The Nokia BH-905 and 905i’s are an interesting set of Bluetooth headphones. They bring a sort of style, depending on the way you see it, to the scene of quality headphones. Their style is quite unique, especially considering the 905’s seem to be like a huge strap across your head. Apart from the actual headband, the 905 range looks classy and professional, something you would see a business audiophile wear.
The designs on both the headphones are quite nice; however the headband for the 905 is over the top, with its ‘extended arms’ around your head. Regardless the successors, the 905i’s have addressed this issue valiantly. Nokia must have realised that their headphones didn’t look or feel the part and thus made their design a little more robust and with a look that can be considered normal.
Moving unto comfort, the 905 range feels nice and light to wear on your head. You can hardly feel them whilst you commute let alone when you are just standing up in the train. Unfortunately sitting isn’t an option during the London rush hour, but I think you get the gist of it by now…They are lightweight and the build quality, especially for the 905’s shows up against the 905i’s. I felt that with the 905i’s the build quality feels a little more robust, although still flimsy, just like their brothers the 905’s. I wouldn’t be able to say one is better than the other as the 905’s had been clearly more ‘abused’ before they put themselves into my crafty hands. No I never took poetry seriously…
Now for the time you have all been waiting for, the sound quality abbreviated, SQ. The SQ is very nice and especially to an untrained ear, this will definitely meet the bill. However, from an audiophile’s point of view, such as myself, or at least I would like to consider myself one, is that the mids and highs seem a little bit washed out. Don’t get me wrong they are still excellent, but put into comparison with my Denon AH-C710’s and my Sony XB700’s they do lack that upper edge.
Unto the lows the 905’s do lack the bass that a bass-head would desire however the 905i’s again address this issue with a bass boost functionality. My preferred setting was on bass boost setting 2. I call it BB2. No distorted bass like on BB3 & enough bass to make my head nod. Not a Willow Smith style though, but getting there…
Finally unto the features and controls that the Nokia headphones offer. As I write this I’m in the London underground with my Denon AH-C710’s with Comply’s soft foam tips. Although I do love my Denon’s I seriously miss the noise cancellation that the 905 range offered. In all seriousness, the Nokia’s did an excellent job in cancelling out external noise. Also, the controls on the headphones were perfectly placed and more so very responsive and useful.
So what are my final ratings?
- 7/10 for the BH-905’s
- 8/10 for the BH-905i’s.
Why only one extra rating and not two for the 905i’s?
As Nokia for some reason decreased the loudness/volume of the headphones, meaning I can’t go deaf fast enough for my liking. But then again that might just be me!
They also didn’t get full 10/10 ratings as I felt that the price was a little steep for the SQ offered.
I hope you enjoyed this review, as I had fun writing this in the train and on the tube on my Samsung Galaxy S using Swype on the way into work. Jump to my video reviews of the headsets right after the image gallery.
I hope you enjoyed reading this!
–TotallydubbedHD