Review of the Chinese bluetooth headset "NOKIA" BH-503

INTRODUCTION

I love listening to music and the main player for me is a smartphone on the android, which came with a pretty high-quality headset with “plugs”. But the presence of wires and the absence of pockets (especially in summer) at the top of my wardrobe were somewhat annoying. For a long time I couldn’t take my breath and buy something wireless for listening to music and answering calls, but constant inconvenience got the better of laziness and I went to dealextreme.com in search of an inexpensive and high-quality stereo bluetooth headset.

Frankly, there was no abundance in this product segment. I focused on finding those products that have customer reviews. I had to choose between graceful BH-505 , similar to them S9-HD and somewhat bulkyBH-503 . After reading the reviews, I realized that either I would sacrifice the lightness and grace of the headset, or its consumer qualities. Resigned to the fact that the dimensions and weight of the headset will be larger than I would like, I chose the BH-503 . Having paid the purchase with a paypel, they took 784 rubles from me, I began to wait for the treasured parcel. This is not my first order at dilextreme and, I must say, this time the package arrived pretty quickly - in just 3 weeks.

After a month of operation, the story will go about the headset itself and about my impressions. As usual, a dozen pictures.

WHAT'S INSIDE

I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos - there are no conditions for setting good lighting, and my camera is pretty old.

At the post office, after performing the usual ritual, I was handed a small and not very heavy package.



I extracted a fairly dented, but still well-made box of 175x185x70 mm dimensions from the bag. Polygraphy and the quality of cardboard at height.



In addition to the box, caring Chinese hands placed a $ 5 discount coupon in the package. A trifle, but nice! 8)



From the box I took a thin manual in English, (it’s good not in Chinese, although on request in Google I immediately found a link to the same manual in PDF format in Russian)



and a "crib" in which there were headphones and a charger. The earbuds of the headset were covered with bags of foamed polyethylene.



The charger, as expected, ended up with an American-Chinese plug, but that didn't bother me. On the same day, I purchased an adapter for 60 rubles and the problem was solved. Pleased with the presence of a "tail" with a "Velcro" for convenient fastening of the coiled wire. The question is cheap, but how inconvenient when this little thing is not!



The charger looks just great. I suspect that the charges that are put in the boxes of the original NOKIA devices came off the same conveyor as this one. Surprised and the presence of the icon "PCT" on tidy.

QUALITY OF MATERIALS AND EXECUTION

I’ll make a reservation right away: I have never seen or held the original BH-503 in my hands, so I have nothing to compare with. I just talk about my impressions and feelings.

For a $ 25 device, the headphones look great. The only thing that caught my eye at the first inspection was the presence of a small flash in some places on the rim. The headband of the headphone is molded from plastic, and its outer part is filled with rubber. But if you don’t find fault, the bezel looks quite tolerable.



Arches are attached to the rim using rivets, to which, with two miniature screws screwed in from the inside, speaker housings are attached. I could not find any backlash or creaking in the joints of the parts. Everything is done soundly. Plastic to the touch is high-quality, rubber too (at least leaves no residue and does not get dirty itself).



The speaker enclosures are made of glossy black plastic with red plastic spacers in red metallic color. the parts are tightly connected, there are no distortions, gaps anywhere. Everything is very high quality. All controls, as well as a microphone and a miniature hole for connecting the charger, are concentrated in the right earphone. The battery, apparently, is divided into two parts, each of which is in its earpiece.



It makes no sense to describe in detail the design and functionality, the reviews of the original BH-503 are full on the open spaces of the Russian Federation, who are interested in details - can read at least this one .

In general, I am satisfied with the quality of manufacture of the headset. And my friends, when they saw my new thing, even took it for the original device from NOKIA.

QUALITY OF WORK AND ERGONOMICS

After a month of active use of the headset, I can say: it costs the money that I paid for it. I would pay for it and more. Headphones sit very comfortably on the head. No discomfort with prolonged wearing does not occur. They don’t press on the ears and, despite their rather rather big weight (about 100 grams), they don’t feel like something heavy and alien. They sit very well and do not fall off. Shaking them off your head is quite difficult.

