Nokia BH-505 Headset First Impressions
by Volker Weber
I am currently trying to work out an hour a day. That means riding a bike through the forest. Once you know your way, this can get boring quite quickly. Yesterday I was wearing my Voyager Pro, which is very comfortable. But having music on one ear only isn't quite right. Time to try something new.
My favorite headset is out of the question. Too much bulk, too much isolation. Anything with a wire is also inconvenient. The Nokia BH-505 however fits the bill. You wear it around your neck and over your ears. It does not move a millimeter when worn on my head.
Which leads me to a potential problem. It just barely fits my head. Since I am going to lose some fat around my neck it's not a problem. But this thing is not adjustable. It's one size fits all. I am going to try with a few friends whether that is a problem.
The headset is NFC enabled. Touch it once on a Nokia N9 and it is paired. Touch it again and it disconnects. Very convenient. I have had no difficulties pairing it with other phones. It has a microphone over your left ear, and it supports four Bluetooth profiles:
- Handsfree profile (HFP) 1.5
- Headset profile (HSP) 1.0
- Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) 1.2
- Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) 1.0
HFP and HSP let you connect a phone as a headset for voice calls. A2DP will play stereo music and AVRCP lets you control the media player. It only connects to one phone at a time -- and an additional media player if your phone does not speak A2DP. Unlike the Voyager Pro it will not connect to my iPhone and BlackBerry at the same time.
Sound quality is quite impressive, once I fitted the right earbuds.
[To be continued]
Comments
I bought this one, too some time ago. It went promptly back after one day of testing. I was reading reviews and thought "Wow, finally you have found a BT headset that works and doesn't make you look like an idiot." I hadn't any problems with it's functionality, though I'm not sure whether the sound quality was good. But the showstopper was how it fitted to my ears, which it simply didn't. The battery party lay low on my neck and the angle in which the earbud-holderthingwhatever stood was totally wrong. It went from my ear straight over my outer ear. Normally I'd expect it to run along in front of it. It also was loose and shaky. It was very uncomfortable wearing it. I'm not sure what went wrong and it's difficult to explain how it sat on my ears and neck. Can you share a photo of yourself wearing it? Because my experience was really strange.
P.S.: Would "Jan" suffice as "full name" for commenting?
If cycling is boring, you are too slow. ;)
Marc, you bet. But it's only getting better with practice.
Jan, how large is your head. Mine is 64 cm, that's right, sixtyfour. I believe your headset was loose like with this guy here. There is no "one size fits all".
What about your glasses? It's my experience that something 'over the ear' plus glasses won't work good together. Yours?
Yes, that would be a problem. Not with my glasses though. They are very thin. And I can wear them over the headset.
Yes, exactly. But why don't they sell it in different sizes then? I have hat size 62 or something, so mine is not that small but it was a total non-fit.
@all who already tested the device while riding a bike: Will it fit together with a helmet and all the cords related?
If not, this will be a showstopper for me...!
Thanks for your responses - Matthias
There are no cords. And I don't wear a helmet. They don't make helmets my size.
Helmets in size 64 are realy very rar (especialy as UVEX stoped production of XL-Size), here one of the rare XL-Helmets:
http://www.met-helmets.com/index.php/de/products/108-crossover-a-crossover-xl
Der ist zu schnell für mich.
@Volker: I meant the cords of the helmet $;-)
Wahrscheinlich verstehe ich auf deutsch besser, was Du meinst. :-)
