Nokia 02734L7 BH-940 Purity Pro Wireless Stereo Headset by Monster - Retail Packaging - Black

Where to begin... I've had these on order via Amazon for a pretty good while now. I have a Nokia Lumia 920 and without a doubt it is the best phone I've ever owned. I feel like Nokia is one of those companies that knows how to support their customers. They take feedback everywhere. They want to hear from you. They actually try to make things better. Seriously they are a model for how a company should act towards their customers. I don't think I can say enough good things about them. Technically I owned a Lumia 900 for two days before the 920 hit and I switched. Otherwise the 920 is pretty much my first Nokia phone. I write that because I'm not someone who endorses anything they make out of fan-dome. With that said read on...So since I had such a great experience with my Lumia I began to try other products. I'm a Pandora subscriber, but decided to try Nokia Music Plus. And in some ways it is better than Pandora and in other ways not as good. I was a little taken aback when I realized Nokia doesn't provide headphones with their phone. It was then that I learned Nokia partners with Monster for their headphones. I bought the in-ear headphones also on Amazon. And those are pretty darn good. So I later read about the Purity Pro 940 headphones and thought I'd give Nokia yet another try.Nokia will have some good competition from me because for many years not only have I been buying Bose Noise Canceling headphones, I've also been VERY vocal about how good they are at removing unwanted noise. So much so I own three pairs. One pair sits at my office. One pair sits on bed, and believe me I actually sometimes sleep with them on all night, and a smaller, on-ear version are in my backpack and go with me everywhere. I particularly love them on the BART train I ride from the Airport to home, which I take almost daily.I have read review and after review of reviews claiming that the noise canceling on whatever it is they like is equal to BOSE or better. I have yet to find any head phones that even come close to the BOSE noise canceling headphones. I was hoping that Nokia, the brand I kind of excited about would finally pull off the impossible and prove to me it can be done. I'm sorry to report that is not the case. BOSE is still king and by a country mile.Now, that's not the end of this review. I still think they are great headphones despite the poor show on the noise canceling front and I'll explain why.First of all if you have never owned a pair of very good noise canceling headphones let me tell you there is a price to be paid for great noise canceling headphones and I'm not actually talking about money here at all. I know right, what's he talking about?? Well, the act of canceling noise means the headphones has to listen to noise, and create a reversed sound wave, effectively canceling out the noise wave. And when it does this very well it actually makes your ears hot. It even can cause headaches in a lot of people. It's something you have to get used to. First time I owned a pair of BOSE my ears were being cooked. A little salt and pepper and I think I was ready to serve them up for lunch. There is also this odd sort of pressure that you will feel on your ears. Again it can be uncomfortable.With the BOSE I can sit at my desk and knock on the wood surface and barely hear it. People talking around me are gone. Background noise, even from a loud train in a tunnel or the defining roar of a jet engine for the most part go away. But you pay for it in ear pressure and heat. That's the BOSE way. It works, but you pay for it as I mentioned. You get used to it and these days I barely notice it. Plus they make better and better headphones over time and I buy them because they are so good.So today the Nokia Purity 940s arrive at the office and I decide to hop on the train and test these beautify headphones out. Great sound, and the rumble of the train is indeed reduced, but not gone. It is there and more so than with the BOSE. But the headphones are not hot. It's noise canceling lite or something. Not extremely powerful like the BOSE but it is there and on a scale of one to five I'd give the noise canceling a 3 and I give the BOSE a 5. The on-ear BOSE I'd give a 4. The around ear get the 5. The Nokia's get a 3 and they are around the ear, which is a little surprising. The on-ear BOSE best these easily.The Nokia 940s are easily more comfortable those. And I think most people might even prefer these as their first noise canceling headphones. The Bose are VERY powerful and maybe need to be worked up to. If I were getting on a jet from SFO to JFK, I'd take the BOSE with me.So why give the Nokia a 4 out of 5. Well, let me say what the 940s do that the BOSE don't as the list is actually long and it's the reason I'm keeping these headphones and happy to do so.Bose are wired. And BOSE seems to love Apple's iPhone, iPod and iProducts in general. They make two cables. One that has a mic and can be used to talk over the phone, and a more general cable to be used as ordinary headphones. Aside from the noise canceling and great sound that sums up the BOSE experience.The Purity Pro headphones on the other hand are designed for those of us with just about any device in mind. The headphones are both Wired, and Bluetooth. If you want to use them with Bluetooth, simply leave the cable in the box. The headphones have a built in mic. Yep, you read that right. These headphones, without a cable can be used to have a conversation with someone else. You can redial the last caller as well. You have voice command support via Bluetooth. You can skip, pause and play music as well as adjust the volume up or down, all from the headphones themselves without a wire. I love that!The Purity Pro 940s also let you pair them with multiple devices, up to 8. I happen to have a Surface Pro. So with these Bluetooth / Wired headphones I can use them with both the Surface Pro and the Nokia Lumia 920 at the same time!! Yup, it's true. You can connect your computer and the phone at the same time. You can pump music through both at the same time though, I tried. But you can listen to sound on your Surface for example, press pause, then go to your phone and pump audio through without having to disconnect and reconnect. Both devices will maintain an active connection with the headphones simultaneously. I don't know if a pair of headphones that does this. This is completely new to me.The headphones sound very good. After listening to them on the train I put in the in-ear Monster / Nokia phones and immediately felt they were lacking as I just came from the full sound of the around the ear Purity Pro 940s.One of the problems of not being an iPhone user is that so many headphone makers simply go after that one large market and so finding good products designed for everyone else is often difficult. So I'm happy to see Monster / Nokia making such good headphones for our market.The headphones easily collapse into a small space and come with reasonably good carry bag so you won't have to just throw them loosely into your travel bag, backpack or whatever.Others have complained that you can't turn the noise canceling off. Since it is mild in my opinion I don't see the need to turn it off at all. If someone walks up to you and starts talking to you the headphones won't cancel them out. Maybe your loud music will, but the noise canceling won't. My BOSE would, and so being able to turn it off and on would be nice for those. On these it seems hardly necessary.I'd give these a 4 out 5. If the Noise Canceling was stronger (like the BOSE) and adjustable (which no one seems to do) I'd up that to a 5 out 5. Am I happy with them? Yeah, and despite having three pairs of BOSE I still like these. Bluetooth and simple pairing plus great sound is enough to keep these.

