Bluetake Bluetooth Hardware Review (PSP)

i-Phono Mini Bluetooth Stereo Pod Transmitter and i-Phono Plus Bluetooth Stereo Headphone Review 

Wires here, wires there, wires everywhere!  Don’t you wish you could watch movies, listen to some music and play games without wires dangling from every hole available on your Sony PSP?  Well, Bluetake is offering up a nice Bluetooth solution to that tangled wired mess. 

Introducing the i-Phono Mini Bluetooth Stereo Pod Transmitter and i-Phono Plus Bluetooth Stereo Headphone.  I’ll be talking about both items in this review.

Let’s start with the pod transmitter.  As you can see from the picture (above) it’s a fairly small device.  It fits on the bottom of your Sony PSP.  Once you get used to it, you almost forget that it’s there.  Status indicators flash different colors to notify what is going on.  For example, when the pod is charging, you’ll see a constant red indicator, a blinking red for low battery.  There is also pairing indicators, alternating from red to blue, as well as a blinking blue indicator when the pod is active.

Charging the unit is very simple. Just plug in the A/C adapter from your Sony PSP - yes, the PSP itself. As you can see from the image (above), you can charge both your PSP and the pod at the same time with the included adapters. The less cords the better, I always say.

Bluetake also sent along the i-Phono Plus Bluetooth Stereo Headphones (as pictured above), so I could test out the sound. I charged the headphones up with the included USB adapter/charger and after a few attempts at trying to pair my pod with the headphones, I contacted support. They sent me the following, which helped considerably, since the manual didn’t mention it very clearly. 

1.)  Press the power button until the BT450PX light flickers blue and red.

2.)  Turn on the BT450Rx headphone, when the BT450Rx turns on, the status indicator of BT450Rx will flicker with a blue light.

3.)  Press the BT450Rx headphone power button and the remote control roller at same time, until the status indicator flickers blue and red.

4.)  Now the BT450Px should be searching for the BT450Rx headphone for pairing.

5.)  When pairing is successful, both the BT450Px and BT450Rx will flicker with a blue light.

6.)  Plug the BT450Px into the PSP and start playing.

The headphones have volume controls and a retractable microphone, so you can pair it up with a Bluetooth enabled phone, if you like.  I didn’t have time to try it out with my Treo 700, but I’m sure it works fine. 

I played quite a few games, including MLB 2006: The Show, and had only a few audio drop-outs.  I actually noticed small audio details here and there that I’ve never heard with the regular Sony PSP speakers, making the game even better. 

While listening to music and watching movies, it never dropped out.  The quality was surprisingly good.  I couldn’t even tell the difference when using my regular headphones.  It definitely sounds a lot better than the Sony PSP speakers.  The fact that they are wireless seals the deal for me.   

After about 4 and a half hours of playing games, listening to music and watching movies, the battery finally went out on me.  I don’t normally play for very long to begin with on a handheld system, but to put the pod through its paces, I went ahead and kept going until it ran out of juice. 

If you follow the simple instructions in this review to pair the headphones with the pod, you’ll be in gaming heaven.  I’ll never play my Sony PSP without them.  There are things that could be improved. The first involves the charging of the headphones. It would be nice if it came with some sort of adapter that you could plug into the Sony PSP adapter, so you could charge all your devices at once. The second would be the power button on the bottom of the pod. If it was on the side, it would be much more convenient, but that may be just me being picky. 

No wires, no drivers, no problem.