Great prices on TV Wall Brackets!

Introduction

When we covered the Nokia BH-804 in our First Impressions and later on in the Final review, we proclaimed it “Nokia’s most complete Bluetooth headset to date,” and still consider it one of the best headsets out there. Such a status isn’t easily achieved, of course. Most of it can be attributed to the high-quality materials, design-centric styling and considering it’s diminutive size, good wireless performance and battery life. Audio performance was also rated it as “above average.” An impressive feat for such a small piece of gadgetry. One would think that these elements are the only key for the success of such a Bluetooth headset, but as the Nokia BH-904 proves, there are different ways to reach one goal. In fact, the story of the BH-904 is one that contradicts with what is considered the current norm and completely defies current trends. This especially becomes evident when it’s compared to it’s smaller sibling, the BH-804, a Bluetooth headset that prioritizes style. As this review will show, some of these contradictions are actually in the BH-904’s favor.

Read the rest of this entry »

                                                   Great deals on TV Brackets!

The Nokia CP-321 is the official Nokia case for the N900 and is  a good example of a typical, contemporary Nokia case: no belt clip, device is held horizontally, high quality, simple design, cloth Nokia label and fairly high price. In fact, describing the N900’s CP-321 case is like describing the N97’s CP-323 (which we reviewed here). Other than the somewhat different dimensions, governed by the devices they were made for, the two look almost identical, but there are two obvious differences.

The CP-321 is made of leather, while the CP-323 uses a cloth material. This gives the N97+ CP-323 combo a very casual laid back look, while the CP-321+ N900 feels a bit more upscale and  has a very uniform look. Another difference is that the CP-321 is available in Black or White instead of the Black or Grey for the N97 case. What seems a bit strange  is that Nokia offers the CP-321 in two colors: Black or White. This makes sense for the N97 as it’s being offered in two colors. But what’s odd is that the same is being done for the N900, a device that’s  currently only being sold in Black. As far as we know there’s no White N900 in the works.

Read the rest of this entry »

The evolution of the Proporta Mobile Charger

Before we dive in to this review of Proporta’s latest offering, the USB TurboCharger 3400 World Pack, I feel that a bit of history is in order.

It all started with a little White mobile charger called the USB Mobile Device Charger…

With its 3400 mAH of storage it could recharge several mobile devices or just one devices several times. We loved its durable design, auto shut down feature and simple design. Sure, it could be mistaken for an iPod, but it worked amazingly well. Deep down inside we wished it was Black and that single LED wasn’t very informative when it came to the amount of power left. (Reviewed here.)

Read the rest of this entry »

The Nokia BH-905 is a Bluetooth Stereo headset with active noise cancelation and is one of Nokia’s most expensive accessories to date, coming in at a hefty $300. The BH-905 has a few interesting characteristics, that are worth mentioning. One of its unique features is its ability to use either a Bluetooth or the standard 3.5mm audio connection when listening to music. The other peculiarity is that it has 10 (!) microphones, out of which 8 are used for noise cancelation and 2 are used for capturing speech in noisy environments, achieving noise cancellation, but this time when making calls.

Expectations: Considering the high price and 10 microphones I expected the BH-905 to deliver outstanding noise isolation, have great build quality, use quality materials like leather and thick but flexible cables(a sure sign of quality). I also expected it to be a bit heavy, comfortable to use and smaller than other similar headsets.

As for the audio quality, I expected a great performance, with a deep and detailed bass, punchy midrange and less-than-ideal, dull high-end and plenty of audio headroom. The audio performance of the BH-905 would be judged based on comparisons made with my reference In-Ear Monitor: the Shure SE530 PTH. I also wondered if there would be a discernable difference when comparing the 3.5mm connection to Bluetooth. As always, I thought that the 3.5mm audio jack would have an edge. Considering the 10 microphones used, I had high hopes for the noise cancelation and expected it to out-perform other popular headphones on the market.

First Impressions:

-Plenty of useful accessories: The BH-905 comes with a beautiful case with included strap. The overall design, it’s heft, the stitched Nokia logo all scream quality and serves as a nice way to carry every single accessory, including the charger. I really love how everything has its own place and strap inside the case, keeping everything nicely in place. Nokia has included several adapters to connect the BH-905 to just about anything you can think of. Included are even a  2.5mm and airplane audio connector.

