Nokia Purity Pro headphones by Monster review: The ultimate wireless headphones for Windows Phone users

If you follow all things Windows Phone you're no doubt aware that when it comes to premium accessories, it's fairly slim pickings out there. Similar all things for our beloved ecosystem though, one OEM is taking things seriously enough to push button manufacturers for accessories designed to piece of work perfectly with Windows Phone; Nokia. Through partnerships with JBL, Monster and Fatboy, the Finnish behemothic'southward sponsored accessories are squarely aimed its own Lumia line of class, merely as they're designed to work best with Windows Telephone y'all'll all the same get a great experience from your HTC 8 series or Samsung Ativ phones.

All of which brings us nicely to today's review, the Monster/Nokia Purity Pro headset. This isn't Monster and Nokia's first dance together, the 'Purity' brand has already been applied to another set of over-the-ear cups and besides to a set up of ear buds, and nevertheless those forays into the brightly coloured accessory world have been met with some mixed reviews, and in my personal opinion the wired Purity HD earphones leave a lot to be desired. We initially went 'ears on' (last fourth dimension I utilize that phrase I promise) with the headset at the Mobile World Congress this year, and came away impressed, but a little bewildered by the initial cost of entry. Now we're lucky plenty to say we own a pair and take spent a calendar week using them out and well-nigh to approximate just whether or non yous tin can justify the relatively loftier price betoken.

Design & hardware

Once you lot crack open the seal on the Purity Pro box y'all'll detect a useful soft case, a micro USB charger, a three.5mm male to male cable and of course the beautiful headphones themselves.

In that location's no getting effectually the fact that these are visually hit headphones, when collapsed and viewed from the side on they are gorgeous to behold (in this reviewers stance). Yet once they're on your head y'all realise just how large they are, and it's a bit daunting at commencement, the cups are adequately large themselves giving the whole set quite a wide presence. In fact I remember that once they're wrapped comfortably around your ears you start to await a picayune like a cyberman, which you lot tin can choose to view as positive or negative.

Available the Lumia yellow, cherry, white or black you can decide just how much you lot want to stand out for yourself. I chose black but honestly I'm wishing I'd gone for the white pair as I call back they are both a little unique simply simply understated enough.

Speaking of understated, I want to requite recognition to Nokia for putting the Bluetooth button/light on the underside of the right mitt cup, it means the calorie-free isn't piercingly obvious different many other wireless sets I've seen around London.

Other than the Bluetooth button you'll notice play/pause, skip buttons on the left cup, volume controls and a microphone on the right loving cup (nosotros'll come back to that later). These buttons feel great and are raised enough to make them easy to find, only not so much every bit to ruin the design.

You'll also detect the NFC tag, micro USB charging port and wired 3.5mm jack on the left cup, completing this generous assortment of features.

If yous're wondering why there'south no ability push the answer is elementary: the headphones plow on when you open them out and turn off automatically when you lot fold them together. It's an elegant design choice and at present feels solid similar this mechanism will stand up to several years of punishment.

Bombardment life is outstanding, lasting mode over ii weeks of average utilize (and yous can utilise the iii.5mm jack when there's no battery) and NFC paring works absolutely flawlessly.

In fact, at that place'southward but actually i complaint I have with the unabridged parcel, when yous've been using them a picayune while under any kind of exercise the cups get warm. I'm non talking just a picayune warmth either, at times these could genuinely be advertised to Eskimos as ear heaters. The more I test them withal the more I call up this is the event of the cup design insulating all the heat you'd normally lose from your ears. Information technology'south not a deal breaker at all simply you should be enlightened of information technology if you program exercising much or having a jog along the embankment on a hot summer'south day.

Lastly, you'll have no concerns over comfort, there is a piffling force per unit area on the height of your head as subsequently all there is a lot of tech upwards there, only it's extremely minor and can be alleviated by adjusting the cup positions. I had no issues (other than estrus mentioned higher up) whatever using this headset for hours at a time.

Sound

This is where the Purity Pro's alive or die, everything else is a prissy to have and worth naught if the sound doesn't hold upwardly.

Well, I'm pleased to say quality is excellent. Be aware that, like most speakers, at that place is a intermission in flow with the Purity Pro's, but I'm quite confident in saying that after one night of fairly constant utilise (I played most 2 albums) they were reaching their full potential.

I'thousand quite varied in my musical taste, and I know Monster have a reputation for producing very bass-keen products which concerned me when I enjoy a lot of acoustic and more than chilled music.

Notwithstanding I'll outset with the bassy tracks, throwing on some electro-house these cans are simply terrific. "Don't you lot worry kid" by Swedish House Mafia soar, although y'all'll demand to turn the volume up to experience the full punch of each crescendo. More progressive tracks like "I remember" from Deadmau5 float along and immerse yous with the mids existence well balanced and every high-end riff picked out perfectly. In fact if you're annihilation like me y'all'll probably miss a railroad train stop when you lot close your eyes to pretend you're somewhere else.

Listening to dub step or drum and bass does feel like a slight ear invasion but that'due south a good thing, you'll feel every wub and drib in a manner that very few ear buds could e'er promise to lucifer. Whilst on that note, listen to a Skrillex track on this prepare if you desire to push button them a picayune.

The fifty-fifty better news is that when faced with a softer composition like Ben Howard, the headphones audio just as practiced, if not amend. Generally that's thank you to the agile noise reduction which phases out groundwork noise allowing y'all to enjoy all the nuances of the artist. You won't be completely deaf to the outside globe and private voices are still discernable, but the boilerplate hum is suitably blocked.

