Manage updates with the Download AppBlueAnt S4 Bluetooth Stereo Speaker
Manufacturer: Blueant Wireless Part number: S4
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The BlueAnt S4 delivers good call quality and, with its voice trigger system, increased vehicle safety. However, it excludes many popular handsets from its true hands-free claim by not including its own voice dialer.
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CNET editors' review
BlueAnt S4 Bluetooth Stereo Speaker price range: $59.99 - $99.99
- Reviewed by: Antuan Goodwin
- Reviewed on: 05/24/2010
The good: The S4's voice trigger grants users access to most of the speakerphone's functions without physically touching the device. "What can I say?" command practically eliminates the need for an instruction manual. Imported contacts' caller ID info is read aloud when receiving a call. Bing-411, Vlingo, and BlueAnt app integration, as well as A2DP audio streaming, extend the device's functionality.
The bad: The S4 lacks a built-in voice dialer, so if the paired phone doesn't have its own voice dial system (e.g. Android), calls must be manually initiated. In louder vehicles, the S4 had difficulty understanding our voice commands.
The bottom line: The BlueAnt S4 delivers good call quality and, with its voice trigger system, increased vehicle safety. However, it excludes many popular handsets from its true hands-free claim by not including its own voice dialer.
User reviews
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Very good incoming and outgoing voice quality but
by neosynthesis on July 22, 2010
Pros: Good volume
One of the best incoming and outgoing voice quality bluetooth speaker phone.
Best mounting clip design: can mount it on different sides of the visor
Magnet on device, I can mount it where-ever I find metal and use it out of car!Cons: Does NOT auto reconnect when you return to your car
Sometimes the voice activator will not pick up my voice
The touch sensitive controls are NOT sensitive
The firmware update software is windows 32 bit only and buggySummary: I'm on conference calls 3 to 4 hours a day and I've tried/continue to try every quality bluetooth&wired headsets&speaker phone product I can ...
Summary: I'm on conference calls 3 to 4 hours a day and I've tried/continue to try every quality bluetooth&wired headsets&speaker phone product I can find to improve my work life.
Update: after 2 months of using this on a daily basis, I think those of you who are considering this should know. That the A2DP feature keeps taking over as the primary audio output device after the S4 connects to the phone. So if you already use the headphone output on your phone to your car's stereo, and do not want to hear your music through the poor quality S4 speaker, you'll need to switch the output to headphones via your phone's menu system. And then when you'd like to make/take a call using the S4, you'll have to switch the audio output option on your phone back to the S4. I found myself making this switch back and forth very often, which defeats the purpose of using the S4 as a driving safety product. Currently there is no way of turning off A2DP. I guess Blueant is quite confident that we'll all be using their mono speaker as our primary music enjoyment device. Watch out for this! IMHO, it makes this device unsafe for music listeners (using the same phone).
In my opinion, the S4 has one of the best in coming and out going voice quality of all the bluetooth speaker phones out on the market currently. I have been using both the Moto T315 and Blueant's own Supertooth 3 for over a year now and in my daily usage, S4 trumps both of them in voice quality. In city driving, with windows up, I could hold a conference without raising my usually VERY soft spoken voice and the people I was conversing with reported that they thought I was speaking directly with my phone (iPhone 3GS, Blackberry Curve 8300). Granted my Volvo shields traffic and road noise fairly well (but not as quiet as a higher end Lexus). With all other speaker phone devices, I had to raise my voice on every call just to get myself heard (this includes Blueant's own Supertooth 3 and the latest Moto T series). I'm very impressed with how sensitive the S4's mic is and yet it is fairly good at canceling unwanted noise.
One useful tip I've found over the years is to reduce echo you hear from a speaker phone is to reduce speaker volume. Often the echo happens when you turn up the speaker volume and the speaker phone's mic is picking up sound from its own speaker.