-Understated design, funny looking hump, but very comfortable: The BH-905 looks a bit like the Bose QuietComfort, but but at the same has it own Nokia DNA, like the square instead of rounded cans.  Unlike other headphones that nicely arch downwards, the BH-905 has like humps on both sides and than arches inwards. I think this decision was done in the name of comfort, with the idea being that the “legs” touching the sides of the face can cause discomfort. The idea works brilliantly with only the cans touching your ears giving an almost a floating feeling. I could use these for hours.Easily the most comfortable over-the-ear headphones I’ve used, but it kind of looks funny when wearing them.

The design can be described as understated elegance and should feel right at home next to a N97 or N900. Even the shiny parts of the BH-905 add an interesting touch to the overall design and manages to keeps things from looking too bland or too “bling.”

-Thin cables are never a good sign: For such a high-end accessory, Nokia used pretty thin 3.5mm audio cable. While this didn’t affect audio quality, at this price point we expect thick, but flexible cables that can stand up to daily usage. What worries me that is the fact that Nokia doesn’t sell these separately, and that these cables have a different 2.5mm to 3.5mm design. It might be possible to buy third party 2.5 to 3.5mm cables, but I’m not sure how or if the BH-905 would work with these. If you do buys, just be sure to be a bit careful with the cables.

-Impressive Noise Cancelation: These headphones are impressive when it comes to noise cancelation and are right up there with the very best active notice cancelation systems. Only passive In-Ear-Monitors (IEM) deliver better noise isolation, but this doesn’t come as a surprise as IEM are basically earplugs.

-Best Stereo Bluetooth performance, but definitely not audiophile grade: Simply put, these are the best sounding over-the-ear stereo Bluetooth headsets, but audiophiles will be better served by high-end IEM like the Shure SE530 PTH or the various Ultimate Ear models.

There’s no denying however the kind of quality sound the BH-905 was pushing over stereo Bluetooth. While walking around in my room it felt strange seeing the N97 on table a few meters away, yet I was getting a solid performance from the BH-905. If your familiar to stereo Bluetooth audio like us, we usually wouldn’t use the words “quality” and “Stereo Bluetooth” or “A2DP” in the same sentence, but these manage to do this with ease.

As expected it has a punchy bass, but lacking in the high-end and delivers a solid midrange performance. Strangely, there didn’t seem to be any difference when using Bluetooth or the 3.5mm audio jack, a sure sign that BH-905 is good, but not audiophile grade. I did wish however, that it more audio headroom for those instances when I would really like to push the audio.

Works just like a giant Bluetooth headset: As a Bluetooth headset the BH-905 works just like the more traditional BH-804 and BH-904, although I doubt people will buy this primarily for calls. The BH-905 a bit more range when compared to other more traditional Nokia headsets.

Summary: Touted as their “smallest Bluetooth headset to date”, they really weren’t kidding when they called the BH-804 Nokia’s smallest. As I found out, it could also be Nokia’s most complete Bluetooth headset to date. It doesn’t hurt neither that the BH-804 scores high on the style-factor, with high-quality materials and presentation that would make the BH-804 feel right at home next to Nokia’s luxury 8800 line of mobile phones. With just two buttons, it’s simplicity at its best. Through the use of a single piece of Aluminium, build quality is extremely good, the best we’ve seen so far. While audio performance could have been excellent, ultimately we could only rate it as “above average” due to the fact that the supplied ear tips don’t get the best audio quality possible out of the BH-804. Wireless performance for such a compact unit was good, while battery can be considered pretty good, considering the compact dimensions of the unit. What we ended up liking less was the charger adapter, which lacks a locking mechanism, although you can always skip it and use the desktop charger. Overall rating 9.2 out of 10.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since their introduction in the late 90’s, MP3-player are still alive and kicking. The demand for MP3-player’s and let’s not forget the iPod culture has also created a blooming “ecosystem” of accessories to go along with all those Digital Audio Players (DAP). When it comes down to actually producing the music, there are plenty of impressive earphones/headphones to choose from, like the Shure SE530PTH we recently reviewed.

At the other end of the spectrum we have portable speakers, where the less than stellar performance actually seems to be the norm rather than the exception. In the middle of the portable audio scene, come the people at Soundcast with their latest offering: the Outcast! Their solution is done a bit different when compared to your typical portable speaker. They not only use a larger-than-normal unit, housing a an equally large 8” woofer, but they also use four 3” high frequency drivers placed in an uncommon (for portable speakers) omni-directional array.

