Evoplus Q9 Bluetooth headset and dual car charger review
The Evoplus Q9 is a dual-port car USB power outlet and Bluetooth headset in one convenient package.
The USB outlets can provide 2.1 and 1 amp respectively, so you should be able to power most any tablet and charge your phone at the same time at a decent rate.
The Bluetooth earpiece magnetically locks into place on the top of the device for charging and easy access. The headset charges any time your car is on for most cars.
The headset part sounds ok. I don’t have HD voice capability friends that I know of, nor did I want to get into an awkward conversation asking if they would agree to me using their voice as part of a test. As such I just called my voicemail at the office. The results are below.
I will point out that the voicemail recorded it at a very low volume. I checked by recording to my phone and the audio seems right – same with calling the number and talking to myself. As such I boosted the volume in the recording so you can get an idea of what the sound sounds like.
The charging ports, I have little to say about them other than that they appeared to charge. There are no fast charge capabilities, so my wow factor with them is currently right on the scale at about the “yes, that exists and is useful” location.
The Evoplus Q9 as I used it
When I got the headset it had about forty seconds of charge on it before it died. I then put it into my car, drove around for a bit (for other reasons,) and noticed it was still dead. I also noticed that the plug had wiggled out of the horizontal plug it was in. Moved the thing to a slanted power port in my car and drove around a bit more but not enough to significantly charge it as I have been making a lot of little trips and nothing particularly spectacular lately.
I ended up putting the Evoplus Q9 on a charger battery and letting it get charged up. With a battery capacity of 25mAh I didn’t expect that it should have taken very long to charge, but it did. I don’t know if it took twenty minutes or eight hours to charge but after the initial one it charged.
Evoplus Q9 as my ears used it
The Evoplus Q9 comes with three different ear covers for different sized ears. What it doesn’t come with is an ear-extension cover. As such the whole unit sits I’m guessing a half CM outside of where it needs to be to make a good seal.
I can tell where it needs to be, where that is isn’t capable on me. I have a size XXL head, however my firm belief after the whole Syllable debacle is that my ears are not particularly different than the rest of the world. As such I’m going to say that the fit might be a problem as I don’t believe this can be quite considered universal.
The lack of seal had me pushing the headset in to hear better, and consequently pressing the power off button until I learned to press it differently.
Portanial shortcomings
The range of the headset is about 10 meters according to the specs. I found it to be more along the lines of 12 feet before I got a dropout. Not that this is particularly a dealbreaker as you’re using it in a car. Other factors may have shorted my range, but usually I don’t have range issues.
The talk time is about 1.5 hours according to specs. This is kind of low if your business involves going place to place. Probably not an issue for most however.
As mentioned above mine shipped with no charge and I needed to charge it. Had I not had time and a jumper battery I don’t know how long it would have been before it was usable. There appears to be no other way to charge it than via the base which plugs into your power socket in the car. According to other reviews it takes about an hour and a half to charge it.
I noticed that the Q9 does not appear to power on with the car, or perhaps my phone is simply not pairing with it. As such using it as a trusted device in Android or for parking location doesn’t seem to fly. I’m going to point out this 1) probably only affects a couple of you, 2) may be my phone setup and not the fault of the Q9.
Evoplus Q9 wrap-up
It’s a neat idea, the construction feels solid. I’d like it if there were another way to charge the headpiece or a battery indicator of some sort, but it does what it needs to do.
You can grab one at Amazon for about $30 currently
