Review: Nokia BH-902 Bluetooth Headset

I've been waiting to get my hands on Nokia's BH-902 headset for some time now. Availability has been just about as limited as any other Nokia accessory in North America- but through all the persistence and patience I could muster, FedEx finally made a delivery to my home and I'm ready to share my views of the elegantly designed headset. This is truly what's most striking about the BH-902- the aestheticly pleasing design. The thin metal hanger is very comfortable on the ear and quite easy to attach with one handed operation. The casing of the headset itself is very attractive, and reasonably small given that it has such a brilliant OLED display. It’s also quite lightweight- which obviously lends to the comfort of the product as well. The OLED display is easy to read, has a great range of brightness for the white text on a black background.

Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets- and everything falls apart from there...

Click through for my thoughts on the functionality, or lack-thereof, that this black beauty offers.

The only thing that disappoints me about the screen is the fact that the settings don't allow for an intuitive switch of the display's orientation based upon whether you've decided to hang the headset on your left or right ear. It’s a small thing, but with an OLED screen, it shouldn’t be a big deal to get that done. Aside from that, the display is brilliant. It’s dead simple to read with the white text on a black background, and there’s a large range of brightness in the settings.

The controls are brilliantly simple, with Up/Down (or right/left), a call answer/end (or menu/select) key and finally an on/off button. The volume keys are lightning quick and easy enough to operate while in your hand or on your ear. The ear hanger fits well and is comfortable enough other than the feeling that it’s about to fall off the side of my face. Though when it’s quite securely in place, even with rapid head movements back and forth with a little jumping around for good measure, it’s going nowhere. You might not want to go cycling with this thing, and ski-jumping might be a bad idea as well- but it does attach with a reasonable amount of assurance. One feature that you may or may not like is the necklace holder. I personally like the option- I find myself hooking headsets on button holes or the neck of shirts, and of course end up dropping the things all the time. So for me, it’s a nice option and it works well. Pop the ear piece through the large hole, and pop it back up through that hole or pull down and through the clamp to detach the headset. Again- showing the beautiful and simple elegance of the headset.

This is where it gets ugly. While the BH-902 is certainly a very attractive, lightweight and easy to operate device- though after coming from something like the Jabra BT8010, I’m really feeling starved for features here.  While the display is nice and brilliant, it really could be put to far better use. It features a clock, provides text for the settings interface and caller ID with a 10 missed/received/dialed calls. One of my gripes is that names in the caller ID and call log function will only be present on a small handful of devices right now N95 8GB (not the NAM or Classic models), N81, and E51. I have an N95-3, N82 and E90 here- three high tier Nokia devices that are all incompatible with PBAP (Phone Book Access Profile). Another small issue, but unfortunate that so few devices are supported- especially as most of the high-end devices aren’t included in the very limited compatibility list. What would be fantastic is a way to pull up my contact list, or transfer my contact list to the headset over Bluetooth or micro USB so that I could just dial any number on my phone from the headset. Another feature that isn’t present is track info from the music player. The BH-903 which was announced at the same time does support this feature- so apparently it’s not something that couldn’t be done- but then again it doesn’t really add that much functionality to the headset, what use is the track name scrolling on the side of your head when you listen to music? No, the display works well for me with the caller ID function to hook the headset on the screen of my laptop while leaving the mobile in my pocket at a cafe, airport or otherwise- but in this application, displaying the track name on the headset isn't much value anyhow. For that matter- this thing isn’t intended to be a music device- CLEARLY...

There’s no AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) for pausing and advancing through tracks, there’s not even A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) for great sounding audio. What is there is DSP- though this does absolutely nothing for the sound of music, as anything with the least bit of heavy bass makes the tiny little speaker buzz and crackle with terror. Though this would be forgivable, considering the fact that I’ve made my peace with the idea that this isn’t for listening to music (although it could have been, and could have done well at that too if they wanted it to). What’s not forgivable is the clarity of the sound when making a voice call. I’m sure the DSP makes the caller’s voice sound magnificent, but I’ll never know because the damn thing is just too quiet. Callers report that my voice comes across loud and clear, I’m just not sharing the experience. I can barely hear voice when I’m in my car and I’m constantly requesting that the caller repeat themselves. In a very noisy environment, the whole thing is near useless.

Battery life is quoted to be 480 minutes talk time and 110 hours standby. These are acceptable figures, but nothing too spectacular given the fact that it’s not the smallest headset you’ll come across, it doesn't have A2DP or much else, it doesn’t offer a vibrate function for incoming calls- and again… this thing does not get very loud. What is nice is that the battery is recharged using a standard Nokia 'pin-head' charger. Most likely you have one already- and it comes with a travel charger. Never hurts to have an extra Nokia charger. ;)

While this headset does offer several nice features and, to me at least, is a very nice looking headset- the volume issue for me is the deal breaker. If you’re not going to offer me a headset that plays music well, has tremendous battery life or a built in phone book- you damn well better make sure I can at least hear my caller without issue. This is a deal breaker for me- headsets are used for talking. For the price, which is somewhere between the 100 USD (65 Euros) you can find them for online and the 175 USD (115 Euros) suggested retail price- if you can deal with a bit larger device- you’re far better off going with the Jabra BT8010. If the BH-902’s feature set isn’t what you’d hope for in a headset with such a price tag, have a look at the BT8010 review.

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