[DieselAnna]

Looking to purchase Cardo Packtalk edge or neo from US. Any connects or websites for the same which has offers in the US?

Right now, Amazon US prices as below:

NEO- $256 (Indian price Rs. 30,299)

EDGE-$319 (Indian price Rs. 35,499)

I have compared both of them and I am ok to let go the benefits of edge over the neo. Neo suits my requirements. I have not purchase an intercom till now because I wanted to buy cardo only. Currently I am using an ASG BT unit which is very basic.

[TheVaas]

Originally Posted by DieselAnna

Looking to purchase Cardo Packtalk edge or neo from US. Any connects or websites for the same which has offers in the US?

Just a word of caution: Cardo India won't aid in warranty issues if the unit has been bought out of India. You'll have to ship it back to US - in case of any warranty issues. Cardo India offers 2 years of warranty.

[skviknaraj]

Originally Posted by DieselAnna

Looking to purchase Cardo Packtalk edge or neo from US. Any connects or websites for the same which has offers in the US?
...

Hey DieselAnna,

Cardo most of times runs a 20% discount on their website. Either you have to use a Code provided by an influencer or some it will be based on some regional festival in the USA. Follow the Cardo US page on Instagram to get the coupon code / offer details.

Big bad Bikes is also currently running some offers on Cardo units. Look at them as you avail warranty support and avoid the hassle of buying in the US, getting someone to carry it back to India.

Regards,
Vik

[WhiskeyTangoFox]

After roughly about 3500 Kms since I've picked up the c30, I thought I'd weigh in and provide a review of sorts. My primary use case is within the city, on my daily commute where I listen to music and take calls regularly. I'm not going to get into the selection process as part of this post however. Let's jump right into that good stuff

1. Build and Ease of Use

The c30 is light, weighing it at just 70 gms, you barely notice it on your helmet. However I must admit that it is a little bulky. I haven't faced any quality issues with the antenna mechanism, the plastics or the rubber, and I must say Bluarmor has done a good job on this front. I quite like the carbon-esque finish as well!



Ease of use however, is where the c30 does not score as high. The buttons are quite tiny, and while you quickly get used to them with regular gloves, it is a whole different ballgame with winter/waterproof gloves. You barely can feel the damn thing. I think a dial of sorts like what the Parani has would have been better, or even a simple large button placement like the TVS S20x, which is just a rebadged c30.**

2. Battery Life and Charging

This is an area where the c30 excels. The claimed battery life is* 16 hours. I easily get around 22-24 hours when I'm using the c30 only for music and calls. With the intercom function, I used it for about 4 hours of ride time (MESH intercom + Music) and my battery dropped 10%, so make of that what you will.

The c30 charges really quickly. A full charge is roughly 20-25 minutes, and it also supports on-the-go charging, which is great!

3. Audio and Microphone Quality

"Jay Bee Ell speakers it has macha"
The Audio quality is good. It gets sufficiently loud for you to enjoy music while still allowing you to have spatial awareness. You can also use this if you use riding earplugs (Pinlocks in my case), but you'll need to max out the volume. Bluarmour includes enough spacers in the box to get the fit just right. However, if your helmet doesn't have recessed speaker pockets, it would be a problem I suppose.*

The noise cancellation is excellent. When I'm on a phone call, doing even 100kmph, the person on the other end can barely tell that I'm riding a motorcycle. In fact, I could still hear and understand my friend who was on a duke 390 with no windscreen, doing 110kmph. (The windscreen is still ideal though)

4. Intercom Use

The c30 offers both MESH and universal bluetooth connectivity, along with some nifty features. When you're connected on MESH, you can patch in either a bluetooth intercom, or even a phone call! To illustrate, say Person A and B are on a MESH Call, and Person C is the pillion of Person A with a Bluetooth Intercom, you can patch Person C into the MESH Call. Similarly if Person D calls Person A or B via phone, you can patch Person D as well. I however didn't try this feature out.

The c30, via its universal pairing mode can connect to any bluetooth device, including another person's TWS earphones. Please note however, that the range on bluetooth is only 50 metres and is only designed for rider-pillion use.

The MESH intercom has a claimed range of 1.2kms LOS, which I found to be fairly close in reality. I was easily able to maintain 600 - 800m of distance on the highway without an issue, but lost the connection after about 1 km. The audio also gets quite choppy at around the 900 km mark. The intercom instantly reconnects when you are back in range, which is great. In the city, I had no issues with the intercom, and was able to test it at about 500m of distance between us, in heavy traffic.*

5. The Mobile App

This is where my experience has been crappy so far. For context, I have a Oneplus 8 running Android 13. For whatever reason, despite me giving the app all the permissions under the sun, I am unable to accept or reject whatsapp calls (Which my friend with an iPhone 13 is able to do).

Secondly, the App has a feature which provides for a readout of whatsapp messages on the go, which is really useful imo. This was working great until a recent app update that came out after the Bluarmor HS1 was launched. Now, the app completely disconnects when I get a whatsapp message. This continued to happen even when I turned the feature off and even resetting the app, the intercom or the network settings hasn't solved this.

My friend and I were not able to pair our intercoms (initially) through the Bluarmour app and I resorted to using the Royal Enfield App, which has support for their Motowave X1 (Also a rebadged c30) that Whatsapp function still doesn't work though.

6. Miscellaneous

Another annoying glitch i've been facing is that the app randomly disconnects while listening to music (while still showing that its connected, but you can't hear anything) and requires a restart to reconnect. Additionally, there is random distortion while listening to music albeit rarely.

The customer service has been pretty responsive so far and their office isn't too far from where I live, so I probably will head there to sort these issues out.

7. Concluding Thoughts

I'm not too sure if the issues I'm facing are particular to just my unit (My friend has faced zero issues with his) but they are quite draining, especially when you've spent 11,000 Rs on an intercom. I hope to get these resolved soon, and if they are, this is hands down an excellent intercom. If you have any questions on something that I may have missed, please feel free to ask. Cheers!

[boniver]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFox

Another annoying glitch i've been facing is that the app randomly disconnects while listening to music (while still showing that its connected, but you can't hear anything) and requires a restart to reconnect. Additionally, there is random distortion while listening to music albeit rarely.

Long shot, but do you carry any other Bluetooth earphones with you while riding? This happened with my Parani a couple of times and I realized that my Bluetooth neckband that I use for office calls (kept in my backpack) kept turning on and off inside my bag when its buttons were pressed by other objects in the bag. That's when my phone would connect to both the helmet and the neckband but play music only through the neckband.

[WhiskeyTangoFox]

Originally Posted by boniver

Long shot, but do you carry any other Bluetooth earphones with you while riding? This happened with my Parani a couple of times and I realized that my Bluetooth neckband that I use for office calls (kept in my backpack) kept turning on and off inside my bag when its buttons were pressed by other objects in the bag. That's when my phone would connect to both the helmet and the neckband but play music only through the neckband.

While I've faced this as well, the disconnection I'm talking about has happened even when I'm not carrying bluetooth earphones.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by TheVaas

Just a word of caution: Cardo India won't aid in warranty issues if the unit has been bought out of India. You'll have to ship it back to US - in case of any warranty issues. Cardo India offers 2 years of warranty.

I agree with this.

I bought a Sena SF4 last year locally after quite a bit of research and realized that I was paying around 3-4k extra here. But it was worth the peace of mind as I could approach the store where I procured it from in case any issues cropped up during the warranty period.

Same goes for all or most accessories such as aux lights, etc. Best to go with a reputed importer/reseller here that will honor warranty claims.