Review: Lumsing Bluetooth Car Kit with FM transmitter
Bluetooth car kits are all very well, but a lot of them involve either some DIY to your car's dashboard or the right sockets (even just 3.5mm aux in) on your car stereo.
Which is why I was interested in grabbing this Lumsing gadget which claims to effectively turn any car into a Bluetooth-capable media monster instantly and cheaply, thanks to the 'magic' of FM transmission.
Now, FM transmitters are in themselves not new, they've been around for years, but you normally have to plug these into your smartphone with a 3.5mm jack - the secret sauce here (other than being sleek, small and stylish) is that the audio connection to your smartphone for music, podcasts and call handling, is all done wirelessly, via Bluetooth.
The usual caveats apply in terms of finding a frequency that works well for you - in the UK, I usually swear by 88.4MHz, but a lot will depend on where you live. The power output from this Lumsing unit seems pretty good though and I rarely got hit by interference from nearby FM stations. One omission here is that there's no 'auto-scan-for-blank-frequency' function, something which you sometimes find in other transmitters.
The unit is small and light, and mounts onto a magnetic back, which you can stick (using the supplied pad) to any surface should you not have a magnetic surface in your car already. One nice touch is that the transmitter rotates on its base, so as to relieve strain on the power cable/antenna and also to let you tidy the cable away more easily.
In my car, the circular Lumsing transmitter matched the other circular controls perfectly, so it was natural to stick it onto the dashboard plastic, where it has been secure.
In terms of controls, you get frequency adjustment, track forwards and back, plus play/pause, with a tidy LCD display to confirm the frequency currently being transmitted at. The Bluetooth connection to my test smartphones was trivial and you connect just as with any other Bluetooth audio device, there's no pairing code needed.
Although this doesn't support the Apt-X Bluetooth codec, the standard A2DP profile was fine and our family has been enjoying trips with high quality music, streamed from iPhones and Windows Phones. And when it comes to taking a call, pressing the top right button answers and there's then built-in noise cancellation to keep the audio tidy.
The instruction manual talks about long pressing the top right button to launch Siri on the iPhone, which is fair enough but it does nothing for Android users, so this may be of limited use. Best to still use the controls on the phone itself for most people.
There's a dual port (1A/2A) 12V car adapter in the box, which is very welcome indeed. For most people, plugging the FM/Bluetooth gadget into the lower power USB port then gives you a high current port with which to charge your smartphone quickly. it's neat and... just works.
At £18 (currently) in the UK on Amazon, this is priced about right. Possibly not an outright bargain, but certainly not too expensive - in our car it replaced an old wired FM transmitter adapter and is half the size, weight, is far more elegant... and comes in cheaper as well. Love it!
Which is why I was interested in grabbing this Lumsing gadget which claims to effectively turn any car into a Bluetooth-capable media monster instantly and cheaply, thanks to the 'magic' of FM transmission.
Now, FM transmitters are in themselves not new, they've been around for years, but you normally have to plug these into your smartphone with a 3.5mm jack - the secret sauce here (other than being sleek, small and stylish) is that the audio connection to your smartphone for music, podcasts and call handling, is all done wirelessly, via Bluetooth.
The usual caveats apply in terms of finding a frequency that works well for you - in the UK, I usually swear by 88.4MHz, but a lot will depend on where you live. The power output from this Lumsing unit seems pretty good though and I rarely got hit by interference from nearby FM stations. One omission here is that there's no 'auto-scan-for-blank-frequency' function, something which you sometimes find in other transmitters.
The unit is small and light, and mounts onto a magnetic back, which you can stick (using the supplied pad) to any surface should you not have a magnetic surface in your car already. One nice touch is that the transmitter rotates on its base, so as to relieve strain on the power cable/antenna and also to let you tidy the cable away more easily.
In my car, the circular Lumsing transmitter matched the other circular controls perfectly, so it was natural to stick it onto the dashboard plastic, where it has been secure.
In terms of controls, you get frequency adjustment, track forwards and back, plus play/pause, with a tidy LCD display to confirm the frequency currently being transmitted at. The Bluetooth connection to my test smartphones was trivial and you connect just as with any other Bluetooth audio device, there's no pairing code needed.
Although this doesn't support the Apt-X Bluetooth codec, the standard A2DP profile was fine and our family has been enjoying trips with high quality music, streamed from iPhones and Windows Phones. And when it comes to taking a call, pressing the top right button answers and there's then built-in noise cancellation to keep the audio tidy.
The instruction manual talks about long pressing the top right button to launch Siri on the iPhone, which is fair enough but it does nothing for Android users, so this may be of limited use. Best to still use the controls on the phone itself for most people.
There's a dual port (1A/2A) 12V car adapter in the box, which is very welcome indeed. For most people, plugging the FM/Bluetooth gadget into the lower power USB port then gives you a high current port with which to charge your smartphone quickly. it's neat and... just works.
At £18 (currently) in the UK on Amazon, this is priced about right. Possibly not an outright bargain, but certainly not too expensive - in our car it replaced an old wired FM transmitter adapter and is half the size, weight, is far more elegant... and comes in cheaper as well. Love it!
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