Question about Bluetooth/Phone Usage in Prius

I have BC (9) in my Seaside Pearl and just installed a T616 about 2 weeks ago. I can hear just fine over it and folks I talk to say it is clear, but a bit tinny or like I'm in a tunnel, but no one has complained. I love it. I really didn't think I would use it that much, but I have found in quite convenient in LA traffic. I got my T616 via Cingular and piggybacked on my daughter's account (my main cell is Verizon, and they don't offer Bluetooth) for $19.99 to share her minutes since she never uses them all anyway, and we get rollover minutes and a ton of night and weekend. Phone was only $99 after rebate.

 

Got my Driftwood #9 2 weeks ago (only waited 1 week, but that's another story!). Got a T616 through Cingular (free with special they had at Best Buy). Works wonderfully! The only quirky thing is that there's a few seconds of delay after the call connects (in or out) before the other party can hear you. You just have to say 'hello' more than once...

 

Just a note of warning which seems to be an infrequent occurrence:

I bought a T616 and excitedly set it up, only to find out that the voice quality was awful. I couldn't understand the voicemail lady to even press the right buttons, and callers couldn't hear me either.
I searched all the message boards, and came across only one other user, who more diligently swapped out his T616, thinking it was the phone, but still had the same problems.
My guess is that some individual Priuses simply have a problem with T616s for some reason.
He got a Nokia 3650 and said it worked fine, so I tried getting one and sure enough, it sounds great.
I have no idea why this was the case, and obviously many people have had flawless experiences with the T616, but just a warning-- you might be returning the phone in the future if you can't try before you buy.

Finally, the delayed call (people say Hello, Hello) before you ever hear them, seemed to happen all the time with the T616. With the Nokia 3650, i've notice it also happen when dialing from the phone, but not when using the Prius phonebook.
However, the Nokia no longer reports my signal strength on the Prius screen, which the T616 did do.
Also, there are quirks to transferring phone books. (T616 nicely did them all at once, Nokia 3650 you have to do it one by one)

Just my experiences,

MAT

 

This happens for me as well. I have reached teh diagnostics screen for bluetooth, but what do the numbers mean, and what should they be set at?

 

My best guess for the diagnostics screen is that these are gain adjustments for the speakers and microphone. The numbers are nominally set to 0 and have negative/positive adjustments which would make me suspect these are decibal (db) level adjustments. Anyone with a home theatre amplifier is used to seeing these adjustments.

I haven't messed with them since my T616 seems to work fairly reliably as long as background noise is low.

 

Has anyone bought the t608(?) than Sprint uses? I don't want to switch carriers, but since it's just now being offered widespread, I hope it doesn't have bugs.

 

Good news for you. There's a published list of compatible Bluetooth phones that Toyota has tested and approved for use with the Prius. They have a business connections with www.letstalk.com for Internet purchase and subscription services through local carriers in your area.

The link is http://toyota.letstalk.com .

According to the list for my area (No Cal), they've now added your T608 (from Sprint) as well as the Siemens S56.

Pretty much any carrier's version of the Sony-Ericsson T6xx model will work, as well as any version of the Nokia 36xx., in addition to the Siemens S56.

This is a much expanded list than I was seeing a month ago, so it's great to see that there are more choices now...

 

Yeah, I've seen that list. I'm hoping that by the time I get my car, enough Sprint people have tried it so that I don't have to be the guinea pig.

 

I've had my green Prius (Opt 9) for about 3 weeks & really enjoying things.

I use the SE T68i w/ AT&T in the US & anyone else is in the same situation knows AT&T & Sony Ericsson tried to "upgrade" us to a new non-BT phone (gee thanks...) because of the propagation of the 850MHz bandwidth which is not supported by the T68i.

Long story short, I ended up purchasing the T616. I have a couple of teleconferences during both my morning & evening commutes (setup w/ AT&T's telecon service) and no one's had a problem with car noise or hearing my voice - in fact they say it's really clear. I tend to press the Mute button on the Prius when I'm not talking to suppress any possible feedback or driving expletives -).

Once I'm at my destination, I switch on my BT headset & then switch off the Prius. The T616 switches smoothly to the headset w/o problems. The only strange occurrence I've had is when I press the mute button on the t616 too quickly while switching between headsets, sometimes even though the phone says it's MUTED, it actually is not & I end up broadcasting my hugs & greetings with my wife & kids to a large audience... whoops!

Also regarding the t68i, it works just as well with the Prius. The only difference is it doesn't seem to switch from Prius to my Jabra BT headset - but I haven't played with it enough to understand why not.