Add the fact that the unit is rechargeable, all-weather and includes a wireless transmitter, there’s no denying that the Outcast is not your typical portable speaker. But the question is, do these features add up to a great portable system ? And does it sound equally good?

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite being a a multi-talented smartphone at heart, the 5800 with it's XpressMusic branding is a music-first device, well,at least that's what Nokia wants you to believe. Same thing can be said about the Music edition of Nseries devices like the N73 and N70. The fact is however, that all of the latest S60 Nokia smartphones are able to do a very good job when it comes to music, making the "XpressMusic" or "Music edition" branding  unnecessary

XpressMusic is like a certification that guarantees that a phones has “music phone-like” features, including: music control, ability to create on-the-fly playlists, pausing the music when you receive a call and auto resume after a call, 3.5mm jack, support for USB 2.0, OMA DRM, support for a wide range of audio formats etc. But the question is: Can't all modern Nokia S60 devices do this already?

Criticism about the name aside, let's get the most important aspect out of the way first: Audio quality. When branding a device as "music oriented", it's critical to have good audio quality through the 3.5mm audio jack. This can literally make or break a device. Luckily the 5800 does a VERY impressive job. When it comes to audio quality, there hasn't been any recent device in the Nseries line that could compete with the N91 or the N81. Not the legendary N95, or the popular N85 and not even the flagship N96 with it's dedicated audio chip. While it's sad to say that a device that was introduced way back in 2004 (The N91)  still holds the crown when it comes to audio quality AND volume headroom, the N81 and 5800 come very close. While it's one thing to use the in-package headphones, the real test comes when the In-ear monitors. The 5800 does amazingly well, impressive, considering that no flagship N9x, other than the N91 has been able to do this. The audio quality is not only good, but finally there's enough volume headroom for those cases when you really want to crank up the  the volume. It's safe to say those with critical ears using high-end earphones or In-Ear Monitors (IEM) will be very happy with the 5800's sonic performance The built-in stereo speakers also do an admirable job, especially considering they are so well hidden and that just finding out where they are located seems like a task all on it's own. The 5800's stereo speaker easily falls in the category of one of Nokia's loudest, they probably could also be the loudest so far. Worth noting however is that they sound their best at volumes just shy of the maximum. Push them to the max and they start to show their weakness. 

Continuing on the hardware front, the 5800 does lack  music keys for quick media control. The fact that it's a touch-only solution without media keys, it will take some getting used to the fact that especially in multi-tasking scenarios it will take a few more clicks to get to that Pause or Stop Button. It's not as intuitive to something like the N85, where it's just a matter of using the (hardware) media controls. The 5800 does have soft A Media Key which when touched brings up a floating bar with quick access to the music player, gallery etc. While not as handy as true buttons, it's usable.

The 5800 is microSDHC compatible allowing you to use microSD cards with a capacity of up to 32GB. Nokia has also included a very generous 8GB card in the package. The 5800 works just fine with my class 2 16GB card, with no aparent slowdown, even after filling the card with 10GB of music. Thanks to the fast USB speed, you'll be filling these cards in no time.  A while ago I talked about how other Nseries device had a slow 0.8MB/s transfer speed, while the N96 improved this by speeding things up, reaching transfer rateS of 4.5 to 9.6Mb/s. The 5800 also joins the club with transfer speeds well over the 4Mb/s.

How does Nokia's first touch-only device do when it comes to music? The haptics adds a lot to the experience, I would even go as far calling it "fun" to use. The S60 UI has been tweaked to the extent that it's easy and intuitive, using both fingers or the plectrum. The Stylus does seem like a mismatch for a device mostly aimed a the younger consumer. The UI is very responsive: a night and day difference when compared to the slow N96. The only areas that need improvement is the scrolling and text entry. The scrolling is difficult as the scrolling bar is way to small, thin and close to the screen edge , making comfortable usage only possible with the plectrum or stylus. Text entry by itself is fine, but when using the Alphanumeric keypad the letters are a bit slow to react to the key presses. Another downside is the Home screen as it seems to be a missed opportunity. With such a large screen, Nokia could have added large media controls on the Home screen.

