Techmati

Chronos USB Bluetooth Adapter Class 1 - Review

I am currently using the Chronos USB Bluetooth Adapter (Class 1) in Win2k for connection to my SonyEricsson phone. It works fine with the phones K700, V600, T630. Did not work with V525. Although the device paired fine with the V525 it failed to transfer files. That appears to be a problem with the phone and not the adapter I believe.

http://www.chronos.com.tw

The drivers provided with the adapter installed fine. There is no other software apart from the "My Bluetooth Places" which is created by the driver and provides all connectivity features but nothing more. Therefore another adapter with a full software suite may be a better choice. I think that the Mobileaction adapter is supposed to be good but it was out of stock where I went.

You can see the available services below :

File transfer was not near the specifications of the adapter which are maximum 721 kbps. They were around 23.1 kbps which is fine for transferring games. The connection is without disrutption which I think is the beauty of bluetooth. When it is setup and the adapter and phone paired you can just right click on a file and choose send to (your phone name} and it transfers the file.

You can also use the K700 to control the computer as a mouse with the joystick and buttons. This works fine with the bt adapter although the joystick moves the cursor only 4 directions and in steps which means you could end up a little above or below the icon. You just choose the remote control function in the phone and then move the cursor to perform an action and then close the remote control feature and then you are back with the computer mouse. Very nice if you are too lazy to get up and go back to the computer but you need to do some small task.

You can synchronise your phonebook with outlook using the adapter. I have been using outlook express for the time being. I was ending up with some email addresses in the phone though. Also you can only load one phone number per contact into the phone. There is no feature to use another type of contacts program though which is dissapointing.

There are other services like :

PIM Item Transfer - Allow BT devices to exchange business cards with the computer.

PIM Synchronisation - Allow BT devices to synchronise a Personal Information manager with the computer.

File Transfer - Allow BT devices to perfom file operations on a specific folder on the computer.

Network Access - Allow BT devices to share the computers network connection

Dial up Networking - Allow BT devices to connect to an ISP using the modem attached to the computer

Bluetooth Serial Port - Allow BT devices to connect to the computer via a wireless serial port.

Fax - Allow BT devices to use the computer to send faxes

Audio Gateway - Allow BT devices such as a headset to replace the computer's microphone and speakers.

Headset - Allow BT device to use the computer's microphone and speakers as its input-output device.

The K700 allows the following services through the adapter :

Dial up networking
Headset
Serial Port (2 available)
OBEX Object Push - Exchange business cards with the phone
OBEX IrMC Sync Server - Synch phonebook and schedule
OBEX File Transfer - Load games, themes, ringtones to the phone
Mouse and Keyboard

The difference with the sonyericsson and the motorola phones is that you can use the OBEX file transfer fine with the SE phones but with the motorola you have to use instead the OBEX object push to copy files onto the phone.You can plug and unplug the adapter as you see fit without issue. No complaints by the OS at all.

I dont think that the sonyericsson software suite works with bt adapters though. I will perform further research on this. I will also check for other software.