The last post focused on the Jabra Journey Bluetooth speakerphone. This time, I’m going to take a look at the Jabra Freeway. The Freeway in our house was purchased as an upgrade to the Jabra Cruiser 2. Like the Journey, the Freeway features Bluetooth 3.0. It also features the same talk range as the Journey – 33 feet. In fact, the Freeway has many of the same features as the Journey. The two speakerphones were made to be top-of-the-line. The biggest difference in the two speakerphones, other than size, is that the Freeway has the ability to stream music from your phone to your car’s speakers via its FM transmitter. Plus, it includes AVRCP technology which allows you to control a device from a Bluetooth headset while streaming music.
We have been using the Freeway in one of our vehicles for almost one year. The sound quality is remarkable and there is no problem hearing the caller on the other end. As I mentioned, we purchased this speakerphone to upgrade our Jabra Cruiser 2 and when we did, we decided to find one that included an FM transmitter. The Freeway did not disappoint in that department. The transmitter works really well and we use it most of the time rather than using the vehicle’s radio.
The Freeway retails at $129.99 although it can be found at lower price online. I can recommend this to anyone who wants a quality speakerphone with some extra special features.
It’s a nice unit, and works well, but…. If your living room is within thirty feet of the driveway, a slight breeze will move the car and wake it up (they use vibration as a wake up indicator), which will connect and you cannot either make or receive a call, because the Jabra has kidnapped your phone. That’s true if your seat in the restaurant or barber shop is near the parking lot, too. I asked Jabra and they said the only solution is that you need to turn it off when you leave the car, or close bluetooth on your phone. You have to wonder what kind of an idiot designs a device that can only function when the user is in the car and then gives it a thirty foot range without the capability of reducing the range to something appropriate to the task.