I-Tech Clip Radio Review

The packaging now is a round cylindrical plastic tube. Design of packaging looks classier and more attractive to attract buyer, for marketing purpose.

Now what comes with package itself:

1. The Clip Radio BT stereo Headset Unit.
2. One pc of mono earphone for car drivers to use while driving to answer call
3. One pc of stereo earphone for stereo music enjoyment using FM Radio or A2DP BT Stereo
4. One pc of AC Adaptor/Charger
5. Three sets of cotton buds
6. A Manual booklet in English/Chinese (not in photo below)

BT Dongle for it is sold separately if you want to use it for iPod/phones or other mp3 players.

Note: There is no more MSI Blueplayer (Symbian Version) CD included now. This new Clip Radio does NOT work with MSI Blueplayer (WM version also).

Music playing:
FM Radio - reception is good. Good stereo FM music. Better than those using phone or PPCPhone built in FM radio. It can scan and preset 4 FM Radio channels. Only downside is that there is no display to show FM Radio station detected or FM frequency. You have to go by hearing. This FM Radio can be used completely independently from your PPC/Phone.

When BT bonded with PPC Phone, when a phone call comes in, the Clip Radio will pause and a call alert tone can be heard. Just press the MFB button and you can answer the call. When call ended, the FM Radio music will automatically continue on its own after 1-2 seconds. I have tested this. The same things goes if you are listening to A2DP stereo.

Another beautiful thing I tested is that it can switch from listening A2DP stereo music to FM Stereo seamlessly by pressing and holding the volume up button a short while. It can also switch back from FM Stereo to A2DP stereo again by pressing and holding the volume up button, and then the play button. The A2DP will continue again where you have paused earlier to switch to FM. This is very useful when you are riding on a MRT train and it goes underground, you can switch quickly from FM stereo to A2DP stereo without need to reconnect BT and player etc.

FM Radio Stereo does NOT have any skipping or hissing problem if your FM Station is scanned accurately.

A2DP music streaming via Bluetooth - Hissing and skipping when using PPCPhones with MS BT Stack is almost assured. Skipping however can be solved using a skipping patch now available. For hissing problem hope a patch or fix can be found soon too. (A2DP gurus hopefully can solve this soon too grin.gif ). To be fair to iTech this hissing and skipping problem is probably caused by MS BT Stack on PPCPhone's WM OS. Many other brand of BT Stereo Headsets suffers same fate to various degrees. However those using PPCPhones with Widcomm BT Stack such as iPAQ 6515/6965/6960 will not have any skipping and hissing problem.

AVRCP also works well with WMP amd Pocket Music. That is you can use it to remote control pause/Play/Forward and Reverse. I have tested this also.

Clip Radio seems to have a better BT and music system than R35 to me. Hope it is just pyschological. We have to let other testers like MasK confirm whether this is true.

Since it has a 3.5 mm audio out port you can use your own favorite Sony, Panasonic, Sennheiser or Creative stereo earphones that you are comfortable with or used to.

Conclusion:
Overall I am happy with this new Clip Radio. It is worth buying if the price is good.