Nokia BH-700 Review

It is elegant and stylish, lightweight and compact …
… no, it is not a new model of roadster, this is the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-700. The headset is in the class of the smallest devices of the company and it is offered in two color variants, which difference is in the front panel color – black or white.

The dimensions of the headset (46 x 19 x 10 mm), as well as its weight of only 10 grams, place it in a group together with the smallest and the most lightweight devices of the company, such as BH-800 and BH-801.


The front panel of BH-700 is made of glossy black plastics and the rest of it is made of a silvery mat. After using it for some time, you have to clean the finger prints off the glossy part. There is a soft grey rubber around the ear-piece and it is necessary because it goes inside the entrance of your auditory canal to set firmly. If you feel that this attachment is not stable enough, you can always use the optional ear loop. It is made of elastic semi-transparent grey plastics, which is not possible to be curved.


If you do not use the device for a longer time, Nokia have thought about that, you can find a Neck Strap in the delivery package that has a strap catch at the end, which is made of the same color and material like the ear loop. Unlike BH-800 and BH-801, here the Neck Strap is not a silvery metal chain, but a black textile string with a semi-transparent strap catch.


You have at your disposal three comfortable and easy-to-use control buttons. They can be pressed very easily and without any effort and besides that they have a very good tactile feedback. The multifunctional key is placed on the front of the device and it takes the full width of it. It is a little bit raised from the otherwise flat panel of the headset. It can be pressed most easily at its convex part. You can find the scroll key for volume control on the side of the device and it can be pressed in to mute the microphone. The charger connector is placed opposite it. The on/off button is in the upper part and right beside it is the LED indicator, which lights in three different colors (green, red, blue) depending on the status of the device.

With BH-700, as well as with other models of Nokia (BH-701, BH-301), there is no pairing mode, but the device is ready for this as soon as it is activated. This is done by the usual way and when you are prompted for a code, you have to enter 0000. If you want to pair the device with other phone or device, first you have to disconnect it from the previous connected device. This is done by turning off the headset or when you disconnect it by the phone menu.

The headset has the standard control functions - answer / end calls, voice dialing, transferring calls to the phone and back to the headset, and by combination of buttons you can clear all the pairing settings.

Performance:

The sound volume in the headset is very loud and even, you will need to turn it down so as not to jar on your ear. The quality of the sound is good too, but it sounds a little synthetic/metallic and it is a little sharp. When you answer a phone call, there is a short single beep after which you can start talking.

The sound volume on the other side of the phone line is loud too and the voices are realistic with hardly noticeable synthetic/metallic sound. When you call and the phone call is answered by a headset, the voice of the other side of the line is changed for a split second and then it becomes normal again.

On one occasion, during our testing the headset locked and started to make a constant loud noise in the ear-piece. The problem started when we ended the call by the headset button and the only way to set things right was to disconnect it from the phone.

According to the official Nokia specifications the device stands up to 6 hours of talk time and up to 160 hours of standby time. We tested the device to check how it copes in practice. We tested the device by means of a continuous call and sound volume set on maximum – after this test the device stood up to 5 hours and 20 minutes. This is a better achievement than model BH-801 and it is worse than model BH-701.

In the test for the power range of the device, where the quality of the connection stays unchanged, BH -700 achieved 26 meters (85.3 feet), which is almost the same result as BH-801and this is above the average level and it is a little less than the result of BH-701.

When the device is out of range there is a beep in the ear-piece to inform you about this and the LED indicator starts to light in green. When you are back in range there is a beep in the headset and depending on the phone the reconnection is done automatically or it is done after confirmation.

Since it is possible to use the device with ot without the optional ear loop, we will discuss the two possibilities separately.

Without the optional ear loop

With the optional ear loop

In both cases (with or without ear loop), the headset is comfortable and even in 2-3 hours of use, you do not feel any discomfort or weight in your ear.