Testbench: Parrot Asteroid Tablet

£299.99, www.parrotshopping.com

Parrot Asteroid Tablet. Have you been picking random words out of the dictionary again? No. This is the tablet version of the Asteroid, which is made by Parrot. Clear?

No. The Asteroid is a fancy box of tricks for people who don’t have fancy boxes of tricks fitted as standard in their old banger. It clips onto your dashboard or windscreen in a well-thought-out, non-faffy way. It’s a music source, a hands-free kit and a satnav all rolled into one.

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Is that all? You don’t ask for much, do you? No, actually, it’s not all, because via wi-fi, it has access to a marketplace with loads of apps you can download.

Anything decent? Yes. There’s Spotify, Facebook, VLC video player (for when you’re stationary, obviously), there’s e-mail and web browsing apps there too and, er, Igo satnav software.

But you said it was a satnav anyway? Although GPS is built-in, a decent satnav app isn’t included in the price, which seems a little mean.

Any other drawbacks? Because it connects into the back of your stereo, you might need to pay a man with tattoos to install it.

OK, so is it worth all this? Yes, it’s brilliant. It has speech recognition for making calls and playing music on your SD card. The phonecall automatically mutes your car stereo. Music options are plentiful - you can play off the SD card, off your phone’s SD, or, using your phone’s internet connection, stream the likes of Spotify or Tunein Radio. It’s perfect if you’re a technohead with an old/crap car.

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