Kensington Hands-Free Visor Car Kit for iPhone and Bluetooth Phones

May 14th, 2009 at 11:15 AM - Quick Look Review by Nancy Gravley

If you have to drive and talk on the phone, Kensington has a new product out that lets you keep both hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.

The primary component of the Hands-Free Visor Car Kit for iPhone and Bluetooth phones is a speaker that clips over the top of your visor. It is about the size of an iPhone. Also included in the package are two batteries and a recharger for your car. You can also recharge the batteries from any USB port.

Once you pair your phone(s) with the speaker you are ready to go. You can pair up to three phones with the speaker and there is a user swap button that allows you to switch phones without having to reestablish pairing.

You can also save up to three numbers that you can call with the push of a button, although you have to wait for those numbers to call you once to save them. On the other hand, it is extremely easy to override a saved number, so if you are driving and need to save a number temporarily, it takes only the push of a button to do it.

Kensington Hands-Free Visor Car Kit

A couple of other features are also worth mentioning. The unit contains an auto-off sensor when the phone is away from the car which helps preserve battery life, and each of the batteries included with the kit provide up to 10 hours of talk time.

I tested this unit with two phones and in two cars; one iPhone and one bluetooth. It worked perfectly with both phones. In a 2007 car with good soundproofing, the sound was excellent and there was no problem with the quality of the conversations. However, in a 1997 car with poor soundproofing, the road noise proved to be somewhat of a problem. 

The Bottom Line

This is a good product, easy to set up and use. The sound quality is excellent in a car with good soundproofing. The batteries that I tested lasted 9.5 and 9.7 hours each and the swap button made it easy to switch phones. Some may find the three number storage capacity a detriment, but that is not really the purpose of this unit.