Nokia BH-905 Review : First Impressions

We’ve had the Nokia BH-905 for a couple days now here at ZCJ.

And that’s enough to tell y’all our First Impressions of Nokia’s Flagship Bluetooth Stereo Headset.

What we liked :

• The ten microphones (8 noise cancelling microphones, 2 microphones capturing speech and advanced digital signal processing ‘DSP’ for clear communication) serves up great active noise cancellation. It’s not perfect mind you. It seems to convert most loud noises into a low level high pitch hiss sometimes. But in most cases it’s pretty great. The patented Wolfson’s advanced  ANC technology doesnt process the playback audio stream. All your music comes through in untouched high quality stereo. There’s also a nice little switch where you can turn the ANC on/off if you prefer.



• The ANC switch has a tiny led indicator near it, that glows green when you switch the ANC on. When your headset is running low on battery, it starts to flash red.



• Neat blue led that’s not too bright or distracting under the right cone. Flashes green while it’s switched on, or trying to pair. Flashes red when the headset is switched off.
• Pairing and switching the BH-905 on or off, is accompanied with an Audio Beep so that you know what’s going on, while wearing them.
• The retail package comes with every sort of Adapter you’d want. There’s the Airplane adapter, 6.3mm, 3.5mm, 2.5mm Adapters, an extension cable AND a Carrying Pouch. Me likey.



• That being said, you can connect wirelessly (through Bluetooth, A2DP) or via the Wired connection cable (with the appropriate adapter). That’s just freakkin great.



• Lotsa Bling Bling with the Stainless Steel around. Not too much though, so it does look very classy. The Black hard plastic feels high quality and the ear pads are soft and comfortable. The Headset is also adjustable, so it can fit any head shape.



• Battery life seems pretty good. We were able to get about 14 hours out of the 600 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery, with ANC turned on, connected via Bluetooth. Wired, with ANC turned on, got us about 35 ish hours out of it. Nokia says you can get about 600 hours of standby time out of it.
• Charges up okay. Faster than our previous headsets. About an hour and a half to full battery.



• The Headset remembers the last couple devices you’ve paired it with. So when you switch it on, it automatically connects to the last device you paired it with. If that device is turned off, it’ll try to connect to the device you used it with before.



• Media buttons on the right cone. Play/Pause, Rewind and Fast forward. Also Volume up/down. All the basics.



• The Power button is a Multifunction key for answer/end, voice dial, and redial.
• 10 m Bluetooth range seems about okay.

What we weren’t too sure about :

• Cant maintain connection to multiple devices via Bluetooth. Not a big deal, but it would have been nice if the Headset could switch from my Laptop to my Phone when I get a call coming in, etc.
• Doesn’t support Mic-in via cable. But again, not a big deal.



• As great as the BH-905 looks, it looks ridiculous when you wear it because of the ‘way‘ it ‘arranges‘ itself on your head. Not something I’d want to be seen in public wearing unfortch. (Check out the video below to see how it looks on me!). Still fine to listen to music at home though.



• The BH-905 design allows it to ‘fit’ to the orientation of your ear. Unfortunately, you cant use it while jogging or any sort of strenuous movement because it’s prone to slipping off in those scenarios. Only if there’s a lot of movement though. It’s not as snug as the old BH-604.



• Sound Quality is actually really good, especially with the ANC switched on. Treble seems good, Music’s nice and clear with ANC on, and volume seems to go up enough to make you deaf in a couple listens, if thats your sort of thing. That being said though, there isnt THAT much bass in the BH-905 which is something I’m really looking for a ‘flagship’ headphone at this point. It’s better than most other Nokia Bluetooth Headsets we’ve tried though.

What we didnt like :

• There seems to be a tiny problem with low pitch sounds (like in our case, the Diesel Motor of an Auto Rickshaw in Delhi). The sound is turned into a very low pitch sort of humming. It’s not very noticeable, but once you do, it does get annoying.



• At 175 g and 180 mm x 155 mm x 59 mm in size, it is a bit large. Not VERY portable at all.

Random Info :

• 15 Hz to 20 kHz Frequency response.
• 32 ohm Speaker impedance
• 32 mm high performance speaker drivers

Here’s a video of our First Impressions of the Nokia BH-905. Just to give you a better Idea.

So as you can see, we were pretty impressed with the Nokia BH-905. So far atleast. Unfortunately it still has some minor “annoyances“, so to speak, that prevent me from being a hundred percent in love with it.

Let’s see if that changes by the time we give it the final review next week, eh ?

Were you considering the Nokia BH-905 Bluetooth Stereo Headset ? Have any questions about a feature ? Something we missed ? Do let us know in the comments y’all !

If you’d like to check it out in the meanwhile, we have our Flickr Album and YouTube Review Playlist.

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Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff

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Clinton Jeff

Yup, you can do that. Terribly sorry for missing that !

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Josiah

The Active noise cancelling can be left on whiles the headset is turned off. Can you confirm this please. Apparently its so you can use anc when you dont want music either. I think that is a major point missed.

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Clinton Jeff

True points there W00fer ! Although, I didnt find the cable too bad. Agreed, that LED light is a bit too bright though.

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W00fer

You forget a lot of things: the standard 3,5 mm jack used on most mp3 players needs to be converted to 2,5 mm. That alone is a dealbreaker. But there's more. The supplied cable doesn't work very well and gives a ridiculous sound. My 2,5 euro cable did a much better job.For a device that is 250 euro's (over 300 US dollars) it has an annoying blue led that flashes a lot in the dark. Not handy when you are watching movies at night. So i put a black sticker over it. Also the Active Noise Cancellation leaves you with a hiss when turned on. Positive is that this headset runs long on the batteries, and that the sound over bluetooth is good. I have good bass. Wearing comfort is good since it's on ear in stead of over ear. For the BH-910 (if that) it's successor: -Multi pairing-Better cables and connectivity-Remove the led, nobody needs it because of the bleeps you hear.-Have HD voice or something since the voice quality can be better-Extended bluetooth range. I'm now only getting 10 metres or less.-No shiny surfaces. You have to clean them so i left the factory plastics on it.-Smaller case, it's HUGE to take with you. The leather is fine though.-Make the earpads twist more than 50 degrees.

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