Good Call iG1 Review
Good Call iG1 Review
Say you’re at home or the office, and you need to make a few phone calls. You reach for your iPhone, but you need to conserve battery life since you’re about to run some errands right after you hang up. You could charge the iPhone while talking, but that tethers you to an outlet or a USB port. Miss your landline yet? Maybe just a little?
GoFusion’s Good Call iG1 is a Bluetooth handset and iPhone dock that aims to bring you the best of both worlds. It’s easy to set up: simply turn on Bluetooth on your iOS device, hold the iG1’s Call button for three seconds, and you’re ready to go. If you have an iPhone 4S, the iG1 handset also lets you talk to Siri. Even if your iPhone is in the charging dock while you’re in another room with the wireless handset, you can still have Siri dial up one of your contacts (Voice Dialing works the same way on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS). In my tests, despite the half-second lag time, Siri heard me clearly and dialed the correct number nearly every time.
Leave your iPhone docked and grab the handset to gab.
But overall, the iG1’s design is hit and miss. While the dock is clearly made from high-quality materials, the same can’t be said for the handset. It’s mostly plastic, and while I appreciate its light weight, it feels fragile as I press the buttons to access Siri or end a call. Still, the handset’s ergonomically correct design makes it comfortable to hold during long callsâ€"it simply felt as if I was holding nothing against my ear or in my hand.
If you connect the iG1’s dock to your Mac or PC, it can sync your iPhone with iTunes. When fully charged, the handset offers about four hours of talk time, with slightly better call quality than when using the iPhone itself.
The bottom line. Simply put, the Good Call iG1 dock and handset does what it says it will do. What it can’t do is answer the glaring question of why would I want to hold a Bluetooth handset when I could be talking hands free. But if that’s what you’re after, the iG1 is a good buy.
Comment