Review: IO Play 2 In Car Bluetooth Hands-Free

So have you got it all on board?

Ready to go and deal business on the road?

Want to be entertained on the move?

Then take a look at the Play 2 that describes itself as Innovation Onboard.

It is a handsfree phone device and music streaming device that can connect to devices using Bluetooth, audio cable and iphone/ipod connection.

It is designed to enable you to connect your phones, MP3, iPod or phone. It has a Microphone tucked up by your sunvisor and there are two parts to the unit.

1. A controller which has green and red dialling buttons and a central button that between them take you through the menus and options for connecting devices

2. A screen display giving you all the information.

The rest of the unit is hidden and all you see is a couple of cables in the glove box for connecting an apple device or on audio cable.

Now I have never bothered with the phone in the car I generally ignore it so this was a change for me and it was key to me that it did not distract me from driving.

The first point that impressed me was the speed with which it synched with my android and windows phone. The contacts were synched in seconds. Now I have heard the moans with other systems with people moaning about connecting the phone when they get in the car.

This is an absolute dream- I get in I fling my bag in the passenger foot well as a million women do every day. I turn on the car and it recognises both my phones without me doing a single thing. If either ring it can allow me to pick up and it will verbally tell me who is calling so I don’t even have to take my attention from the road.

I can either pick up or ignore the call. If I hit green the call is picked up. If I do nothing the call is dropped.

The microphone and speaker systems work well and the calls are impressively clear.

So I thought I’d give the system a challenge so I hooked up a iPod, Sony Walkman and two phones and set off. Don’t forget it also recognises the stereo in your car too.

So as I drove I switched and swapped between them all and I did have to laugh at one point when I made the iPod live. It helpfully pronounced the music choices and that was really funny. Let’s just say the pronunciation is hilarious when you give it things like “90s music”?

It handled every switch without a problem; the only problem I found was it can be a bit tetchy about connecting to an Apple product on the cable. It however was quick to fix in the settings option. It does give more information when connected to an Apple product and give you more selection details unlike Bluetooth or audio connect which is just let you play or stop and change volume. On the iPod it is reading out choices for you to select all be it some sound hilarious.

Making a call is a breeze as you just select your contact list. It reading out the contacts to you and it does have a fast selection which is handy for people with a million contacts. So just select the starting letter and scroll your way through. Hit green and the calls are placed.

It is also very easy to switch the call to your phone if you arrive at your destination. The option is offered on screen if you have a live call as you park up. So very convenient and simple to do.

You can also be streaming music from your phone.

Get a text message and it will even read it out to you as you travel. So no fiddling with the phone just listen.

It is quite sensitive for a distance and a friend of mine whose phone had been connected as part of this review got a call. He was outside the car about 10 metres away but as soon as I started the car I had to be very quiet as the call he was on suddenly could be heard in the car!!! I however don’t think this is a problem as it had been paired so the Play did recognise it as a known device.

The Sony Walkman I connected with a blue tooth connection did take a while to hook up and was recognised as a Bluetooth headset. It did the job though and played as I needed it to. I did have to go through the setting screen to get the connection and repeat a couple of times. Now it recognises it without a problem so it was just an initial hook up issue.

So I think I have put 3 phones (iPhone, windows and android), a Bluetooth Sony Walkman, and the iPod on cabled connection all at the same time which is excellent.

Overall this is a super device which works really well and I have no hesitating recommended