Yar! With only 197 days till the next Talk Like A Pirate Day, I was hoping to find something that would make my costume this year better than ever. Just about then, WOM World sent me the Nokia BH-701 for review, and as Jay at MyNokiaBlog.com discovered, this thing looks EXACTLY like a blasted pirate’s earring! Obviously it’s not meant to be worn like that, but that was about the only way I could take this headset seriously.

The Nokia BH-701 is a fashion-oriented headset that, according to Christina (and countless others who gave me funny looks while wearing it) isn’t all that fashionable. The design is rather standard for a semi-boom Bluetooth headset, and the BH-701 only weighs 13.3g (.47oz). It consists of a rather long skinny headset which is attached to a large steel hoop. The hoop is designed to go around your ear, and there is a small rubber ring around the headset’s speaker to provide a snug fit in your ear.

There’s only one button on the BH-701, located on the outside, all the way at the back of the headset. When wearing the BH-701 on your right ear, there is a microscopic volume rocker on the bottom of the headset, with the charging port on the other side. The BH-701’s sales package includes the headset, a wall adapter, stylish carry pouch, and a silver neckstrap, if you’re brave enough to wear your headset as a necklace. There is also a tri-color LED indicator light located on the end of the headset, just behind the main button.

Powering the BH-701 on is done by simply holding the main button down for about 5 seconds. The LED indicator will flash green to let you know it is on, and if you continue to hold it for a few seconds, it will begin flashing blue, to indicate ‘pairing mode’. Pairing is easy with your S60v3 headset, simply go to Tools, Bluetooth, and press the d-pad right, then press Options, New Paired Device. The passcode is ‘0000′, as is standard with any Bluetooth headset. Once you have successfully paired the BH-701 with your phone, the light will go back to flashing green every few seconds, to notify you that it is on. Holding the main button for about 5 seconds will power the headset off, as shown by the LED flashing red for a few seconds.

There are a few functions that you can access on your phone directly from the Nokia BH-701, which keeps your phone safely in your pocket or purse. When a call comes in, merely press the main button to answer it. You can also press the button twice to reject the call. When there is no active call, you can hold the main button for 2-3 seconds to activate voice dialing. I use this feature constantly on my N95-3, and the BH-701 integrated perfectly. The volume rocker on the BH-701 was incredibly unreponsive, though, and has such a small range of motion it’s difficult to determine whether you actually moved it.

Nokia says the BH-701 will give you 6 hours of continuous talk time, though I struggled to get 5 hours in my tests. However, for a normal user with a few phone calls throughout the day, you should be able to squeeze two days of usage out of the headset, depending on how much you talk. I also found that the BH-701 is able to hold a Bluetooth connection, right up to the 30m limit, without losing audio quality.

Once you get past the ridiculous design, the Nokia BH-701 performs well in terms of audio quality. Given that the headset does not have any special sound processing technology, callers were able to hear me clearly, even in noisy indoor environments. Wind was a slight issue for the BH-701, but I’ve yet to use a single headset that performs perfectly in high-wind areas.

Overall, if you can tolerate people staring at you and laughing at the ridiculous looking headset attached to your face, the Nokia BH-701 is a decent headset. I can’t say I recommend it, though, due to the unresponsive volume rocker and embarrassing design. At least the insides were good, though.

Categories: Accessories
Tags: bh-701, bluetooth, features, nokia