Speaking of the noise cancellation, it's cleverly disabled when you accept the headphones off your ears, reducing the dissonance from the speakers when round your neck, and making you feel that much more surrounded when yous put the set back on. Even meliorate news is that in that location is little to no sound leakage from these cups in one case they're properly seated over your ears, I was pleasantly surprised that when I turned the book right up with someone else using the headset I could barely hear a note.

Finally those who bask their bands and live music will be pleased to know that the detail of every instrument can be heard on each track, though there's a slight warmth to the audio, which I'd say even makes my live recordings sound that tiny bit better.

Connectivity

Whether over Bluetooth or directly by wire, the audio quality is stellar and you'll be difficult pressed to find whatsoever difference between the two. You should exist aware though that if you lot connect over Bluetooth you won't see the sound enhancements your device provides; Beats audio on HTC and Dolby Pro logic on Nokia Lumia devices. I just can't consider this a negative indicate for the headphones though as it would exist the same for any device connected via Bluetooth. If those enhancements are very important to you, be prepared to have the connecting wire on your person (or look for some other pair of headphones).

Pairing over NFC couldn't be easier, simply tap the devices together, accept a prompt on your telephone and yous're gold. Merely if you don't accept NFC you lot won't find it hard to hold down the Bluetooth button and wait for the audio prompt to connect your device. The Purity Pro headset actually talks to you (in soothing tones I might add together), telling you when it's continued, what the electric current battery level is, and when information technology's ready to pair.

In fact, these headphones will connect to anything with a Bluetooth radio, including the Microsoft Surface. I found that one of the best use cases here was to pair with the surface and watch a few episodes of something from Netflix. If you're in the United kingdom using the TV Catchup app effectively turns the Surface & Purity Pro combo into a near perfect portable Tv set combination, equally nosotros all know the Surface's speakers are normally incredibly poor.

When it comes to connectivity though, these headphones go one step further in the way they communicate to your device, which brings the states nicely to phone operation.

Phone operation

Just like the onetime Bluetooth headsets yous saw attached to the ears of 'busy' individuals final decade, the Purity Pros have their ain microphone allowing you to receive and brand calls using just the headset.

The play/pause push button doubles as a menu fundamental, printing one time to receive a call, double tap to redial, or press and hold (then release after the tone) to starting time a Windows Phone voice command. Yes, yous can utilise the TellMe integration to initiate a call by vocalism, to compose a text message, instruct the phone to read out a text message, or to interact with your favourite apps.

I'll be honest, initiating apps through this method is just awesome. Instructing our app to read back the latest headlines for case only makes sense. I can get the latest Windows Phone news without ever touching my phone. I as well like beingness able to voice punch and commencement searches in this way, only the text messages don't make sense for me.

Trying to etch a text message via vox can exist quite frustrating, even though Microsoft have recently made huge improvements to the TellMe service, it'south non perfect yet. Also, walking along responding to a text or telling apparently no 1 to "read information technology" is going to expect like you've lost your marbles. Withal I can see this being a keen feature if you're a cyclist, I already observe the vocalization SMS features work fantastically when driving, and so I tin see how the same would transfer to those on two manually driven wheels.

My simply complaint is the microphone itself. It has a tendency to pick up all the noise around you lot also every bit your own voice. For voice calls, this is ok when you're walking downward the street because the groundwork murmur can be ignored, simply when you're within information technology is worse as every single echo is picked up by the Microphone, I had to switch back to only using the handset in these instances.

The Purity Pro headphones provide all of the features above to whatever Windows Phone eight or seven device (note that vii doesn't take app voice commands), and will even connect and work for audio with devices based on other operating systems. However, they are Nokia made, and so the best feel right now is with a new Nokia device.

The Nokia difference

If you chose to pair these headphones with a Nokia Lumia device running Windows Telephone eight, then there are a few more options that are presented through Nokia'due south accessories app.

You lot'll find a few neat features in this app, including the ability to turn off the double printing to redial pick, equally well as voice commands later a long press. With a Nokia Lumia y'all can too enable the Purity Pro headphones to connect to two devices at once. That means that your phone will connect in a vocalism but manner for calls and texts, whilst another device will take the media playback capabilities, an impressive feat fifty-fifty if managing these connections can exist a footling difficult at times.

Finally, you tin choose to pin out the Purity Pro accompaniment to a dedicated alive tile. Not but does this launch you right dorsum to the headphones settings, that alive tile will be updated with the current battery level of the headphones, not that you'll e'er take to worry about the battery in these things, but it'due south a very cool feature.

Wrap upwardly

I beloved these headphones. Whilst I'm not certain that the sound quality is equally proficient as you lot'll get if you were to spend this kind of money in your local Bose retailer, it admittedly holds upwardly and yous certainly won't be regretting your purchase after that initial break in period.

Of course, the entry price is steep, right now Amazon are listing Nokia Purity Pros at £180-£210 ($349 in the states) so they are an accessory you lot'll want to probably outlive your phone itself.

What really sells this beautiful set of headphones though, is everything they practice above and beyond your traditional wired cups. Not merely is going wireless liberating in a way that anyone who'southward ever threaded something down their shirt volition understand, only the ability to interact with your Windows Phone in an (almost) hands free mode wherever you are really enhances the experience.

Bottom line, if you care only about the best sound for your coin, go somewhere else. Yet if you're actually invested in the Windows Phone ecosystem, or just picked up a new Nokia Lumia device, and can come across yourself using the full feature set I've discussed hither, I merely cannot recommend them enough.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/nokia-purity-pro-headphones-review

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