. Also when the phone reconnects it will tell you how much charge the battery has left. Battery life is rated for up to 20 hours which in real world testing, proved very accurate, even using the FM Transmitter.
When you receive a call, the Roadster 2 will tell you who the name is (providing it is in your list of contacts), and then it will give you the option to either answer the call or decline via speech. If you say answer, the phone call is connected, decline and the call will go to voicemail.
Motorola also has a companion app, Moto Speak. With this app, you can send text messages via voice to text and even have your incoming text messages read out loud to you. At the bottom of the app, Motorola has given you 14 tips to make your Roadster 2 experience even better.
Another app that Motorola has to compliment the Roadster 2 is the Motorola Car Finder app. With this app running, once your phone disconnects from your Roadster 2, or you remove the phone from a docking cradle, your phone will get a GPS location of your vehicle and will help you find your way back to your car, never having to roam the lot of your favorite mall or Wal-Mart again.
The speaker on the Roadster 2 is loud enough to be used in most driving situations. But lets say it’s not for you. The Roadster 2 has a built-in FM transmitter so you can listen to your conversation over your cars speakers. The transmitter has multiple frequencies to choose from so you can always find the best frequency for the area you are in. This brings us to the next great feature of the Roadster 2, A2DP streaming. you can listen to music from your phone, whether it be from you personal collection, Slacker Radio, IHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon MP3 Player, or any other music app you may use. And with the FM transmitter, you can listen to your music over your car speakers, the same as your phone calls. The built-in transmitter is strong enough to broadcast your music without any static, even over top of some broadcasts. This will decrease the battery life slightly, but well worth the feature.
The Roadster 2 has built-in noise cancelling technology. This gives you a reduction of 8.5 DB with exceeds the rating for the Blueant S4 (5.0DB), and the Jabra Crusier 2(3.5DB). This allows the person you are conversing with to hear you loud and clear.
Overall, once again this is a great product. The build quality is very good and the Roadster 2 has a very sturdy feel. The clip used to hold the speaker to the visor is secured tightly to the Roadster. The buttons offer great feel and feedback for when you can’t take your eyes off the road. The speaker is loud and clear. The built-in mic pics up voices well and makes for easy listening for the person on the other end of the line. Priced at under $100 USD from Motorola this is a great buy. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a hands free device. Head over to Verizon Wireless and and pick yours up for $74.99
