jckrauskopf

I was really excited about Bluetooth when I first heard of it. But after reviewing the user manual, I'm not only disappointed but glad I'm not waiting for it. In short, I don't see the big deal. If I understand correctly, all it really gives you is the ability to dial by voice and mute the stereo. The big win, in my opinion would be to download the phone's (or PDA's or notebook PC's) address book into the car. This would have been really useful for Nav but unfortunately, you can't do this. Making matters worse, if you've set up dialing by voice command on your phone, this information must be re-done for the car. The last thing I want is yet another db to keep synchronized with all my others.

So for my money, I'll just use my Jabra BT headset with my BT phone and turn off the stereo manually.

BMW525UK

Sounds like a rip-off for something so expensive!

Ed520

i don't think its worth waiting for it! just use ur own phone with bluetooth headset.why go thru all the hassle of setting it up on the car....

Woodstock

I was sure I read something about bluetooth integrating better between phone/car. Phone book would be available via idrive and voice, etc. There must be some rudementary voice recognition already (i.e. you shouldn't have to "program" each name), since the nav system (I think) comes with voice recognition by itself.

E60-530d-London

FYI, I have the Blueetooth option fitted to my car. This is a "must-have" for the UK, where the law was recently updated to forbid the use of mobile phones without some kind of hands-free kit fitted.

So, I can tell you that the Bluetooth feature works wonderfully well. When you pair the phone with the car, it automatically uploads the entire phone address book into the car and thereafter keeps it in sync. Whilst driving, I can select my address book from I-Drive, pick the first letter of the contact I wish to dial, then rotate the I-Drive to scroll through all the "L" entries (for example). When the correct one is highlighted, I press the I-Drive to dial. The radio/CD is automatically muted, the called party's voice comes through the stereo clearly and my voice is picked up via the mike in the roof centre pod.

When someone calls me, the radio/CD is automatically muted and I can choose to answer by pressing the phone button on the steering wheel.

The phone can stay in my pocket, or it can snap into the adapter in the central console between passenger & driver, from where it gets charged. This turns out to be quite important as using Bluetooth drains the phone battery pretty quickly.

The whole setup is so easy to use that I haven't bothered with voice activated dialling, although this can be made part of the setup.

All-in-all, Bluetooth is an extra option well worth having. The only other option that I ordered which I consider even more cool is the satnav. Much less stressful than having my wife read the London A-Z as she has the usual challenge with sense of direction

E60-530d-London

FYI, I have the Blueetooth option fitted to my car. This is a "must-have" for the UK, where the law was recently updated to forbid the use of mobile phones without some kind of hands-free kit fitted.

So, I can tell you that the Bluetooth feature works wonderfully well. When you pair the phone with the car, it automatically uploads the entire phone address book into the car and thereafter keeps it in sync. Whilst driving, I can select my address book from I-Drive, pick the first letter of the contact I wish to dial, then rotate the I-Drive to scroll through all the "L" entries (for example). When the correct one is highlighted, I press the I-Drive to dial. The radio/CD is automatically muted, the called party's voice comes through the stereo clearly and my voice is picked up via the mike in the roof centre pod.

When someone calls me, the radio/CD is automatically muted and I can choose to answer by pressing the phone button on the steering wheel.

The phone can stay in my pocket, or it can snap into the adapter in the central console between passenger & driver, from where it gets charged. This turns out to be quite important as using Bluetooth drains the phone battery pretty quickly.

The whole setup is so easy to use that I haven't bothered with voice activated dialling, although this can be made part of the setup.

All-in-all, Bluetooth is an extra option well worth having. The only other option that I ordered which I consider even more cool is the satnav. Much less stressful than having my wife read the London A-Z as she has the usual challenge with sense of direction!

adm

Mr E60-530D London - I couldn't agree with you more.

The bluetooth phone option is great. I'm guessing you have a Sony Ericsson T68i phone (or the Nokia that there's currently a cradle for) as I couldn't get a cradle for my T600 phone yet. I have about 400 numbers in my phone and being able to select from the iDrive is just perfect. Even without the cradle, you can just leave the phone in your bag or jacket and not touch it at all. The quality is very good too - people I've spoken too have said they would never guess I was in the car.

The other benefit to the cradle is that it connects to the car's cellphone antenna and gives better reception.

Anyway - sounds like you have the exact same car as I did. What colour do you have ?

I got the Silver Grey with 122 wheels, black leather, satnav, active steering, dynamic drive and loads of other toys.

Great car.

paasan

The "big win" with the Bluetooth compatibility, compared to the DECT standard used on the E39, is that the system would be compatible with future telephones equipped with Bluetooth.

Besides that, I guess there are a few improvements made since the DECT-compatible handset in the E39 - quicker synchronization, improved security and so on.


-paasan

E60-530d-London

Hi -adm-

I use a T610 with the car and picked up the cradle from my dealer only yesterday. You are correct that use of the external car antenna is another benefit - so long as you remember to remove the rubber cover on the back of the phone!

Since you asked, I bought a 530d in Orient Blue/Amethyst Dakota/123 alloys with Titanium trim. I was in a massive hurry when I swapped my car so took a dealer car from stock rather than ordering a custom configuration. I asked them to find me a car with some mandatory extras (satnav, bluetooth, runflats) and took my chances on the rest of the spec. Features that I did not get include the funky steering (no great loss to me) and dynamic drive, which I was interested in having. However, the standard setup is *so* much better than my previous car (Audi Allroad 2.7T) at handling, I can more than live with it. Plus, I got a huge discount from list (around 10%) through taking the car from dealer stock. If anyone wants the bargain of the century, this is the route to take.

Paasan, I thought like you do that all Bluetooth phones would be compatible with the BMW Bluetooth setup. This is *not* the case!!!! I used to have a Sony-Ericsson P800 and this did not work with the car in any way at all. The dealer did try for some time to set it up until they discovered an internal BMW memo that tells them exactly what phones work and which do not. The P800 was explicitly mentioned in the memo as *incompatible* and I would expect similar Symbian-powered devices like the new P900 to be in the same boat. My theory is that the Bluetooth interface does more than just get the phone talking to the car - for example, the car instructs the phone to upload its address book and this feature is bound to be dependent on the phone's operating system.

I found that my wife's T68i worked fine but could not face swapping to this clunky phone. So I bought the T610 and sold the P800 to a work colleague just before Sony-Ericsson brought out the P900 ;-)

BMW525UK

Thanks for the info on the P900 - would've felt quite stupid installing this option at a later date - and then getting really fustrated!