The Kind people from Womworldnokia were kind enough to provide us with the Nokia BH-905i Bluetooth headset for review. Before you ask this isn’t a MeeGo product, but we will be reviewing Meego product related accessories.
The unit comes with options to either connect to your phone / device via Bluetooth or hard wired via the numerous cables and plug convertor options that it comes with. Here is a full list of the general contents below:-
- Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905i
- Nokia Carrying Case CP-511
- Nokia Audio Cable CA-143U with 3.5mm Nokia AV connector (~1.2m)
- Nokia Audio Cable CA-182U with 3.5mm iPhone compatible connector (~1.2m)
- Nokia Extension Audio Cable CA-144U (~1.7m)
- Nokia AV Adapter AD-52 for 2.5 mm Nokia AV
- Nokia Audio Adapter AD-63 for standard 3.5 mm jack
- Nokia Adapter AD-71 for airplane
- Nokia Adapter AD-70 for 6.3 mm home stereo
- Nokia Audio Adapter for Voip AD-77
As soon as you open the case you see this is class. Even the plastic looks quality plastic. It seems to have the right weight (167g) not too heavy or light to sit comfortably on your head. Nokia have used a similar style of headphone material feel and construction to the Bose On-Ear headphones and they have achieved a very comfortable fit for all day wearing.
On the right hand ear pad we have: play / pause (answer call), End call (multifunction), Track forward, Track back, underneath we have volume up / down and a 2.5mm jack connector for using a cable to connect to your music source (hard wiring). On the left hand ear pad we have: Toggle switch for Automatic Noise Cancellation (ANC) and also the charging point for a 2mm thin pin charger. As we have come to expect from Nokia Excellent controls for handling calls with ability redial, voice dialling, answer / end, reject, switch between headset and handset.
Bass boost and stereo widening are available if the source supports SBC encoding and apparently a few of my devices did when connected via Bluetooth, but not when hard wired. If you decide to take advantage of a hard wired connection then Bluetooth is automatically disabled, which is a little tech nicety so you can save power.
You can activate the bass booster and stereo widening effects while you listen to music from a compatible music player using Bluetooth wireless technology.
To select the desired effect while listening:
• To activate the bass booster effect, press the multifunction key. The headset beeps once.
• To activate the stereo widening effect, after one second, press the multifunction key a second time. The headset beeps twice.
• To activate the bass booster and stereo widening effect, press the multifunction key a third time. The headset beeps three times.
• To deactivate the effects, press the multifunction key a fourth time. The headset plays a long beep.
The headset saves the selected setting for future use.
The sound produced does have a good depth of bass and good spacial sound and the ability to easily change these parameters is very good as these little babys can give a lot of bass. The old saying of what you put in is what you get out, So MP3’s encoded as well as close to 320Kbps VBR or CBR is recommended.
Automatic Noise Cancellation (ANC) worked adequately well and would fair you quite well on your daily commute to block out most background noises with its eight inbuilt noise cancelling microphones. Eight seems a bit of an overkill, but if its eight that does the trick then so be it.
All day listening is achieved with its built in Rechargeable 600 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery. Most of the quoted figured for listening time in the various configurations was well within a days music listening (Blueooth or Wired and with ANC either on / off). The unit conveniently uses the new 2mm (thin pin) charging plug and we loved the fact thr Nokia Charger AC-15 has a top pin that slides down to make it slimmer and therefore easier to transport.
For call quality things take a different turn. We found the sound quality for calls very tinny and a bit scratchy with the other person sounding a bit hollow. The other person could hear us very well even in slight noisy environments on the street. This is a pity seeing how well we were getting on so far.
Conclusion
I was surprised how much I would like this headset. Excellent construction, connectivity options and sound quality only marred by tinny sound of received calls. With a price tag of about £200 inc VAT this would seem expensive to some, but once you’ve been through all the different options that it provides its not too bad of a figure and I would not hesitate to recommend.
Hear more of your music and calls with low noise, great sound, and wireless or wired options for maximum mobility.
- Dimensions
- 190 mm x 140 mm x 35 mm (folded flat)
- Weight
- 167g
- Operating keys
- Multifunction key for power on/off, answer/end, and voice dial/redial.
- Wireless audio modes: bass booster on/off, stereo widening on/off.
- Volume up
- Volume down
- Play/pause
- Next track
- Previous track
- Active noise cancelling on/off
- Connectors
- 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
- 3.5 mm iPhone compatible AV connector
- Audio cable
- Supporting adapters for:
- 2.5 mm Nokia AV connector
- Standard 3.5 mm jack
- Standard 6.3 mm jack
- Standard airplane jack
- Adapter for VoIP calls
- Operating temperature
- -15°C to +55°C
- Operating range (maximum)
- 10 m (Bluetooth use)
Operating time (maximum)
- Talk (Bluetooth): 24 h
- Music (Bluetooth): 25 h
- Talk (Bluetooth, with active noise cancellation): 15 h
- Music (Bluetooth, with active noise cancellation): 16 h
- Music (Wired, with active noise cancellation): 40 h
- Hands-free phone calls and music listening (without active noise cancellation) possible even with empty battery (wired connection)
Standby time (maximum)
- With Bluetooth: 600 h
Charging time (maximum)
- 2 h
Frequency response
- From 15 Hz to 20 kHz
- Additional sound and media information
- Speaker impedance: 32 ohm
- Speaker drivers: 32 mm high performance drivers
- Number of noise cancelling microphones: 8
- 2 microphones capturing speech and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) for clear communication
- Active noise cancellation technology: Reduces up to 99% background noise
Bluetooth version
- 2.1 with enhanced data rate (EDR)
Bluetooth profiles
- Handsfree profile (HFP) 1.5
- Headset profile (HSP) 1.1
- Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) 1.2
- Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) 1.0
