Bluetooth Problem

[Faisal]

The problem is like that I tried to connect my sonyericsson P900 to my car handsfree bluetooth. I was able to find that handsfree in my list and the bonding process was complete. I waited for the car handsfree to connect to and i always get this message "unable to connect". I updated my P900 with new firmware from the net and the bluetooth version was R5D. The same problem still occured. I tried it with different mobile and to be exact NOkia 6600 and 6310I with bluetooth feature and they worked find and smoothely. I dont understand what is the problem with P900 it is the only mobile I couldnt connect it with the car handsfree. Any help will be apperciated.

[legacy34]

Sony Ericsson P900 is not among list of handsets that Lexus has determined are compatible with their Bluetooth handsfree system. the two Nokia handsets you successfully connected with are on the list.

[kiranm]

The Sony Ericsson P900 only supports the "headset" profile, whereas the LS430 needs the "hands free" profile. This is a problem of not of Lexus, but of Sony doing a half-baked implementation of the Bluetooth specification. SE says they support version 1.1 of the bluetooth specification, but fail to state that they don't support it completely. More annoying is that they support hands-free in their cheaper phones like the T616 which work fine in the Lexus, but choose to leave this one deal-breaker of a feature on their high-end P900. I love the P900 phone, it does everything that I want, except for the link to my LS430. This renders the phone un-usable, and I have switched back to my T616, and will live with it until SE releases an update, or until the new Treo 610 comes out which does all this and more.

The bluetooth 1.1 spec is again gray on the hands-free profile. The hands-free profile was added as an addendum to the spec itself, so technically, SE may be right in saying they support v1.1.

Hands-free profile is the BT implemention to be used for in-vehicle implementations, because it supports exchange of data other than the phone call itself, like caller-ID, signal strength etc. that can be displayed on the navigation screen. Unlike the hands-free profile, a "headset" profile just links the voice from the phone to the wireless headset, which rightly doesn't have a need to collect caller ID information. So, Lexus is right in building for the hands-free profile, but SE screwed up with such an advanced phone like the P800 or P900.

In fact, all other current in-vehicle BT offerings, like the ones from the 2004 Acura TL, and BMW dealer installed BT add-ons, use the hands-free profile, and the SE P800/900 are not compatible with any of them.

The new SE P910 apparently supports hands-free, but this won't be confirmed until someone with the above cars buys a P910 when it is released and tries to link it with their cars.

Long story short - not all Bluetooth implementations are equal. Just by saying that "we support Bluetooth" doesn't mean it will actually work. Check with a trial phone before handing over $$$ to purchase a phone, or check on the internet before buying. SE's lack of handsfree support for the P900 is a major gripe that numerous others are complaining about, but I guess Sony is too big to care.