Depending on how you place the device, I found that if the S4 mic is pointed directly above my head, it was harder to hear me and I had to tilt my head up a bit for the S4 to pick up my voice properly. I found that for my setup, clipping the mounting clip on the far side of my car visor (the side that's closet to the windshield), then turning the S4 around (thanks to S4 magnet design, you can turn the S4 180degrees and it will still attach on the visor clip just as tightly: brilliant) helps to move the S4 further out in front of me so its mic is situated in front of my face. In this position, the S4 picked up my voice better. This is a brilliant design by Blueant, with all other speakerphone devices, the mounting clips are fixed onto the device so you can't be creative in mounting the device.
After trying out different devices from Moto, Jabra, and Blackberry, the Blueants have the best mounting system because the magnet is ON the device. This allows for maximum flexibility for mounting on the visor as well as provides for ease of removing the device when I'm leaving the car. Sometimes I just want to hide the device after I park. As well, when I take it with me after I get home and with the magnet, I just stick it under any metallic device around my desk and I use it to conference at home!
Sometimes the voice activator will not pick up my voice so I couldn't activate calling with just my voice. This may be alleviated by mounting the S4 on different sides of the visor.
The touch sensitive controls are NOT sensitive. I often had to touch the multi-function&volume controls a few times to get it to register my touch. And then it becomes a driving hazard because I had to keep taking my eyes off the road to look at it. With other speaker phone devices I had, they had large physical buttons. I didn't have to take my eyes off the road to locate them once I practice pushing the buttons a few times. For a device that emphasizes on TRUE handsfree, this is a huge design oversight.
The firmware update software is windows 32 bit only and buggy. Like other users have reported, it would often fail during updates. So I had to attempt it a few times to get it properly updated.
Favorites is useless as it uses up air time.
A2DP is also useless as music coming out of the mono speaker. It would have been more useful to give us an FM transmitter instead.
I miss the auto reconnection of the Blueant Supertooth3. I found it so helpful that it would automatically reconnect whenever I open my car door. Many times I was already in a conversation on a bluetooth ear piece as I approach the car and as soon as I opened the door, the conversation would just switch over to my supertooth3 automatically! It really freed my hands up to do things like starting the vehicle, adjusting seat belts, all without pausing my conversation nor having to manually switching to the speakerphone. With the S4 I kept forgetting to push the multi function button whenever I got back into my car.
Overall I'm happy I wish the next version would bring back to auto reconnect with the vibration sensor as well as Blueant's awesome dual microphone noise canceling technology (as found on the V1 and Q1), which I found, in my use, to be superior to all the Jawbones (except for the original, yes I've owned them all) and most of the Plantronics (except for the Voyager Pro, currently the only noise canceling headset I would go to if I know I'm going to be on a very important business call).
Lastly, just go to a store with a good return policy and try it out for yourself to see if the product fits your needs.
Updated on Sep 27, 2010
Updated on Sep 27, 2010CNET won't let me change my rating for some reason (could be my customized FF browser), but I'm lowering my rating due to the A2DP causing potential issues for drivers' safety to a two star. I'll update the rating again if Blueant provides a way for this to be turned off like Jawbone does on their new ICON headset.8 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Sleek unit - but works poorly
by JA123 on August 26, 2010
Pros: the unit has great features, but they voice recongnition software does not always work correctly
Cons: The voice dialing. the unit's most attractive feature, works poorly. the unit does not have it's own dialer, (so why does it download you phonebook) and simply provides an interface to your phone's phone dialer.
Summary: Great idea, but not where it needs to be. This thing needs it's own, reliable, voice dialer and better instructions on how to make calls. I took mine back ...
Summary: Great idea, but not where it needs to be. This thing needs it's own, reliable, voice dialer and better instructions on how to make calls. I took mine back a few hours after I purchased it.
if you have a poor quality voice dialer in you phone, this only makes it worse from the road noise, plan on getting something else3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good audio, easy to operate
by S4owner on June 3, 2010
Pros: Design, quality
Cons: Can't think of any. It does what it is designed for
Summary: I have been using BlueAnt S4 for more that a week now.
