HERE from when it launched last year. The basics of it are that on top of the‘ over the air’ updates, top drawer noise cancelling, Dynamic Mesh 2 group connection and IP67 waterproofing and bluetooth connectivity with other brands( such as Sena), the Pro adds crash detection and it has an automatic on / off feature to save battery when you’ re not riding, powering down after about 60 seconds of no movement. Another upgrade is that it comes with bigger 45mm JBL speakers rather than the 40mm JBL speakers supplied with the Edge.
USING THE PACKTALK PRO The first thing I noticed with the Pro is the improvement in sound quality. This really does have great sound- noticeably better than the Edge, which I already thought was very good. Music sounds detailed and can easily go loud enough to use with earplugs at high speeds; a little louder and offering better clarity with improved bass than the smaller speakers that came with the previous unit. Battery life is impressive too. I’ ve listened to a lot of podcasts on full day rides and not had to recharge the unit. I also used the Pro at the recent GS Rallye ride in Whanganui connected to two other riders and it lasted the full day of us chatting away, with 25 % left at the end of the day. My old Packtalk Bold’ s battery would sometimes need a battery top-up near the end of the day. Cardo claims 13 hours of talk time. I dunno about that, but I’ ve certainly several 10 hour riding days out of it. I really like the auto power off feature, saving battery when stopping for those long lunches where I typically forget to turn it off. When I first started using the Pro, I connected the unit to my phone via Bluetooth with the phone being charged through the Quadlock Wireless Charging Head. But I noticed the battery level slowly dropping during the course of my ride, even though the phone said it was charging. At first I thought the wireless charger wasn’ t functioning properly and the spotlights
Model: Cardo Packtalk Pro Price: Single unit $ 929 Click this box for more info.
and Google Maps use were drawing too much power to allow the battery to charge. I switched them off, but it continued to slowly drain. Digging through my phone settings, the battery usage showed it was the Cardo Connect App‘ using significant battery’. In 3.5 hours the battery had gone from 85 % to 41 % despite being on wireless charge. So, I turned off Crash Detection … and it started charging up again rather than slowly draining. Cardo says the Crash Detection feature may affect phone battery life, which is certainly the case on my setup. A direct cable charge, rather than wireless charging might be enough to make the difference. I like the feature and the fact it will message my significant other to say I might have been in an accident along with GPS coordinates of where it happened. From a safety point of view it’ s a no brainer. If you’ re on a short ride you likely won’ t notice the battery drain, but you might want to have the phone charging on rides over more than 3-4 hours. If you’ ve already got a Packtalk Edge, it’ s still a best in category unit. But if you want the safety benefits of the Crash Detection and the battery saving features of the auto on / off, then the Pro is well worth a look, and you also get the upgraded speakers, which to me are well worth it.
72 KIWI RIDER