The NoiseHush N650 is a solar-powered bluetooth hands-free car speakerphone. That description is much easier to type than it is to say, but all those words are necessary. The NoiseHush is a great addition to any smartphone user who wants a car kit – it works well and it’s easy to use.
I’ve used hands-free car kits before. With the NoiseHush, what attracted me most was the solar charging aspect, which is rarely seen. If it could be mounted on a windshield but would never require a physical cord for charging, that’s very cool because I have less hassle in the car and can keep the kit out of the way until it’s needed. The less to worry about, the better.
Before jumping for joy, however, I wanted to test the device. Hands-free car kits have two important aspects: call clarity and ease of use. Being a solar car kit, this one had a third aspect: charge time.
Call clarity
I started my car and made several calls with the NoiseHush N650. I used it to send voicemails to myself (allowing me to listen to the amount of background noise). I used it on a conference call with five other people. I was happy with the high-quality of my transmitted voice as well as the clarity of my received audio. The short version: The NoiseHush N650 call quality was very good, even with background car noise. I was impressed.
Ease of use
The NoiseHush’s primary buttons are the on/off button, the multifunction button and plus/minus buttons for scrolling back and forth (for address entries, for example). With this combination, all functions are extremely easy. The trick is remembering them. For example, to end your current call and answer a new call, you have to “short press” the multifunction button once. But to keep the current call on hold and answer a new call, you must hold the multifunction button for two seconds.
This is not a bad thing. If you want to keep things simple (answer, hang up, scroll through the address book and dial), it’s certainly easy to do. “Advanced” fuctions are achieved with a little memorizing effort.
In terms of the amount of functions, it partially depends on the kind of phone you have. However, the NoiseHush doesn’t cut any corners. If you have the capability, here’s the NoiseHush full feature set (this combines the physical buttons on the device combined with possible commands sent from your smartphone).
Answer / end / reject calls
Redial
Voice dial
Volume
Switch calls from smartphone to NoiseHush
Smartphone mic mute
LCD with caller ID
Caller ID memory
Built-in phone book
Phone book and call list sync with smartphone address book
Solar power charging
Full duplex DSP; echo cancellation and noise reduction
Call waiting
Charge time
You can charge the NoiseHush with a car charger (provided), or simply stick it on your windshield and let it charge in the sun. Car charging take about two hours from zero battery. Solar charging will take about 28 hours to fully charge the battery. …Yes, I had to re-read that, too. However, remember that solar panels like this one are not meant to provide energy on demand – they’re meant to constantly charge batteries for later use.
If you put the NoiseHush on your dashboard or windshield (with the provided mounting bracket), you’ll probably be fine – it’s in the sun roughly 12 hours every day, and unless you’re having hours of conversations per day, it should be able to maintain a charge. Worst case – if you do happen to burn up the battery (and there is a visual and audio warning tone to let you know it’s happening), no problem – you still have the car charger.
When fully charged, the NoiseHush battery can supposedly hold a call for “up to 10 hours”. That’s massive, and certainly more than any standard cellphone battery. Your phone will give out before the NoiseHush does.
Standby time is “up to 160 hours”, but if you simply leave the device on your windshield to charge all the time, you’ll keep the battery topped off and should never have to worry about it. (The battery is Lithium-polymer, so is fine with a continual trickle-charge from the solar charger.)
Components and accessories
Here’s what you get with the NoiseHush kit:
Solar bluetooth car kit (this is the actual NoiseHush N650 unit)
Transparent plastic case with suction cups for windshield mount
Vehicle charger (the NoiseHush uses a Mini USB B-type plug)
User manual
Conclusion
The NoiseHush N650 is a well-performing bluetooth hands-free car kit, and it’s made even better by its solar-charging capability. I like it and I recommend it.
The NoiseHush N650 is available from WirelessGround.com for $60.
NoiseHush N650 stats:
Talk: Up to 10 hours
Standby: Up to 160 hours
Charge time (AC): About 2 Hours
Bluetooth version: v2.1
Bluetooth profile: HSP & HFP
Solar panel: 5.5V === 50mA
Working temperature: -10~60C
Dimensions (mm): 106(L) x 54(W) x 15(T)
Weight: Main body 65g, windshield 14g
Operating distance: Up to 30 feet (10 meters)
Battery: 100 mAH Li-polymer