Had to contact help desk to confirm that S4 can be charged
directly from USB port on your ...Summary: I have been using BlueAnt S4 for more that a week now.
Had to contact help desk to confirm that S4 can be charged
directly from USB port on your computer. I could not find this information in the manual.
It does not come with wall charger like its predecessor ST3. There is only 12 volt car
charger with short USB cable. Connected it to the USB port and it took about 2.5 hours for the battery to be fully charged.
After about 10 days BlueAnt reports battery charge as "HIGH". Nice.
The speaker produces nice and clear sound.
So far I am very satisfied with this product.3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Bad button, voice dialing inaccurate. Non-functional
by danbbrightwell on October 11, 2011
Pros: Fry's money back policy 24 hours later.
Cons: poor voice dialing interface, non-responsive, kept turning itself off.
Summary: Motorola T325 was not fantastic - but it delivered consistent call quality and voice dialing until it died. More better unit for much less money
Summary: Motorola T325 was not fantastic - but it delivered consistent call quality and voice dialing until it died. More better unit for much less money
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Doesn't work as advertised
by elite_consumer on July 7, 2011
Pros: Cannot think of any pros... I guess it sounded okay when it worked, but getting it to work smoothly is difficult.
Cons: Doesn't work as advertised. I have iPhone 4 and this device basically relies on iPhone 4 voice control to do the work, why do you need this device in that case!? Worst of all, when we realized we didn't like it we tried to return it to only get a run ar
Summary: DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM BLUEANT UNLESS YOU ARE 100% CERTAIN THE PRODUCT WORKS AS YOU WANT IT TO!
Summary: DO NOT PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM BLUEANT UNLESS YOU ARE 100% CERTAIN THE PRODUCT WORKS AS YOU WANT IT TO!
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Newer is not better; not as good as the Supertooth 3.
by correzpond on January 19, 2011
Pros: Excellent speaker volume (except while connected to iPhone voice-dialling). Good responsiveness to voice commands. However essentially all really useful features in the S4 are already present in the Supertooth 3 and it will automatically pair.
Cons: Will not automatically pair when phone is in range. Does not do support direct voice dialing.
Summary: My first exposure to the S4 was after my much loved Supertooth 3 had been stolen from my vehicle. The local police recovered what they thought was my Blueant unit, ...
Summary: My first exposure to the S4 was after my much loved Supertooth 3 had been stolen from my vehicle. The local police recovered what they thought was my Blueant unit, but actually it was an S4 apparently stolen from someone else. My response was "No, not mine".... and "Looks to be a much older model".
When I replaced my Supetooth 3 I decided to purchase an S4 because I had been very happy with the S3, and newer means better, right? Wrong. I should have been guided by my initial gut response. Firstly the design of the unit does makes it look like some refugee from a 90's tech show. But unfortunately that not where the problems end. The S4 will not automatically pair with my iPhone in the way that the Supertooth 3 did when the phone came into range and/or it sensed the vibration of the driver door closing. The S4 requires you to 'tap' the unit to pair every time you enter the car, which kind of defeats the point of a car hands-free unit. Then if you have forgotten to pair the unit (which happens frequently to me) and a call comes through, there is no way to quickly connect the S4 in order to receive the incoming call on the S4. Big fail Blueant.
Another major issue is that the S4 relies completely on the voice-dialing facility of the phone to do the heavy lifting of voice-dialing. When the device itself isn't up to that heavy lifting ( = iPhone 4 which speaks in a whisper and immediately dials its 'best-guess' which is often wrong) you are left having the pick up the phone in order to either cancel the wrong order or reliably dial. Big Fail Apple certainly. But Bigger Fail BlueAnt because you have the opportunity to do the heavy-lifting in a supposed dedicated handsfree telephone device and chose not to.
