BMW Bluetooth Car Kit - compatible phones

[Taz]

Does anyone have a fairly recent BMW with a factory fit Bluetooth car kit? If so, which phones work properly with it? I've checked the official list from BMW and all of the phones listed are several years old. I'm currently using a 6310i as this works perfectly but is an old, boring phone.

I recently purchased an SE P910i but sent it back as I had trouble even pairing it with the BMW BT kit.

[Aaron]

Right, first the back story - bluetooth relies on profiles to allow different devices to communicate with each other. Both devices need the same profile in order to do so. The problem is that hands-free got fragmented into two standards.

Most of the industry went with one profile, Siemens went with the other one. Siemens then helped BMW develop their in-car bluetooth system and guess which profile they chose to support? Yup, the one that Siemens uses.

These days some manufacturers support both profiles (Nokia), but some still only support one (Sony Ericsson).

I can't give you a definitive list of what phones will work, but Siemens are virtually gaurenteed to work whilst Nokia phones have a very good chance of working.

If you're getting a contract phone, don't forget that you get 14 days to return it if you don't like it usually. If you choose a phone that doesn't work then you can simply return it to the operator and choose another one.

[kingab]

It seems that BMW have a very very small list of supprted phones and that they only support phones current at the point of manufaturer, which of course in this day and age is next to useless.

I have tried to resolve probelms with an intermitant fault on connecting a Nokia 6500 to a 2005 BMW, only to be told that despite the fact they have a fix for it that as the phone was not supported when I purchased my car that they will not fix it.

When I complained they stated that I was the first person to complain about this lack of support. If you are having problems with any aspect of your bluetooth support can I suggest that you send an email to BMW Customer Services, thier address is on the BMW web site. They will tell you to go away, but at least if I am correct and a lot of people are having these issues they will know this.

If you are looking to purchase a new BMW I suggest unless you have a ready supply of old mobile phones that you do not bother with the factory fitted Bluetooth Kit, the Parrot one is cheaper and supports far more phones and will even intergrate with the stearing wheel buttons.

BTW the issue I am having with my Nokia 6500 is that it intermitantly crashes the bluetooth so that only switching the car off for a long period will enable the phone, and it also stops the Radio from working, again rarely however the dealer informed me it was a "known" issue with some "Unsuported" phones.