It’s fair to say that more than a few people have commented that my phone is a bit big, and that it is difficult to make a call with it without looking like a bit of a berk. 🙂
Not any more! If you’ve been following me on twitter, you might have seen me obsessively tracking my latest gadget toy from the U.S – an “LG Style-I” bluetooth handset. It finally arrived today.
It’s essentially like a bluetooth headset – except it has buttons, looks like a normal phone and you don’t have to strap it to your ear.
(Maybe it was just Doctor Who which scared me off bluetooth headsets? 😉)
If I don’t need to use my phone as a PDA, I can just leave it in the bottom of my bag. I can just have this in my pocket and use it like a regular phone (with the only difference being that it uses the Ameo in my bag for it’s cell signal).
The handset can make or receive calls – the display with show stuff like incoming caller-ID from the phone and as well as being able to dial numbers normally I can still use stuff like the voice command and speed dials. It looks enough like a phone that I imagine most people seeing it will assume it is a mobile. Which is all much more practical when out and about.
There isn’t really a big market for these things… unless you also have a phone the size of a textbook, you probably wont need it. But I still think it’s pretty cool. 🙂
Best comment I’ve heard about it so far: “It’s like getting your dog a dog”. 🙂
Not sure I get it. So that weird little stick thing is, in fact, a phone that you hold to your ear? What’s the brick part?
The teeny stick part is the bluetooth handset
The brick bit with the 5″ screen is my phone.
http://www.seehtc.com/ does a decent job of explaining what it is, but essentially it’s a windows mobile phone. An amazing PDA, but a really crap phone 🙂
comment from a mate on MSN after seeing this blog post…
I’m getting the feeling that I havent really sold this very well…
I think it’s fantastic! It’s exactly this limitation that’s previously stopped me buying a phone like the Ameo (although my Vario II is hardly diminutive…), but with a gadget like this I could easily leave the phone in my bag and only use it when I need the PDA functions.
Does the handset itself ring when you receive a call? Does it charge via mini-USB? And of course, the important questions – where, and how much? 🙂
yay – a convert! 🙂
yup, the handset rings, and it charges using mini-USB
as for where, i got it from ebay – where else? 😉
Same issue with my Ameo. But I can’t seem to get the LG I Style unless your in the US or Canada & I’m in the U.K. talking to a brick like object, great as a PDA, crap as a phone.
How did you manage to get hold of one – grateful for advice!
I got it from a US seller on eBay. Bit nuts as I ended up paying as much in shipping as I did for the headset itself 🙂
Had my Ameo for a little while and luv it. Although as you’ve mentioned, not great being used as a phone. This accessory looks great. One question…does it vibrate or some other silent call notification?
nope. ringing is all. 🙁
Shame, but think I’ll get it anyway… I do like my gadgets!
Hmmm
just got the AMEO ( t-mobile version of the HTC Advantage)
would be better if it was Linux based
Would be a lot better iof the designers wern’t geeks who assume evryone will someday have blue tooth surgically implanted at birth
Ie – if they rememberd this is a PHONE!!!!
my XDA has been faithfull for 3 years and It was a wrench to move Im still in my 30 day period and seriously tempted to move back
THe ameo is great in evry way except it s a lousy phone. and there is NO good reason for this to be so. its simply bad design on the part of HTC.
now this LG gadget is an option the ameo will replace my laptop and my media player – and the weight difference between this and my xda in its metal jacket is minimal.
but….. 15 days to go on my approval contract… do I really want to ad a gadget rather than lose one to my load out?
CAN HTC supply a clip on head set QUICKLY PLEASE!!!
I dont mind using it to make a call even if it is big its not that big and people said the same thing about XDA’s when they came out.
HTC your on notice !!!
I need a clip on mouth piece and speaker.
Slim – Small and wont block the cooling vents.
(Preferably also opens beer and wine bottels and has a thing for getting stones out of horses hooves.) I’DE PREFER IT TO THE BLUE TOOTH EXTRA AND PAY YOU THE SAME.
( ANY TECHIE MODELERS OUT THERE CARE TO PRODUCE A PROTOTYPE?)
Tried TomTom nav 6 and while i hate the interface and do not find it intuitive the phone works OK.
calls using the supplied head set only work if there is zero background noise – or the person your calling is ver very understanding.
really bad distortion.
using it as a speaker phone is OK provided you dont need any privacy and there is little background noise
Have forestalled the t-mobile co and have three days to give back or keep.
Hard choice — depends on wheather or not I can get some one to demo a decent head set. Last two who tried couldnt get it to recognise the phone.
Head set will be stuck in my wallet 90% of the time so needs to be robust. Any suggestions?
Also any advice on the battery?
batery life seems to have decreased drastically sinsce first two charges – and the replacement batteries i see offered dont have a clip which i assume is needed for them to work.
thoughts Please?
Dale,
Are you still using this LG Style-I bluetooth handset? What’s the verdict?
Steve
Steve – yup, i still use the LG Style-I pretty much every day – i think it’s fantastic.
I wish it could do a little more – like I wish it could show the names of incoming callers from the Ameo’s phonebook, rather than just the number. But what it does, it does very well.