nokia bh-505 bluetooth headset review

dear reader, this week, i am going to review the nokia bh-505 bluetooth headset. if you are reading this right now, you probably gone through alot of other sites reviewing this product.

i bought my bh-505 at vivo city nokia center for $79.

well, for me, the bh-505 is a love-hate relationship. let me go through this relationship in details now.

hate:
1. this is my 3rd replacement set!! the previous 2 became faulty after each jogging session.
2. the bh-505 is not splash resistance with a ip rating of 54 (for more information on ip rating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code).
in short, ip 54 = ingress protection 5(Dust protected, ingress of dust is not entirely prevented, but it must not enter in sufficient quantity to interfere with the satisfactory operation of the equipment; complete protection against contact) 
 4(Splashing water, Water splashing against the enclosure from any direction shall have no harmful effect, Test duration: 5 minutes, Water volume: 10 litres per minute, Pressure: 80–100 kPa).
3. the controls at the side of the ear piece is not to be touch when your hands are sweaty. and i believe the small mic hole at the left side will allow water to enter causing the following:

a. skip songs automatically
b. the controls stop responding 
c. not able to switch off the bh-505

to hard reset the bh-505 when all controls failed:
a. leave the bh-505 to dry for at least an hour
b. even though it is charged,
connect the headset to a charger
while you press and hold the power
key till the green led flash and then blue and then red. 




please note that in singapore, nokia do not entertain a refund policy, but since the introduction of lemon law in singapore (http://www.case.org.sg/cpfta.html), i believe  that if you are able to prove that this set does not comply with the ip rating of 54, we can return the set and ask for a refund. too bad, i bought it before the lemon law. 

 the bh-505 is not design for jogging anyway, the battery and electronic component behind (the thick potion that bridge the 2 ear phones) is simply too heavy and it bounces quite a bit and cause some pain on the ear where the hook is.

and for those out there who wore spectacles, my advice is do not buy!!. though they provide 6 different earbugs, i am sure one of them will fit you fine. here comes the problem, if you are wearing specs, and then you wore the bh-505 over your ears, the handles of the specs will push out the bh-505 ear phone. even the slightest gap will cause the ear bugs to exit from your ear. i am using one of the middle size in-ear bugs, this gap is very obvious. and it will affect the sound quality very much!!

you might experience occasionally "music goes silent" moment when listening, i am not too sure why but it only last last than 2 seconds. it doesn't bother me.


love:
1. the asthetic look of the entire feel. others are either too big or does not look proportion.
2. the controls, which pair seamlessly with my iphone and later my ipod(with the i10s). the pairing is easy
3. the sound quality from bh-505 is 3/5 star, the bass is more than decent and the treble is slightly above average. i never review sound quality before so this is the best i can do. 

the bh-505 can do anything that your iphone remote earphone can, from voice control for selecting songs to making phone call. but be warn, this headset does do a decent job for making call when your environment is fairly quiet. in a noisy environment, like an mrt, the other party can hardly hear you and you don't want to shout into midair like a madman.


and oh, it pair really well with my laptop (hp pavilion dv6) too.

oops, the last bit, the music transmitting from audio device to bh-505 is slightly delayed so you might not find it suitable when you are playing games with it. 

summary:
bh-505 is good for an average every day normal usage, like listening to music at work. except for the sound quality which is above average, there is nothing spectacular about the bh-505, unless we can really use it for jogging!!!
and you would not want to use the bh-505 for working out in gym because you can't lie down on the workout bench, the bh-505 bridge compartment will obstruct. 

oh, the battery for bh-505 will last approximately 12 hours for continuous listening.

therefore, for this product i can only give it a 1.5/5 star.