Avantree CK11

The Avantree CK11 is an excellent way to enable hands-free interaction with your cell phone in an older car that doesn't have Bluetooth built-in. Just press one button to pair the phone with the CK11 and you're done. The unit turns off a few minutes after you leave the car. It turns back on and instantly reconnects to the phone when you get back in. I've been using it a couple of weeks and I haven't had to recharge it yet. While driving, just press the button and Google Assistant pops up on the phone waiting for voice commands to call contacts, send texts, open applications like Google Maps or Waze, etc. You never have to take your eyes off the road. Best of all, the unit clips to the car's visor and there is a large volume knob that can crank up the speaker sufficiently to hear calls regardless of the amount of road noise. People say they can hear me clearly when I call, and I can hear them. Bottom line: the Avantree CK11 does everything I need it to do with a minimum of effort.

We bought two of these units for our older cars whose bluetooth software was too old to pair to our newer phones. Setup was easy on the first product, and the sound quality is very good for this price product. In fact, the sound quality is better than my (supposedly preimium) car speakers as far as spoken word is concered. We had issues with the second unit, and I emailed customer support on July 3rd. I didn't expect to hear back from them because of the upcoming holiday but got a response within a couple of hours. I had some dialogue with them which continued on the 4th, and the customer service rep Sara offered to set up a phone conference. In the meantime, I did get the unit to work properly. I switch back and forth from listening to books on my phone and making and receiving calls, and everything works very well. One really nice thing about this unit is you can set it to power on when it detects motion, and it will automatically power off after 70 minutes with no activity. It takes a little getting used to in order to properly interact between phone (I have an iphone) and unit, but it is sweet in the end!

UPDATED 7/31- My original review skewered this device (see below). However, Avantree has been good to work with and willingly replaced what appears to have been a defective device. The replacement no longer suffers from the audio dropouts, and the good qualities (loud, multipoint connections, and volume knob) are still good. I do still occasionally experience a disconnect or two when connected to devices that were rock solid on my now-failing Moto Roadster, and hence I'm upping to 4 stars rather than 5. Ultimately, it's a fair bargain for the price, and it impacts me far less since I've gotten a newer car in the interim (and scaled the older one and this speakerphone) down to my son. He uses it and has reported no issues. ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW (n/a on replacement device so far) I've held off because I really hate writing negative reviews, but I can hold it in no longer. It's entirely possible that I just have a bad individual unit, but I have seldom been so frustrated at a gadget as I have with this one. I bought it to replace an aging Moto Roadster 2 whose battery is starting to become a problem. My intended use case is for the odd en-route conference call but more often for on the road podcast listening in my older car. The Moto has served admirably in that role for years. First the good... The speaker is plenty loud & great for podcast & audiobook listening. It pairs with two devices simultaneously. I like the volume adjustment mechanism. The battery life has been great. Now the problem... None of the above matters if the device doesn't work consistently. No matter what device(s) I have connected, it will randomly disconnect/connect while in use. More frustrating is that while streaming audio, it will simply go silent. It doesn't disconnect and stop then but rather keeps "playing" on the source device. This means that I miss chunks of audio. Sometimes stopping audio on the source and starting again fixes it temporarily. Sometimes I have to dis-/reconnect. Sometimes power cycling works. The one consistent behavior is that it ALWAYS does this on every trip now independent of the source (have tried Galaxy S10 and s10+, iPhone 8, Galaxy Note 9, and LG V35). I lose calls, can't stream audio consistently, and end out endangering lives messing with it. I've resorted to just using the phone's speaker at max volume. I've reset the device entirely and repaired the devices. Nothing fixes it. I considered chucking it out the window, but I need to see if warranty service is possible. The results of that effort will determine whether or not I revise this review. For now, but at your own risk.