UPDATE 10/12/2015: My Nokia/Monster Purity Pro BH-940 have slowly been losing the ability to recharge and now will not charge at all. After much troubleshooting it has been determined that the issue is caused by the batteries themselves which slowly stop working completely. So my $400 headphones had a 3 year lifecycle, absolutely horrendous. To make things worse, the batteries are not serviceable and Nokia/Monster/Microsoft will not touch them outside of warranty. Apparently this happens with ALL Purity Pro headphones so I highly recommend that NO ONE purchase them, even used for a good deal as you absolutely need the batteries for the noise canceling and Bluetooth wireless functions. Otherwise they are garbage dumb headphones that sound like garbage. Plus the microphone stops working on ALL of these. It was a great three years but if I knew these were disposable after 3 years of use, I would have bought something else. What a waste of $400. By the way, this seems like a very common issue across all Nokia products, after going through SEVEN Lumia 928 phones, I've left Nokia altogether. Pure junk and no wonder the Nokia acquisition by Microsoft was a $7.4billion writeoff. All Finnish garbage, DO NOT BUY.I've been on the fence for a pair of wireless audiophile headphones for about a year now. The Sennheiser 500X Travel pair were at the top of my short list but the immense cost and luke warm noise canceling did not seal the deal for me. The Parrot Zik were also a consideration but I have a smallish head and the Zik has poor reviews for my head type, among other common faults. Then a coworker of mine showed me his Purity Pros and I was hooked. Here is why.I fly a lot and I am always jealous of the people I see with Bose noise canceling headphones. I know they don't have to worry about screaming children or the drone of the engines, especially on long flights. Now I am one of them. I even used the Purity Pros while mowing the lawn recently and it was a very rewarding experience. They paired effortlessly with my Nokia 928 via NFC and they protected my ears from the harsh sound of the mower. If you are performing any kind of physical exertion, your ears may break a sweat with these on, but this would happen with any over-the-ear headphone.Call quality is excellent. I dual-pair these on my Nokia 928 and my Lenovo X1 Carbon Touch with Lync 2013 for voice calls as well as the occasional video and lots of music listening on both devices. I can take calls in either Lync or my cell and people tell me I sound very clear, even when I am in a noisy environment such as an airport or busy office setting.For use at home these are fantastic. I am writing this review on my iPad while connected to the Purity Pros via Bluetooth, listening to some new electronic music via Pandora. I am an extremely discerning listener; I have a wall of equipment in my listening room at home that rivals some of the best sound reproduction studios in the world. I love music more than just about anything else and I find myself listening to my current library and new music just about anywhere, anytime. The vocals are crisp and articulate, the highs are clear but not harsh and the bass is what I would expect from 40mm drivers; true to the original recording and able to dig very very deep. Plus, you can pair these with almost ANYTHING that transmits Bluetooth. I was able to connect to my Vizio XVT553SV television so that I won't disturb my wife while catching up on the latest season of Dexter at 2am. I have an extremely old Motorola DC800 BT transmitter that I purchased in 2006 to stream music from my laptop to my home stereo. I dug it out of my box(es) of electronics accessories yesterday and I was able to pair it with the Purty Pros on the first try! Though the DC800 is quite obsolete as a transmitter by today's standards, I was still very impressed with the Purity Pro's extensive compatibility.Overall fit and function is excellent. They are extremely comfortable to wear, even for hours at a time. I have a pinched nerve from being a victim of a car accident last year so my head can be quite sensitive. I have tried many wireless headsets and headphones in general and the Purity Pros are among the most comfortable. The controls are simple and few. These headphones automate so many actions right down to the on/off function of unfolding/folding them. It is really quite amazing. If you are contemplating the purchase of wireless noise canceling headphones and you want one set so solve all of your needs, buy these. You will not regret it.Edit 7/8/2013: After another couple weeks with these, I am still loving them. I used them as ear protection for trap shooting over the weekend and they provided great noise suppression even when standing next to other competitors, comparable to my friend's dedicated active noise suppression headset. This is very impressive given how loud a shotgun is at close range. Just another expensive headset I no longer need to pack/own/purchase as replaced by the Nokia Purity Pros!