Review: SuperTooth Crystal is portable, easy to install

Wireless headsets are all very well, but if you make and take a huge volume of calls in your car, a Bluetooth speakerphone is the way to go. Take the $70 SuperTooth Crystal, for instance. You slide a small metal clip on to your sun visor, which you leave there permanently, and the Crystal attaches to the clip, thanks to its magnetic button. The unit was easy to pop on and off. Plus, the Crystal is dainty enough to slither into a pocket or small purse.

Apart from a single recessed Multifunction button at one end, the unit’s surface is uniformly smooth with barely-discernible indentations, making it tough from the get-go to use the controls by feel alone. That said, the buttons, which are nice and wide for chubby thumbs like mine, did deliver solid feedback when tapped. Even though the visor clip did not budge, the speakerphone sometimes wobbled if my button jabs were heavy handed.

Voices coming through on the Crystal sounded reasonably clear in the car. However, at the other end, callers noted that it was obvious I was on a speakerphone as my voice usually sounded far away. In addition, some people complained about an overall tinny effect during our conversations, but said it was not distracting.

The Crystal did an admirable job shoving car noise––at various times, my tunes and chirping kids––into the background. When I pressed my callers on whether they noticed extraneous sounds, they could pick up random noises but these sounds were not intrusive, either. The Crystal also handled voice-dialing adequately (“Call Mariana mobile”). It picked up almost all my commands, except for the odd request––the Crystal heard “Chaat” instead of “Scott,” for instance.

As in-car speakerphones go, $70 is on the affordable end of the spectrum. But regrettably, the company does not provide a complementary smartphone app for the Crystal––setting it apart from other companies such as Jabra and Motorola.