The 5800 Xpressmusic can be summarized as device with truly impressive audio quality when using both headphones and the built-in speakers. The interface is speedy and fun to use, while the haptic feedback addS to the experience. Users will really appreciate the speedy transfer speed using the USB cable. The 5800 can be improved when it comes to unused space on the Home screen, small scrolling bar and slow reacting text entry with the Alphanumeric keypad. These are all things that can easily be fixed with a firmware upgrade. The only true downside to the 5800 is the lack of (hardware) media keys. In the end when all the aspects are considered, the 5800 scores big in the Music department.

It’s no secret that Nseries device have an obvious limitation: No re-charging via the now universal micro- and miniUSB connections. This problems also ties in with the need to include a desk holder in the Nseries packages that’s also able to charge the device and perform the usual data transfer and sync duties via PC Suite or your Media Player. Nokia does offer the universal Desk Stand DT-13, up till now only the N91 has been blessed with the included DT-10 desk stand and before we forget the Nokia Phone Holder NK007044. As for USB charging, Nokia does offer the Charger via USB port CA-100, but again this solution only offers charging via USB , but no data transfer and sync. Until Nokia offers such a solution and includes it in the package, Proporta comes to the rescue with their dynamic duo…

Read the rest of this entry »

CNET takes a look at Nokia’s Bluetooth Stereo Speakers the MD-7 and informs that they are easy to use and that they offer quality audio performance. On the other side they think that the MD-7 speakers are expensive and their design is somewhat unstable.  In the mean time I’m working on a review for much much larger speakers that will REALY fill a room with sound and bass (Think 8” Subwoofer), so stay tuned….

It’s no secret that I really like the Nokia N82 and while it has a few shortcomings, it is currently what I believe the closest thing to perfection available on the market today, beating even the mighty N95 and N95 8GB. Not bad neither that it is one of the best, if not the best mobile imaging device, all in a unpretentious compact package in the traditional “can’t-go-wrong” silver.

Giving the N82 a jet-black look just seemed logical and well they did, joining the current white and “warm titanium” (silver for the rest of us) colors. Worth noting however is that with both of these colors, it’s only the back that changes, while the front is exactly the same silver, whereas on the black version the phone is finally completely black. There’s something about the black color on mobile device: so elegant and mysterious at the same time, that makes people that just to go crazy about them and the N82 is no exception. It’s no coincidence that when Nokia set out to create an updated N95 in the form of the N95 8GB they made it completely black. Remember what color they released the music editons of the N70, N73 and the N91 8GB? Or how about N81? For this reason I think Nokia should make it a habit of releasing a black version of their device at launch. They can get as creative as they want with the colors (remember the purple back on the N95?) but not releasing a full black version should almost be made illegal.

When it comes to changes to the software there’s absolutley nothing new except for the fact that it comes right out of the box with firmware v20.0.062.

On the hardware side, it was obvioulsy given the black color, but overall the same shade of black is not used: the front and back use the darkest shade of black, while the sides, call and end buttons use a lighter, almost dark grey color, but this difference can only be spotted in day light. The material with the lighter shade of black has this matte grippy feel to, something similar to the back of the N95 8GB.  This makes the black N82 a lot less slippery when compared to the other colors and adds a suprising amount of extra grip. The front uses a piano-like finish, whereas the back has a different looking anf feeling glossy effect that seems to have been created by putting a clear coating on top.

A noticeable imprvement comes from the keypad buttons and the D-pad itself. The silver N82 had a very wobbly D-pad, now it seems that it has been improved on the black version as it feels a lot more solid. The keys themselves feel positively different: they seem a lot more solid and have much improved audible and tactile feel to them.

The black N82 is not all perfect: One dissapointment comes from the back-lit keypad that has the same strange light-yellowish color to it that doesn’t do jutice to the black the look. Comparing it to the N95 8GB, it shows that the latter uses more of pure-white back-lit keys that looks a lot better. Another missed opportunity comes from the fact that they could have added a light to the D-pad like on the N81. And lastly comparing the black N82 to the N95 8GB reveals that screen auto-rotation reacts way too slow on the N82, while it on the N95 8GB it works just fine. And why doesn’t the black N82’s screen auto-rotation work on the stand-by screen? It does it on the N95 8GB, so the same should be done with the black N82.