Ergonomics

The “play / pause”, “call”, “forward” and “back” buttons are pressed quite easily, there is no problem with this. The sound signals given by the headphones when you turn on, turn off and establish communication with the sound source, allow you to carry out all the manipulations with them without removing from the head. But in order to increase / decrease the volume, you have to rest your thumb on the lower edge, and press the rather hard buttons of the “volume rocker” located on the upper edge of the earpiece with your middle or index finger.

Sound

The headset supports the following Bluetooth 2.0 profiles with EDR:

• Headset Profile (HSP);
• Handsfree Profile (HFP);
• Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP);
• Audio Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP).

Connection is very simple, no problem. We turn on the headset, go to the Bluetooth settings, look for the device and "soar".



I used the headset with only two smartphones on Android: not very long with the Samsung Galaxy S (firmware 2.3.3 unofficial) and the last 4 weeks with the Samsung SGH-I897 Captivate. In addition, I tried it with a netbook on which Ubuntu 11.04 is installed.

The first connection was to the Samsung Galaxy S. I must say that I practically do not use the standard Android player. My favorite music play app is PowerAMP. It has excellent sound processing and a great equalizer. By connecting the headphones and starting playback, I immediately realized that for the headset I would have to make a separate equalizer profile. I was literally crushed by the bass! After spending about 10 minutes tuning and maintaining the profile, I began to drive various compositions - from hard rock to classical music. The sound of the new toy literally charmed me. I put my favorite album and went for a walk, putting the smart in my short pocket. And here a drop of tar appeared: when walking, the sound sometimes disappeared for a split second, the device lost contact with the sound source. Periodically, the frequency of these breaks began to annoy. I was a little upset. Upon arrival home, I began to google on these symptoms and soon found information that the original BH-503 and other wireless headsets were also affected. One person generally noticed that the frequency of manifestation of such trouble depends on the firmware of the phone.

And I was convinced that this is so. When I changed my old Samsung Galaxy S to Captiva, disconnects became so rare that I stopped getting upset. Maximum 1-2 times per day. In the apartment, the connection between the ears and the phone is held almost everywhere, if you leave it somewhere in the center. in line of sight, the distance may exceed 10 meters.

I managed to pair the headset with a netbook and even listen to music - the sound is great, but! I don’t know what the reason is, but the output to the headset kept striving to jump to the laptop speakers. After a little torment, I left this venture, because I was used to using “plugs” to watch movies and TV shows in a prone position, and in a supine position I would not be able to use this headset.

Soundproofing, by design, leaves much to be desired. Listening to music in transport or in a noisy place is not very comfortable. In addition, the sound is heard partly by others. True to me, these little things do not matter. On the contrary, I often ride a bicycle and listen to music, it is better to hear the surroundings, so as not to be crushed by a car that crept up behind. 8)

Autonomy and charge speed

The manufacturer claims up to 13 hours of talk time or music playback and up to 200 hours of standby time. Checking the last digit is quite difficult, but there is little interesting in it. But I probably agree with the first. I use the headset every day for approximately 2 hours to listen to music at ≈ 70% of maximum volume. Sometimes, 3-4 times a day, in the process of listening, I answer calls or I call myself. I speak for 1-2 minutes. With all this, a full charge lasts me for a week.

But with charging, the case is slightly different from the word printed. The manual states that the full charge time is less than 3 hours. I was not able to fully charge the battery in less than 5 hours. I could not even wait for the first charge, I fell asleep, obviously more than 6 hours.

CONCLUSION

So what do we have in the "bottom line"? The device is not without flaws, but by and large, the price / quality ratio outweighs all the disadvantages. For an unassuming person, it will save a decent amount and will delight you with high-quality sound for many years.

Pros:

• indecent price;
• high quality materials and workmanship;
• ease of wearing, lack of discomfort;
• long battery life;
• high-quality sound; rich, rich bass;
• excellent audibility during conversations - the microphone is at a height;
• lack of interruption of playback with sound alerts on the phone;

Minuses:

• from time to time it loses contact with the phone for a short time, with some devices the frequency of “breaks” can be high;
• there is no possibility to rewind on a track;
• The ringtone is not transmitted to the headphones.

I specifically did not highlight the lack of sound insulation as a drawback. There are other types of headsets for this. And in some cases, this can be regarded as a virtue. For example, when riding a bicycle, you can listen to music without risking not hearing a car approaching.

Thanks for attention! I hope the information will be useful.