Honeywell Airlite 900 Portable Speakerphone review
A lovely looking little unit, but a poor
performer
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The Airlite 900
Portable Bluetooth Speakerphone is the same size as a credit
card and only a little thicker.
Part
of our series on Bluetooth - more articles listed on
the right.
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This unit, branded by Honeywell
but made by a third party (SOYO) which is no longer in business,
looks appealing and gives good sound quality.
So what's not to like? It
is hard to mount in a car and doesn't automatically connect to
your phone as it should.
Add to that the apparent
complete termination of support for the product, even though it
is still being sold new, plus a street price that is higher than
current products from other manufacturers that are still
supported, and we regret but must suggest that, as alluring as
this is, it is not a unit you should prudently purchase.
What you Get
The Honeywell Airlite 900 is
nicely presented in an easily opened cardboard box with clear
plastic window to highlight the unit itself.
Inside the box is the unit
itself, a carry/clip that you use to mount the unit on a sun
visor, an instruction manual, plus two chargers - a tiny 'brick'
unit for charging from the wall, and a cigarette lighter unit
for charging in the car itself.
It comes with a one year
non-transferable warranty.
Feature Chart
Use this information to
quickly understand the capabilities of the unit and to compare
with other units.
Feature Comment |
Cost |
List price
unknown
Available from Amazon for approx $85, and from
other sources for similar prices. |
Ergonomics |
Easy to put
on and take off |
Not
applicable - not a headset.
Considered
as a hands-free unit for cars, it is very
portable due to its small size, light weight,
and internal battery, making it, in theory,
ideal for taking with you to a rental car.
However, the
mounting clip is woefully inadequate for
mounting on a sun visor. It is too small,
and has to stretch open too wide, and doesn't
provide a secure or comfortable fit. |
Easy to use
the control buttons |
With the
much larger area on this unit, compared to an
in-ear headset, you'd hope the designers would
make good use of the space available and offer
some extra dedicated buttons, making the unit
easier to understand.
If that is
what you hope, you'll be disappointed. It
has volume up and down buttons, a privacy
button, and one of the accursed 'multi-function
buttons' that does everything else depending on
how long you push it for.
So, although
the buttons are moderately large in size and
easy to press, the unit is not appreciably any
easier to use than any other units. |
Comfortable
to wear |
Not
applicable - not a headset.
But in terms
of being easily mounted in a car, the mounting
clip is too narrow to fit the thickness of most
typical sun visors. There is only about a
quarter inch of space in the clip, and most sun
visors are appreciably thicker than this, which
means the unit doesn't mount securely, the
mounting clip is stretched too far and weakened,
and before too long, the mounting unit stops
working well.
There are
better ways to mount the unit in a car - ie with
velcro (see below), or perhaps clipped to your
safety belt. |
Can you use
with glasses |
Not
applicable. |
Can use with
either ear |
Not
applicable. |
Securely
mounted (in the car) |
Not really,
but the unit is very light and so doesn't need
much mounting security.
We recommend you essentially throw away the
mounting clip and instead put a small dot of
velcro (the soft part) on the back of the unit,
and then put a small dot of the other part of
the velcro (the harder loop part) somewhere on
the dash of the car as a way of mounting the
unit. To
change between cars, just pull the unit off the
velcro dot on the dash, and push it onto another
velcro dot in the alternate car. |
How to carry |
We recommend
that when you want to carry the unit, you flip
it over in its mounting clip - that way, the
control buttons are protected by the back of the
mounting clip, meaning you won't accidentally
turn the unit on or make calls, etc), and then
carry it that way.
Otherwise, you'd want to carry it in some sort
of padded pouch - the key issue being not to
inadvertently turn it on. |
Weight |
The unit
itself weighs a mere 1.1 oz, rising to 1.7 oz
when including the carry clip.
