Blue Tiger Elite - I give it the ultimate test

Blue Tiger Elite

Nov 23, 2013  Last month I received an email from Jared, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Blue Tiger USA. He offered to send me one of their Blue Tiger Elite “Bluetooth” headsets to try out, put through it’s paces, report back and write about my experiences. I wrote back that I would be glad to test his product, but I would express my honest opinion on my blog. He had no problem with that and as you can read below, I was quite impressed!

Week One

I've had the headset for a week now, using it around the house and in my personal vehicle. Having tried several of the wireless devices the past few years, this one is by far the most comfortable. The ones that fit over the ear lobe have always felt unnatural to me and I could not get used to wearing them for an extended period of time. The Blue Tiger Elite has a headband to wear over your head and a very comfortable padded ear piece that covers the ear, instead of hanging off of it.  Initially, it felt rather tight on my head and Jared reminded me that the band is fully adjustable and you can bend it however you want for a perfectly comfortable fit. I have worn it around the house for hours with no problems. In fact, when I get home I leave my cell phone on the table and either wear the Blue Tiger or if I’m sitting in one place have the headset next to me on the coffee table. I've found it just as easy to pop the headset on and answer a call as having to handle my cell phone! It’s great then to have both hands free and not have to hold a phone in your ear.

This past week I've been in the office, so I’m still waiting to get the unit in a truck to test it. On one day, I was able to use it on a conference call while in an idling tractor doing testing of an on-board computer. The Blue Tiger Elite had excellent clarity through the headset and I could easily control the volume at a comfortable level. I had the ability to turn the volume up to a far greater level than I needed. No one on the other end of the conference call had any problem understanding what I was saying. As I had to be typing on a keyboard while on the call, having my hands free was necessary. The headset was the obvious choice versus placing the cell phone on speaker. I only imagined the difficulty the others would have had hearing me on speaker with that truck engine running.

Week Two

After fully charging the Blue Tiger the week before, I did not plug it in all week and it still seemed to have a full charge. Although it doesn't have an indicator of remaining battery life, it’s likely that all I would need is a once per week charge to keep it up. I suppose if you are a heavy phone user, you would just recharge on a more frequent schedule.

On the second week, I was into a routine. When arriving home, my cell phone would go on the kitchen counter, as I preferred to have the headset with me around the house. Even sitting watching TV and not wearing the Blue Tiger, it was so easy to pop it on to answer a call and have my hands free after.

I didn't drive much this week either but was able to ride along with one of our drivers on a check ride. We were on a local run in a day cab tractor that is about 8 years old and very noisy. Grossing over 100,000 pounds and pulling doubles, the engine was very loud with the exhaust stack over my right shoulder in back of the cab. I made a couple of calls while underway to see how the headset performed. The first call was to my wife and her comment was that she could not even tell I was using a blue-tooth device. My voice sounded as natural to her as if I was just on the cell phone. With other devices I've used, she could always tell and quite often had trouble understanding me. The Blue Tiger Elite has a completely flexible microphone which you can position any way you like, far enough away that you can easily take a drink or eat a snack while wearing it. As far as me hearing her, I had absolutely no problem understanding what she was saying in that very noisy tractor.

Week Three

I was finally able to get some serious tractor road time in using the headset. Our company policy prohibits not only cell phone use while driving but also the use of blue-tooth devices unless parked or in a company lot. I had to ride along and train a new driver on the truck and therefore was able to use the Blue Tiger Elite from the passenger seat. Again, every call was problem free and the headset worked flawlessly.

Blue Tiger Elite

The Ultimate Test

An unfortunate experience during the week gave me the opportunity to give the Blue Tiger the ultimate performance test. If you drive for a living it’s inevitable that sooner or later you are going to have to sit alongside a busy interstate highway with a breakdown waiting for a service truck to come bail you out.

That is exactly what happened to us as we attempted to leave Salt Lake City heading out of town. The intake clamp on the turbo inlet pipe blew out stranding us alongside the interstate during morning rush hour. We first thought we blew a tire as we got out of the truck and looked for the source of the problem. After raising the hood we found the issue was the turbo and as we stood there outside in the rain, I pressed the button on the Blue Tiger to make the call to get some help.

If you've ever stood a few feet off an eight lane interstate during rush hour with cars and trucks blowing past you at 65 plus miles per hour, you know the noise is unreal. I used voice commands to call the office and explain our problem to dispatch. Once again the Blue Tiger Elite performed flawlessly, my phone had no problem understanding my voice commands and dispatch heard me loud and clear and got some help started our way.

This handy headset is by far the best blue-tooth device I have ever used and pretty impressive. In fact, I had given up on using them altogether until I got the chance to try this one. I would highly recommend this product. It's available for about $150.00 You can link over to their website to check out the Elite and their other products, including dash cams and sound pods! Great product Jared!

From the Blue Tiger USA website:

Blue Tiger USA began manufacturing Bluetooth headsets for America’s truck driving community back in 2009.  Since that time, the Blue Tiger name has become one of the most trusted and sought after brands for Bluetooth electronics for people in any industry where communication is key and noisy environments must be overcome.

IT professionals, truck drivers, contractors, road warriors, and many others use Blue Tiger products every day to get the job done and to stay in contact with those that matter most.

*Sponsored post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*