What do I like about the phone: Excellent speaker volume (except while connected to iPhone voice-dialling). Good responsiveness to voice commands (but really without the ability to operate voice-dialing directly from the S4 what is the point? Essentially all really useful features in the S4 are already present in the Supertooth 3 and it will automatically pair.
Bottom Line: I'm planning to turf my S4 into a Sydney inner-city wheelie bin (apparently where the police discovered their originally recovered S4) and buy a Supertooth 3.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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maybe mine is faulty
by adnilem on January 15, 2011
Pros: it is very loud - looks nice
Cons: see summary - just about everything :(
Summary: Mine switches off automatically, it's not that the battery is low and there is a function where it will go to sleep but that is the middle button and ...
Summary: Mine switches off automatically, it's not that the battery is low and there is a function where it will go to sleep but that is the middle button and I have it on the far end set to "always on" but it just turns itself off mid drive, I cant even go 10 mins up the road. There is no option to say "answer" and it answers the call mine will only let me press the answer button on my phone which is kind of pointless paying the extra $'s for the S4. The product is deceiving you need to use Vlingo for it to read text messages which means you need to be connected to the net which when you are driving may mean your internet provider could start roaming which then in turn costs $'s. I cannot get the music to play at all through the S4, I have followed the instructions completely I am not a novice with technology I work in computer support so I do have some idea what I am doing, the phone is compatible according to the S4 website. The volume buttons are not easy to control you have to hit the buttons really hard and in the right spots I have a Nokia E71 at the moment, I am hoping an anrdoid phone will work better :(
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Advertising is misleading
by hvacr1 on August 15, 2010
Pros: I had the S3 before, this model does have much better features.
Cons: Bing411 does not work in Canada, blueants info in their manual about bing leads you on a wild goose chase. No 64bit software for the updater. Apparently this is coming though.
Summary: Don't buy this product for the bing features if you live in Canada, waste of money.
Summary: Don't buy this product for the bing features if you live in Canada, waste of money.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Updates limited to having a Win/Intel comp with 32-bit
by ameede on November 25, 2010
Pros: It turns on.
Cons: You cannot update this unit if you have a Mac computer, or a Windows based computer with a 64-bit OS installed.
Summary: They do not tell you this on the packaging that they are extremely limited in their ability to update their S4 product, I definitely would look elsewhere.
Summary: They do not tell you this on the packaging that they are extremely limited in their ability to update their S4 product, I definitely would look elsewhere.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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I like it.
by Kings X Rocks! on June 25, 2010
Pros: Worked as advertised. Easy to setup. Very clear speaker.
Cons: i wish the magnets were on the clips and not the device. not a big one, but i need to be careful where i put it down when out of the car.
Summary: don't need to hear thru stereo speakers. just trying to be a little safer while driving. to be able to manipulate without touching is very cool. works great with ...
Summary: don't need to hear thru stereo speakers. just trying to be a little safer while driving. to be able to manipulate without touching is very cool. works great with bold 9000 voice dial. had to redo some of the contacts names for easier pronunciation. feels like I got a "big boy" bluetooth system!
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Blueant Wireless
- Part number: S4
- Description: With the BlueAnt S4, there is no longer any need to touch your phone or car speakerphone while driving. For the first time, drivers can make and receive calls on the road using only their voice.
General
- Product type Speakers
- Dimensions (WxDxH) 4.88 in x 2.38 in x 0.62 in
Features
- Bluetooth profiles Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP),
Hands Free Profile (HFP),
Headset Profile (HSP) Compatibility | Accessories
- Included accessories [Jul 2, 2008 from CDS: Miscellaneous] 2 visor clips
- Cables included 1 x USB cable
Power
- Power device Power adapter - car - External
- Run time (up to) 20 hour(s)
Battery
- Type - Rechargeable - Lithium ion
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & support 2 years warranty
- Service & support details Limited warranty - Replacement - 2 years
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Blueant Wireless products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Blueant Wireless
- Address:
245 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria
