First introduced last year as a younger and smaller brother to the BH-604, the Nokia BH-504 landed in my hands a few weeks ago and I was excited to take them out for a spin. The BH-504 is a wireless Bluetooth stereo headset, with music playback controls. Its design is pretty standard, with black plastics and a black rubber headband. Both earpieces have a silver metallic outline as well as the “Nokia” logo printed on them, and have a padded foam/cushion feeling on the inside.
The left earpiece holds the charging port which is a regular 3-pin port from Nokia, and the BH-504 comes with the corresponding charger included in the box. The right earpiece has an LED light that notifies you of the battery level, connectivity state, and pairing mode. It also houses all controls, with a Call button, Play/Pause, FastForward and Rewind, as well as Volume up and down keys on its side.
The main advantage of the BH-504 is that they’re small, and foldable. Thanks to two hinges on the headband and two other hinges right above each earpiece, the BH-504 can be folded into a very small volume. It also comes with a black carrying pouch in which it fits nicely.
The BH-504 amazed me by how small and how practical they are. The headband is expandable to fit any head size and thanks to the different hinges, it can adjust to any head shape as well. They are small, lightweight and comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and when you don’t need them, you can simply remove and fold them and stow them in any bag.
Pairing them with any Nokia device, as well as my Macbook and my iPod Touch took a few seconds. The music controls are well defined and separate so it takes only a couple of minutes to get used to their placement, and hence control your music playback without looking. Music quality is great for my non-audiophile ears with no distortion at higher volumes. The earpiece design cancels a bit of the outside noise without removing it completely, so you can enjoy your music and not worry about missing out on the metro siren or any important sounds you need to be aware of. As far as call quality goes, I took many phone calls with them and no one was able to tell if I was speaking directly through the phone or through the headset, and I got no complaints of people not being able to hear me.
If you remember, when I reviewed the BH-504′s big brother, the BH-604, I came out impressed but with some issues that prevented me from plunging down and buying them:
All in all, I am pretty impressed with the Nokia BH-604 Stereo Bluetooth Headset, but I am convinced that they are not for me. I need something smaller, more acceptable on a girl’s head, more portable, and with better controls.
The BH-504 solves all of these problems in my opinion: it’s way smaller, definitely more acceptable on a girl’s head, portable and foldable, and with no control button issues.
If you’re looking for a wireless bluetooth stereo headset, I can’t emphasize on how much I recommend the BH-504. They aren’t a top of the line headset for audiophiles, but they are practical in every meaning of the word: small, comfortable, easy to carry around, light, wireless. They are also definitely very affordable, and you can get them for example for 49GBP from the Nokia UK Store.
Are you tempted by this BH-504 headset? If so, what are the features that you think make it worth buying? If not, what other headset is in your opinion a worthy contender and a better decision to buy? I know many people are looking at the BH-904, but even though that one is in another league of size, features and price, I personally still believe the BH-504 is a better buy.