Weight isn't of course as much of an issue for a
car mounted unit, but this is wonderfully light
and wonderfully small, making it very portable. |
Ease of Use |
Commands
intuitive and easy to remember |
Alas,
although this unit had the potential of being
easy to use by way of adding extra controls in
the extra space available, it ends up being not
appreciably any easier to use than other
headsets. |
Volume
adjustable |
Yes. One
good thing about the unit is it does have two
clearly labeled volume buttons to
increase/decrease the volume. |
How fast
does it turn on |
It takes
about five seconds to turn on, but - and
contradicting its claim - it does not then
auto-synch with one's phone, making the unit
massively less convenient than it should be. |
Manual |
The unit
comes with a small 17 page manual that is
clearly written and easy to understand. |
Support |
Update
Sept 09 : It seems that Honeywell may
have discontinued both the unit and also support
of the unit. The (800) number for support
(888 773-4923) rings and then switches off, and
the two websites are both down.
A test email to their support email address has
also gone unanswered. |
Pairing
password printed on device |
No.
The pairing password is 1234 - not quite as
common as 0000, but still something you're
likely to guess within one or two tries. |
Features |
Battery life |
The unit
claims 10 hours or talk time or 10 days of
standby time.
This has not
been accurately evaluated. But even if
these numbers are exaggerated by a factor of
two, it would seem to have adequate battery life
for at least a normal day or two of usage
between recharging. |
Low battery
indicator/signal |
The unit
will flash red when the
battery is getting low. |
Battery type |
Lithium ion. |
Replaceable
battery? |
No.
As with other headsets, the chances are by the time the battery has died,
you'll probably have bought a new headset. |
Battery
charging method/time |
I was
hopeful that this unit might have a
common/standard type of power socket - the
'excuse' often offered by headset manufacturers
is they needed to use a non-standard socket due
to the need to miniaturize things as much as
possible.
But, alas,
to my immense disappointment, this is yet
another unit with its own unique plug/socket
combination. Shame on Honeywell for this
needless aggravation.
The battery
is charged by connecting the unit to either the
wall charger, a cigarette lighter adapter
charger (both supplied) or a charging cable that
connects to a USB port at one end (sold as an
optional extra). |
Multi-voltage charger |
Unknown.
The power charger doesn't have any information
printed on it about the voltage range it
supports. In
light of the power supply's very small size and
light weight, and its silence about
multi-voltage capabilities, it seems like a
sensible assumption to assume that this charger
only works on 110V. |
Charger
weight/size |
A very small brick charger.
1.4 oz total
for the charger and its cable. |
Other
charging methods |
In addition
to the wall charger, a cigarette lighter adapter
charger and cable is also provided.
A USB adapter and charging cable is sold as an
optional extra accessory. |
How many
pairings can be stored |
Not stated,
but at least two based on testing, although the
lack of an auto-connect rather reduces the value
of this.
|
Headset and
hands-free profiles? |
Yes. |
Audio
profile for computers |
Yes - A2DP. |
Bluetooth
compatibility |
Version 2.0 |
Power/range |
33'/10m. |
Effective
range |
With a car unit, the concept of range gets
turned on its head a bit. You want a unit
that has sufficient range to work wherever you
are in the car - but that is probably in a front
seat, so a 5 - 10' range is more than adequate.
An extended range in a car can be a nuisance,
because the unit might take a call when you're
out of the car.
This unit tested to a range about as specified,
which is - in this case - a bit too much rather
than a bit too little. |
Warranty |
The warranty
is a generous one year warranty, but offered to
the original purchaser only.
Update : With the closure of the
original manufacturer (SOYO in Canada), it is
unclear what the ongoing warranty support will
be. |
Free return |
Retailer
policies will vary. |
Noise
cancelling/DSP |
The unit
claims some background noise reduction and
digital sound processing.
It worked very well.
The efficaciousness of this can be judged by the
sample recording (see below). |
Sound
quality |
Sound
quality was average to good.
Here are two
sample recordings - one in a
quiet car,
parked with the engine off, and the other
while
driving at 30 mph with my window and sun roof
both open.
The effect
of the DSP can clearly be heard as it quickly
tunes the unit to pick up as much of my voice
and as little of the background noise as
possible.
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Capabilities |
Turning on
and off |
Like all
other units without a simple on/off switch, this
is complicated.
