Nokia is known for a lot of things, marketing hype sometimes being one of them; however when I heard about the Nokia BH-905 “high performance” Bluetooth headphones with active noise reduction, my cynical side immediately kicked in. I mean, what could be so “high performance” about Bluetooth headsets?

So let’s see… Nokia states this about their headphones:

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Headset Profile (HSP) 1.2, Hands-Free Profile (HFP) 1.1, A2DP 1.2
3.5mm Nokia AV (3.5mm standard jack) connectivity
Frequency Response: 15Hz to 20kHz
Advanced Wolfson Microelectronics myZone Ambient Noise Cancellation for up to 99% noise reduction
10 microphones – 8 for noise cancelling, 2 for capturing speech in loud surroundings
Talk Time: 24 Hours, 15 Hours with noise cancellation active
Music Playback: 25 Hours, 16 Hours with noise cancellation active
Standby Time: Up to 600 Hours

The kind folks from Nokia and WOMWorld met my cynicism head-on and sent a pair of their Nokia BH-905 and a Nokia N97 to test things out. Upon opening the box, you get a good look at the size of these headphones. Of course, these are quite a bit more bulky than your typical in-ear solution; however the noise cancellation feature for calls as well as voice capture easily place the Nokia BH-905 top of it’s class. In the future, remind me to temper my cynical side.

Mind you, my normal Bluetooth earpiece is now a Motorola Endeavor HX1 with “Crystal Talk” and before that, an Aliph Jawbone 2 with their “Noise Assassin” noise cancellation. So making simple phone calls, people could still hear some road noise or if I were in the office, they could hear the server fans with the Jawbone or my Motorola. With the Nokia BH-905, I was constantly asked if I were being still, if I were still there or if I had turned off everything in my background; which wasn’t the case.

Another test happened while downtown, I sat down on a bench across from the street from some construction, decided to listen to some music. Instead of the normal reaction by some of the more inexpensive noise cancellation headphones where they just make the music louder and call that “noise cancellation”, the headphones pushed out the noise and allowed me to listen to my music from the phone without incident. Just flick the switch on the bottom left headphone and active noise cancellation kicks in noticeably. Since I decided to use a phone the entire time, I received a few phone calls while downtown and while they could hear some things in the background – it does not mute your surroundings to a point of where it’s unnatural, they could easily hear me over everything.

Note: Since these cover both ears, I would not suggest using these while driving. But using these in the workplace, in the home, while you travel on airplanes, I’d consider these headphones the first thing I’d grab before travel.

There’s a lot of technology that goes into the Nokia BH-905. Noise cancellation, superior Bluetooth compatibility, connectivity with just about any device that has either a headphone plug (yes, even the Apple iPhone) or your home stereo, to a pretty cool but huge carrying case to safely secure your attachments, charger and secure your player or phone in its exterior pocket… ok, I’m beating around the bush. The Nokia BH-905 isn’t cheap. But it’s not built cheap. It doesn’t feel cheap. It doesn’t look cheap. And it doesn’t work cheaply either – meaning, it actually does what Nokia says. Which, forces my cynical side to say that these headphones are definitely better than the Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones for about $100 less.

Nokia, I’m impressed by these headphones. There, I said it. It’s a shame that I had to send these back too…

The only cons to the Nokia BH-905 would be the fact that Nokia didn’t use the Micro-USB connector for recharging, much like the Nokia N97 or even my Motorola Endeavor HX1 headset and the price being another possible detractor. With that said, I still give the Nokia BH-905 a 4.5 out of 5 (Highly Recommended) score.

[ Links: Nokia, Nokia BH-905, WOMWorld ]