Nokia Essence Bluetooth Headset

So this is not exactly a review, it's kind of a story with a few pictures and opinions and a massive thankyou to my virtual and real life friend, Richard Dorman (@Sheridan01 on Twitter) who basically caused the need to write and upload it !!

The story began a few weeks ago, and as is normally the case in the stuff I write is Nokia related. A few weeks ago I won a Nokia 7360 handset from Nokia Support Discussions and I Tweeted about it and posted a couple of pictures, as a result I got a message from Richard asking if I wanted to sell the phone (he wasn't aware of how I got the phone at the time as it was a week or so before I posted this http://carman58.hubpages.com/hub/Nokia-Nostalgia-II-The-Nokia-7630-A-Ladies-Phone ), I replied that I couldn't , but as people who know him will know and those who don't shortly will, Richard is quite possibly the greatest Nokia fanatic on the planet, bar none !! Not only is he very accomplished as a photographer with his Nokia N8, an extremely affable and pleasant guy, but he has probably the largest collection of Nokia handsets anywhere, approaching about 150 as I type this. As a result of this, and knowing Rich from Twitter and also spending quite a lot of time with him at Nokia World in London last year, I offered to lend the phone to him on a perminent basis as I thought it much more appropriate he had it and would appreciate it more than I ever could. However, when I made the offer he said he would only want it if it was his and also as I'd won it from Nokia, he thought it better that I keep it. The upshot of the discussion, eventually, was that I suggested a trade/swop and when I did Rich asked what I wanted, so I said something like a set of headphones, expecting something like a wired headset or maybe some Nokia BT earphones, what I did not expect was an extremely generous offer of a Nokia Essence noise cancelling ,NFC enabled headset, a fantastic premium product which I really never expected to own !!! As a result the trade was agreed and Richard said he would bring them to the UK from Finland where he lives, when he was next over and today I recieved a package at work containing the headset, to say I was pleased is an understatement, I'm over the bloody moon, and also very happy that the 7360 is going to the best home it could possibly have, which also happens to be in its Homeland.

The initial plan was that Richard would try and come 'Up North' to deliver the headset in person during a break from working on his house in England, but the best laid plans don't always work out, sadly and so we ended up doing the exchange via post, and I'm hoping the 7360 arrived safely at his end and that he is as pleased with his end of the deal as I am. For anyone interested in the great stuff Rich does take a look here http://onlyfoolsandmobiles.com/ and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheridan01/ there is some astounding photos there !!

So to the review type stuff, well, the Essence Headset is bloody marvelous, and luckily I have the perfect companion for it, my N9 , not only is it NFC enabled, so that simply tapping the phone on the control pad instantly connects the phone and headset, but also the fact the phone has a 64 gig in built memory and so can carry literally weeks of music on it, a match made in heaven if ever there was one, particularly when travelling and I really can't wait for my next long haul to give them a proper try, although a couple of minutes at home, that turned into an hour gave me a pretty good idea of what they're like LOL Now I am no music or sound expert, but I can tell the quality of the headset within a few seconds, crisp clear sound , zero distortion at full volume and for people to judge, I recommend listening to 'A Night At the Opera' by Queen for starters, the stereo effects shoot round your head like crazy and the guitars and descants sound awsome, it was like being a teenager again, but without the needle jumping or any external sound interfering LOL You have full control of all the functions of the phones music player on the headset itself, so swopping from track to track and adjusting the volume is a cynch either if the phone is in your pocket or even in another room, plus if someone actually tries to spoil your enjoyment by calling you, you can take the call through the headset and the music continues when you hang up. The 'ribbon' type cables are almost impossible to tangle and the choice of earpice buds would satisfy anyone except Dumbo !! I also like the lanyard that came with the Essence, never used one before , but it's actually a better way of using a headset than simply clipping the controller to your clothes, at least for me.

Now to allow people who don't want to read specs to avoid them, I'll simply post a couple of links for the full specs and probably steal a video demonstrating the NFC pairing, but all the photo's are mine, taken with my N9 and I hope you enjoy them. As per usual I am endebted to Nokia for both my entertainment, communication devices and the many virtual and actual friends I've made, in this case Richard Dorman, a Top Bloke .

Video stolen from http://www.zomgitscj.com/

Specs stolen from http://press.nokia.com/wp-content/uploads/mediaplugin/doc/data-sheet_nokia-essence-bluetooth-stereo-headset.pdf

Thanks for reading

Stephen Quin

07/06/2012