To turn the
unit on you press and hold the multi-function
button for three seconds until the blue light
flashes and you hear a tone.
To turn it
off, you press and hold the button for five
seconds until the red light flashes and you hear
a tone.
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Auto connect |
The unit claims to auto-connect, but testing
with both an iPhone 3GS and a Blackberry 8900
showed that the unit would not auto-connect.
This is a massive weakness and enormously
reduces the convenience of the unit. |
Voice tag
support |
Supported
(if also supported on the phone, of course).
You press the button for two seconds
to initiate this mode. Don't press it too
long or the unit will switch off. |
Last number
redial |
Yes.
Press the button for about two seconds until a
beep. |
Transfer
call to/from phone |
Not known.
But if you can do this via your phone handset,
that would be a viable approach. |
Call
waiting/Three way calling |
Not known.
But possibly can be done via the phone. |
Call reject |
Yes.
Press the button while a call is coming in for
about two seconds until a beep. |
Call
answer/end |
Yes.
If the
unit is already on, a short press of the main button
will answer an incoming call.
To end a call, a short press of the control button is
again needed. |
Mute |
No - but it
does have a Privacy button which is different -
it basically turns down the volume of the
speaker and sensitivity of the microphone, so if
you want to have a more private conversation
without other people in the car hearing, you can
switch to privacy mode and then in effect use it
as a regular handset.
Okay, so maybe it would be easier just to switch
the call back to the phone! But who among
us can remember how to do that with our
headset..... |
Other Features |
The unit
will turn itself off automatically if it has
been in an unpaired state for more than an hour.
This is a great idea, meaning when you leave the
car (and take your phone with you) the unit will
turn itself off after an hour.
This also
means if you just leave the car for a short
while, the unit will still be on when you return.
The unit will play music from the phone,
although the quality of the music through its
tiny speaker leaves a lot to be desired; indeed,
it seemed that the sound quality was better
playing through my iPhone's speaker than through
the Airlite 900. |
Subjective |
Attractive
design |
I liked the
design, and the concept of the very small little
unit as a portable unit to use when traveling
and switching cars. |
Flashing
indicators on standby |
Yes,
a blue light flashes.
This might be a bit of a nuisance if driving at
night and the unit is more or less directly in
the line of sight. It can't be turned off. |
Size |
The Airlite
900 is comparable in size to a credit card
(albeit thicker), measuring 2.1" x 3.4" and
about 0.2" thick. The carry clip adds
about 0.1" to the unit's length and breadth, and
a bit more than that when allowing for the clip
on the back to its thickness. |
Summary |
This could be a very good headset,
but it suffers from two very annoying problems -
a nonstandard power connection, and the
inability to auto-connect to phones.
Add to this the unit's
apparent no-longer-supported status, and we feel
that it is not something we can recommend at its
current street price of about $85. |
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Using the Honeywell Airlite 900
Portable Speakerphone
The key issue about using
this unit is the lack of auto-connect, discussed under the next
heading.
Most other issues were
positive, but no auto-connect makes the unit unsuitable for most
of us.
Connecting with phones
Alas, the auto-connect
feature does work. You have to manually tell your phone to
connect to the unit every time you are within range.
This makes it way too
inconvenient for most of us, and is contrary to the entire
capabilities and concept of Bluetooth connections - they are
designed to automatically connect together when paired devices
get within range of each other.
Three and more years ago it
was common to find units that did not have a properly
functioning auto-connect feature, but it is unacceptable to find
such a limitation these days, and for this reason, we must give
the product a thumbs-down and can not recommend you purchase it.
Summary
This is a very attractive
appearing unit, but suffers from several flaws of varying
severity - difficulty mounting to a car visor, nonstandard power
socket, an out of business manufacturer, and - the deal breaker
- it does not auto-connect to your phone.
Not recommended,
particularly at its current high $85 street price.
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Originally published
25 Sep 2009, last update
21 Jul 2020
You may freely reproduce or distribute this article for noncommercial purposes as long as you give credit to me as original writer.
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