Review: iClever’s two in one Bluetooth transmitter/receiver

Purchase
  iClever has a bluetooth adapter available, for use with mobile devices. It’s a small, quite pocketable device, where users are able to plug in headphones or speakers to work wirelessly, that wouldn’t be able to otherwise. The device can either transmit or receive, and has a built in battery as well.
  The device is a small, triangular unit with a couple of buttons, ports, and a microphone. It’s dark gray on the flat sides, and includes a white company logo stamped on one side, and other manufacturing info stamped on the reverse; there’s also a button in the middle of the front side that powers, pairs, and toggles playback. That same side also has a small red/green/blue LED to indicate status of power and pairing. Along the periphery are the back/next buttons, micro USB charging port, 3.5mm headhone jack, a transmit/receive toggle switch, and a button to begin the initial pairing process; all of these buttons can be held down for secondary functions, such as volume control from the skip buttons, or initiating a call back of the most recent number from the pairing button.. It’s’ quite small, fitting easily within the palm of one’s hand, with a little room leftover, and not all that “tall” when lying flat one on side. And while the color scheme is OK, it’s more functional than anything else, as this strikes me as something small that works best when tucked away, so its appearance isn’t all that important.
  The unit contians a 180mAh battery, and I was able to get more than 7 hours of use, over a few sessions of music (it may have even gotten close to 8, but I missed the exact time it finally gave out). Pairing the unit with my phone was fairly straighfoward, by simply holding down the power button. I tried this out both on my wired earbuds, as well as in my car, and it performed well in both cases. With the former, I could leave my phone on a charger, and could take advantage of the twenty or so feet of range it afforded me, to enjoy my wired headphones “on the go”. My car has an 3.5mm audio jack, so I used a cable with a jack at both ends (though the device does come with one, along with a short and metallic Direct Curront one as well), and I could listen to my phone’s audio through my car’s speakers, only now it was wireless. As an aside, this device needs to be connected manually, so my hope’s of having it initiate a connection on its own every time I turned on the car, were for naught. The unit is able to “remember” two different pairings at once, though it will only stream audio from one at a given time. Pairing it to a phone or tablet nad using it as a receiver was very staight fowared, while it was a touch awkward to pair it up with headpones while using the device as a trainsmitter. The process wasn’t any different or more difficult mind you, but having to pair one accessory directly to another left me fumbling a bit, until I get my headphones to confirm, and without the guidance  of a screen on one of them. Once I got te hang of it though, the prospect of turning anything with a 3.5mm headphone jack into something I can pair wireless headphones with, is pretty neat: home stereo, old walkman, etc, all can become bluetooth transmitters. Lastly, there’s a tiny microphone hole in it, for phone calls and such. While it didn’t sound as clear as my phone would’ve without it, I wasn’t told that I was awful, and that clarity/understanding of what I said would grade out around a 6.5 -7, relative to times I’ve not used it for phone calls. And with the microphone being on the unit, this does require users to be deliberate in where they leave it, as the clarity and volume were directly and negatively impacted when it wasn’t close to my person, be it held at arms length, or sliding down the arm rest of my car.
  So, here’s where I get to grading this unit. Before trying it out, I had hopes that it would pair automatically, once the car was turned on and power went to it, but I had no such luck in practice. Outside of that specific hope, I found it to be quite useful, both in and out of the car. I plugged in wired ear buds, and left the unit in my pocket, while at other times used it in the car to plug in one less chord into my phone. It is small and pocketable, with decent battery life that has lasted longer than other bluetooth headsets that I’ve tried. And in using my wired ear buds, I found I could enjoy the better range of sound that’s inherent to them, while still having the freedom of movement that Bluetooth can afford, so there’s utility in that alone, should you be persnickety about how wireless earphones should sound, in a “best of both worlds” sense.. In light of all of this, I’m going to give this a 9. Perhaps unrealistic on my part, but I really would’ve like to see a “car mode” where it initiates pairing on its own. That not withstanding though, it’s a solid unit that delivers what it promises.
9

Amazing

Ryan is married with two kids, and loves heavy metal and super hot Buffalo wings

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