Nokia BH-505 Headset

Although BH-905i is excellent bluetooth headset, it has one disadvantage. It is clearly designed for indoors use. If you use them outdoors and put active noise cancelling (ANC) on, you are in for surprise. Since ANC uses microphones to detect ambient sounds, it also detects wind. Anyone who have tried to records sounds outside should remember what kind of wind noise microphone records. You do not have to use ANC, but then most of the real noise will slip in forcing you to put up volume. And during heavy exercise BH-905i will easily drop off.

One thing that I really hate is having all kinds of wires dangling about. I found out that best solution for listening music (and maybe answer some call) during any kind of exercise is Nokia BH-505 Bluetooth headset. There are no wires at all, and it is almost unnoticeable, since most of the structure hides behind your neck.

BH-505 Bluetooth headset

Contents of the package, structure and feel
In addition to headset itself, you get the charger and six pairs of ear buds of different sizes and shapes. And manual, of course, although the operations is very similar to other headsets.

Headset is just one piece of equipment which does have any moving parts except buttons and other controls. Headset is flexible to a certain degree, so it should fit any head, but this is something that you should check first. Also, if your ears have some really unconventional shape, then BH-505 may feel uncomfortable. So, try out before you buy.

Headset like snaps into its place around the neck and over the ears. And it stays there, you just cannot shake it off easily, especially if you are using those in-ear plugs. This also means that it dampens ambient noise quite effectively.

BH-505

Regardless of its size there are all necessary controls. You have answer/call button in right ear piece and play/pause button on left ear piece. Then there are minuscule sliders for volume and next/previous track in right and left ear piece, respectively.

BH-505

Charging and battery life
Charging takes about 2 hours. You get 12 hours of calls or 10 hours of music with one charge. The stand-by time is roughly 375 hours according to manual.

Audio quality
Music audio quality is surprisingly good considering the size of headset. It has quite efficient bass output, and you can hear even quite faint nuances in music, although BH-505 does not have ANC.

Judgment

• If you are involved in various physical activities this is a good replacement for headphones with wires since this has no wires that could hinder your movement or get caught somewhere. I have used these during rock-climbing so they should fit to almost any kind of situation.
• They are not always as comfortable as BH-905i, for example. But this depends a lot on your head and ear lobe structure.
• They are almost unnoticeable, and sometimes other people mistake it for a hearing aid, or they do not even notice that you are listening to music.
• These are moderately inexpensive (compared to BH-905i which 5 times more expensive) and affordable.