Review: Motorola Motorokr T505 Bluetooth speaker phone

A modern road trip seems to need any number of electronic devices. Here is a single Bluetooth device that will consolidate your iPhone GPS and music one almost hands-free device for the road.

The Motorola T505 is a triple-threat automobile-friendly device that combines the best of accessories for your cell phone and music play, at least if they are contained in one package. I bought the T505 for my iPhone, and especially for my frequent road trips. You see, my iPhone is very busy on road trips. It always runs a GPS system (TomTom but changing to MotionX GPS Drive, which is another story entirely) and that keeps it busy. I have also been using a TomTom car kit, which has an outlet for a DIN plug to the car stereo. Unfortunately, my Honda Civic stereo does not have a place to plug that in.

So, enter the Motorola Motorokr T505, which lets the iPhone 4 run a GPS system, and also simultaneously play the music from the phone, either to speakers built into the Motorola unit, or via an FM connection to your car’s stereo. That makes it perfect for me. If I get a phone call on the road, I can take it hands-free on the Motorola T505, using the microphone in the 505 and playing the incoming voice call on my car stereo.

When a call comes in, the music that I am playing from my iPhone is automatically put on hold so that I can take the call. When the call ends, the music comes back alive. This happens whether you are using the car stereo speakers or the unit’s built-in speakers. The same thing happens with voice commands from the GPS system. The music is lowered to background levels and the voice driving command comes through loud and clear.

I especially love the way the 505 looks at the radio spectrum when you turn it on and finds a blank FM frequency, then announces it to you in a clear voice so that you can tune your car stereo to your personal iTunes channel. On a long trip, you may have to ask the 505 to find another frequency if you move into a new area where there is a station conflict with the one originally selected. This is a totally painless process, easily accomplished without taking your eyes off the road.

The 505 comes with a car charger, and an internal battery that is good for about ten hours of use. It has an excellent instruction booklet to get you quickly up and running and familiarize you with the easy-to-use controls on the unit, which attaches to your sun visor. The unit is available at many online outlets. I found the best price at Amazon.com: just over $53 for all of the features described above.

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