Nokia HS-4W Boom Review

Overall Rating

Great design, Comfortable to wear, Good clarity and long standby time/use time.

Sound could be louder and volume control a bit fiddly to use. Expensive unless you shop around!

Until recently my favourite Bluetooth headset with a good combination of both wearability and useability was the Motorola HS-810. As a regular bluetooth headset user I have tried lots of different makes and models in search of the perfect partner. Some headsets are very comfortable to wear for long periods and some are not. Some have good sound quality and clarity and others just appalling!
So where does the Nokia HS-4W rate? Well I have to say it is the best overall headset that I have ever tried and has made the HS-810 redundant! Beautifully styled and well made the HS-4W comes with full instructions BUT no charger. Nokia assume it will be paired with one of their Bluetooth equipped handsets so can be charged using the phones own wall charger. I tried it with three different Nokia chargers and it worked OK with all of them. Once charged the headset can be paired with up to 8 phones and worked seamlessly with my 6230, 6600 and a Motorola V3. NOTE; You cannot use it with more than one handset at a time and it will always default to the first phone it was paired with if two are working in the same area! Nokia claims a standby time of 160 hours and a talk time of 6 hours. I've found that it requires charging every 3 days with light to medium use each day. Because of the dual output speaker design the HS-4W can be worn on either ear without changing anything and fits comfortably. I won't say that you'll forget you're wearing it but compared to some other headsets, it can be worn for long periods without fatigue. The call send/end button is located on the boom so is very easy to use but the volume control is on the headsets main body behind your ear and is therefore a bit fiddly. Call quality and clarity were very good with all the mentioned handsets and voice dialling was spot on every time. The only complaint I have is that the volume has to be at the maximum for almost all calls. A bit more volume for calls in noisy environments like the car would be nice.
A great piece of kit from Nokia, the HS-4W will appeal to the image conscious user with a few bob to spare as prices for this headset range from £99.99p on the highstreet to around £58 off the web. If you can get one at a good price then I would definitely recommend this latest offering from Nokia.