A few days back, I took a trip to Nokia Priority and noticed that a cute and sleek Bluetooth handset, about which we talked about in Nokia World 2010 days, finally has made its ways to market. Nokia BH-217, very sleek, very catchy to the eyes and well matching the build quality of Nokia N8 like some natural buddy . Being active in the blogosphere, I already knew that beyond the looks, it also is a very capable handset and made the decision of purchase, in fact made the order.

But some of your days really get lucky, when you have folks around like @womworldnokia. An innocent tweet, I made to ask friends that if anyone might have used Nokia BH-217 and was almost jumped from the seats, when my most favorite and WOM God father @_ODoG_ replied via a short tweet “Check your mail”.

Like always been, two three days more and the shiny kid of the block was right in my hands with usual DHL packaging.

I was like in hurry to open the box and to see, the one that came all the way to me for review, which I was just about to buy. The blue box and what first appeared to my eyes is the silver Nokia BH-217 with the doc.

After opening the DHL’s yellow parcel, I was greeted with the usual baby blue packet and what I found more interesting was the green sweet box kind of casing for the headset and related accessories (though my green box was damaged a little, may be delivery damage).

It was the first time, when I seen some kind of dock with a bluetooth handset and then the headset itself… what a beauty …. lovely piece of work

I will come over details of doc later on, but before that presenting you the glorious and all classy

Nokia BH-217

I really loved the fact that now I will not be needed to keep my headset in ears always due to presence of handy dock provided with it, which can be hooked into cloths (pocket etc) very easily like wired headset.

The Nokia BH-217 box was full of goodies, containing much much more things than I ever would have seen in any other headset package (except BH-905).

Full content of the package

• Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-217 Silver
• Carrying clip and car cradle (both white)
• Nokia Charger AC-3E
• Three earplugs (size S, M and L)
• Two ear hooks made of transparent plastic (size M and L)
• User Guide

Technical specs

• Dimensions 50.5 x 17 x 6.2 mm, Weight 7.6 g
• Single Operating keys to remove/replace the headset in the clip or car cradle to power on/off and answer/end calls, Multifunction key for power on/off and answer/end
• Nokia 2 mm charger connector interface, 45 mAh Li-ion Polymer rechargeable battery
• Talk (Bluetooth): Up to 5 hours ( I found it better than specs while using) and up to 3 months in clip or car cradle
• 10 m (Bluetooth use), DSP noise reduction, Adaptive volume adjustment
• Unique voice guidance to assist in pairing the headset, and for battery and connection status indication

Now going into closer details …

Headset exteriors

When we look over the headset itself without the earplug, then not only the built is kind of one-piece, but they have taken an extreme minimalistic and slim approach.

There is no buttons except the one for call receiving and ending. You find a tiny quad-color LED on the top side in back (green when the charge level is sufficient, red when charge level is low, yellow means you may need to recharge the battery and blue when in pairing mode). 

In the bottom, you find one tiny screw, one 2mm charging port and a pair of metal contacts to switch it off, when kept in any of the two docks.

While some might miss the volume button, but I found it perfect with the fact that what a slim build they are providing.

The Ear buds with headset

Well! I must admit that in the first sight the shape was odd to me and I was thinking that why this D shaped hooks over the simple shape we known about the ear buds till now.

Still not sure about the exact reason, but one thing is sure, due to their shape, you don’t need to use the hooks at all, which been a pain in ear since long. I know many of you will feel that how its possible to carry the headset in ear without using the hook, but I assure you that I am using it without hook since last three days and it didn’t dropped for even a single occasion. You just need to choose the right size for you, might be a little trouble in finding exact fit place, but once fit, you will not even feel it on your ear. I am using size S.

Carrying clip and Car cradle

I am not sure that if there are other Bluetooth handsets, which come with such clip and cradle, but as I am concerned, I am like loving it a lot. The package is kind of full value of money (the best price quoted to me is 1750 INR in Delhi, but I am expecting it to go more less)

The cloth clip is simple enough and yet holds the headset very firmly. You will notice that on the bottom, there is place for 2mm charger, which will be exposed  only if you put the headset front facing toward the open side. Much handy, if you want to keep it in charging and will save any kind of scratches, which were sure there over time, when you were keeping it over surface like some table.

Similar about the build of the car cradle, which I am not using at the moment due to absence of car, but one of our friend @sachin_malhotra, who recently bought a black one, just loving it.

Ear Hooks

Though I am not using the hooks and one of my oldest headset Nokia BH-204 went useless only because of loosing the hook, so I am happy with it.

But for people, who like to use it for the safer side (like in situations of running etc), there are two of them. Glossy transparent white ones. Not sure, how the black ones are, but will soon check out, when I will buy one for self.

The charger

The Ultra-compact charger is lightweight, rapid charging and has a smaller plug so you can carry it around with ease.

Obviously it is the universal 2mm one, which could be used to charge other Nokia handsets as well.

Unique things about Nokia BH-217 usability

For the details of features, you can take a look over the Official page, but let me tell you about things that I noticed.

• The handset comes with adaptive volume adjustment and DSP noise reduction inbuilt (software based I guess, unlike BH-905, which uses multiple microphones for the same), which I found not making enough difference while hearing songs, but was very well noticeable while on some call. Calls are crisp and clear on both the side and I am not saying this just for saying, they really are.
• The second unique thing about the headset is Always Ready feature. It automatically connects with the handset within a second at most, once you take it out from the holder. Keeping the headset in holder will come into your habits soon when you will know that it provides over 3 months of battery life while kept in holder (because its in  stand by there).
• The third and most important lovely fact about this tiny piece of magic is “It can connect two devices simultaneously”. I tried even third one, but it just remember the last two connected devices and will leave the first one and if already connected with two, then wont connect with the third one.

  It also co-ordinates well with both the connected devices, like if you are on call via one handset and receive call on second one, then it puts the first one on hold, similar about if you were hearing the music over one handset and the call came over other handset, then it will pause the player.

• Get helpful voice guidance from your headset to help you pair it with your phone, and to indicate battery and connection status though I will say that I found the volume of guiding speech a little low or might be we Indians are used to of high volumes 😉

It was interesting to note that while connecting to Nokia N8, it didn’t asked for a password and same about Nokia E5-00 (which is with me now days, thanks to @womworldnokia), but while connecting to Nokia N82, it asked for the same and I was to use the default “0000” one. Look like something changed with Symbian that I didn’t noticed before.

So, this was all about Nokia BH-217, which you might wanna know, if looking for some really sleek and light weight Bluetooth headset that should be surprisingly cheaper and yet at the finest edge of features.

Drop me your  comments, if any questions about it.