I had a BlueAnt unit (very similar to this one in size and functionality). It quit after 5 years. This is its replacement and I use it in my car regularly. I can hear the party clearly and they tell me that the sound is great at their end. So it works as intended as far as I'm concerned. The motion detector features also work as advertised though I manually switch it on/off each time. I wish that I didn't have to pull the clip off the visor each time I'll need to charge this. That clip is tight and it could damage the visor each time you remove it - best to leave it there. My older BlueAnt version attached to its clip via a pair of strong magnets ... so just stuck a few low-profile magnets directly to the rear of this unit's case. Now it just stays stuck to the clip and yet I can easily take it off for charging. If you are looking for a standalone b/t speaker/mike to use with your phone in your car, just get this - if you are like most humans, you won't regret it!

Seems to be a quality unit. Setup was easy. It connects very quickly once it is paired. I am finding that it won't always automatically turn off if it is still connected to a phone, and it has a pretty good range. Often I find it is still connected when the car is parked and the phone is inside the house. When this happens, it seems the battery drains in a couple days. If I remember to turn it off when I go in the house, the battery lasts a long time. Also have found it does not always turn on when it senses motion. Sound quality is clear, and has plenty of volume when the phone volume is up, but is not music quality sound. Good enough for a phone conversation. I was pleasantly surprised when I realized I could use Google Assistant to use voice to send a text.

Love it! Easy to set up, understand and use. No cords to deal with, no long reach to hit the speaker button, clearer communication with some who'd had much trouble understanding my cell-to-cell conversation. Until now, my most usable answer to calling while I drove was using the speaker on the cell with the cell on a holder on the dashboard. But, because the dashboard slopes down toward the front seats, the phone was a reach to press speaker button or turn the phone off, etc. With this unit I only have to reach my hand up to hit the button to prompt a call or end it: no more nervous stretching. And my OK Google works just great to ask questions or give instruction. Love having no cords! Only problem: the visor clip is only an inch wide and the unit pivots easily: needs a much wider clip or one on RHS & 1 on LHS.

Update 3 weeks in: went from 5 star to 1 star. The button which answers and ends calls quickly turns on Voice Control on the iPhone. The handsfree picks up background noise from the radio and either dials someone- anyone- saved in my phone or starts talking to me in Japanese even if I say or yell CANCEL, it still calls someone. Since I CANNOT shut off Voice Control on an iPhone (check Apple support) , this handsfree is useless with an iPhone. If the answer / end button was separate from Voice Control, this unit would be a five star. The way it is currently configured, it is junk. Original review: I replaced a different brand handsfree, the Avantree has good range and seems to sense motion better, which makes it accurate when it turns off and on. Since I work out of my truck, if it is too sensitive, it will turn on and I can’t use my phone’s speaker when I’m around but not in the cab. This Avantree is much better about knowing when I’m driving and not driving. Also it doesn’t shut off when I’m at a 3 minute red light. Don’t know how Avantree did it but I like it! The speaker distorts when turned up, it could be better quality, but medium levels are very clear. The volume knob is perfect- easy to see to grab and adjust while driving. Battery life is excellent. All in all, this is an A- Almost perfect.

I purchased this Avantree CK11 Hands-Free Bluetooth 5.0 Car Kit to use in my 2013 Toyota Venza. Toyota has decided not to provide S/W or support the latest Bluetooth and Android versions, and therefore, I can not connect my Android phones to the in-car system. It will pair, but none of the features are supported, and it will not recognize the devices after the vehicle is turned off. So you have to re-pair each time you use the car. PITA. Using the CK11 allows me to take advantage of the Google Assistant and other features of the phones. The CK11 recognizes my phone when I open the drivers' door. I own several of Avantree's products, and they have always been outstanding. The one time I required support, they did a prompt and excellent job of correcting the issue. One caveat, if you are using this in a loud vehicle, you will need to turn the volume to maximum. I used it in my 1969 F-150 shop truck and needed the additional amplification. Like all beater shop trucks, this one is thunderous.