the BlueParrott M300-XT Bluetooth headset. In the interests of transparency, I will advise upfront that I was provided with this unit at no charge to trial and review. I have tried a few 'cheapies' before but I have not found one that is good enough to put up with the discomfort of wearing it in my ear. Well what a pleasant surprise it was to use this unit. The first thing that you notice is that you can use it in either ear - the little earpiece section rotates a full 360 degrees enabling it to be used in either right or left ear. It also comes with three different size buds so that you can get the perfect fit for your ear shape. The microphone stalk rotates about 290 degrees so you can move it to where it best suits you. It is incredibly lightweight (they state 20g) and once in, you really don't notice that you are wearing it. It has a hook piece that sits over your ear so it supports itself and doesn't just rely on the ear bud. If you wear glasses or sunnies then you have to fiddle a bit to get them both sitting right but you get used to it. So the big question - does it work well? Bloody oath it does. It is absolutely crystal clear both for hearing and transmitting. My husband (who wears a hearing aid) often struggles to hear me properly through my truck Bluetooth, but says he can hear me perfectly when I am using this headset. Sometimes when using my truck Bluetooth I can hear my own voice feeding back through the truck and it is very hard to have a conversation trying to talk over that but this headset seems to eliminate that problem. The specs will tell you that it eliminates 80% of the background noise from your end of the call which makes it so much easier to hear and understand. My father is delighted as normally, my truck magnifies the indicator noise if I am turning and it drives him batty - he says he can't even hear it now when I am using this product. So what about ease of use? Well, it charges by USB-C (included) which happens to be the same as my Samsung
Galaxy phone so that is easy - I don't have to have two cords. It takes around two hours to fully charge from empty and has about 14 hours talk time, 420 hours standby time. They advise that it has a range of 100m but that does depend on the type of phone that you have it connected to and also your surroundings. Let’s just say that it has a very good range and that you can leave your phone in the truck when you are loading or unloading and still have no problems answering the calls. It does have volume buttons on the back so you can turn it up or down to suit your level of hearing. Answering the call is a simple matter of just reaching behind your ear to press a button and on this point, the buttons are quite small and the 'answer' button is at the top so I find I have to run my fingers over all three to find the right one to press - but as you use the unit more, this does become easier. For me, it would be a lot easier if the 'answer' button was on the side or on the mike arm but as I say, I am getting more used to it. Whilst the 100m range of the headset is a blessing it can also be a problem if you forget to turn the headset off when you take it off. A
outside of WA can use their licence for up to three months, after which time they need to transfer their licence to a WA licence. Any vehicle registered outside of WA must make a new application for the grant of a WA vehicle licence, be inspected at an Authorised Inspection Station and issued with a valid certificate of inspection before
they can be licensed in WA. WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said, "We have seen a dramatic increase in vehicle registrations in WA and licence transfers across to WA. "Anecdotally we have heard about the number of people returning back to WA and these figures prove this.
So the big question - does it work well? Bloody oath it does. It is absolutely crystal clear both for hearing and transmitting. number of times I have been in the office and forgotten to turn it off and when my phone rings the headset (which is on my desk in the office) picks up the call and I can neither speak to, or hear the person on the other end of the line - so you need to remember to turn it off when you don’t need it. The instruction book that comes with it has lots of pages and I was dreading trying to get it to work. Me, I am not good with technology, so it really has to be the KISS principle - (Keep It Simple Stupid) but overall I found it simple to get it working all on my Molly Malone. What the book doesn't seem to tell you is that there are quite a number of other features - walkie talkie and reading you a text message amongst them. For that you have to download the app and whilst I have done that, I am still trying to work out the rest. All in all, this is a very good product. It is easy to use and the conversations between caller and receiver are incredibly clear with almost no background noise. It is lightweight, hard wearing but most importantly - it will save you $1000 and four demerit points so in the words of Molly Meldrum, "Do yourself a favour and check it out".
This is a 10,000 car or almost 35 per cent increase on the previous year.
WATM • July 2021
17
