One of the big disappoints in the MBZ electronics is the bluetooth phone connectivity. Aside from the fact that you have to pay $350 for the module to make it actually work, the range of phones that are fully supported is pretty thin. My wife's Range Rover has far better, and much simplified, bluetooth capabilities...
<rant>yeah, I've read about how everyone with RAZRs are able to connect and transfer their address book, blah, blah, blah. Were it not for the fact that the RAZR is one POS handset (let's see how you feel about it after 9 months or so), I might actually take comfort in that!</RANT>
Okay, so I have a LG KG800 (Chocolate) handset and I was able to connect it to the bluetooth setup in the car (2007 CLS550). I noticed a couple of things, the first being that the signal strength in the in-car antennae was constantly at 1 bar while the phone would be at full reception. I talked to a tech about this and he said that the antennae in the car is used for both the Tele-aid system and your cell phone, but that it puts more signal strength to the Tele-aid system. He also said that with the Star Diag machine he could configure the antennae to put more power to the cell side of the antennae, but when he tried it we didn't have any success.
Also, regarding my LG phone, this is not the "chocolate" that Verizon is offering (and advertising to death). I have an unlocked phone that I'm using on T-Mobile's GSM network, but it's basically the same phone so what I experienced should apply to the Verizon phone as well.
Here's what worked:
- I could use the phone to make/receive calls
- End button on dash worked
- the car automatically connected to the phone when I hit the key and powered up
Here's what didn't work:
- could not dial from the dash keypad
- could not answer/hang up calls from the steering wheel controls
- could not transfer the address book to the car
I actually wasn't that happy with the LG anyway, it's a great looking phone - very fashionable - but the screen it really sensitive to the touch and it got kind of annoying, and the menus were a little cumbersome. I bought a Blackberry Pearl and connected it tonight, better functionality so far but I still couldn't transfer the address book. Will post after I get a little time with this setup.
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