Avoid this Nokia at all cost - even $0

Author's Rating:

Pros: Relatively stylish and inexpensive.

Cons: Inusable voice quality, very poor range.

The Bottom Line: 
Not worth the trouble to go to store, even if it doesn't cost anything.  Shame on Nokia for putting its brand behind such trash.

Author's Review
"Attractive, reliable, and easy to use."  This is what Nokia says about its BH102 Bluetooth Headset. (Hereafter BH102.)

Attractive - relatively speaking.  BH102 has a shiny black plastic shell and a simple but elegant style.

Easy to use - quite true.  BH102 has only one S-shaped button.  You click it to connect a received call, or to disconnect an established call.  Another function of this button is to turn on and off the headset; you'll need to press it for a few seconds in order to use this function.

Reliable?  That depends on how you define reliability of a phone headset.  I haven't used BH102 frequently enough (even though I have owned it for months) to test whether any part of the unit will break down.  But I can say that from a quality perspective, BH102 is unreliable in its basic function - its only function, really - transmitting voice over a cell phone.

. Miscellaneous Use

BH102 is extremely basic.  Pairing with a cell phone is simple: the code is fixed and printed in the simple manual.

Its package includes a 5-V charger.  Charge time is about 2 hours.  BH102 boasts a talk time of 10 hours.  I couldn't test this - just wish my phone's battery could do that.

My phone has voice command.  Pressing the switch for 2 seconds can activate this function.

. Quality - or the lack thereof

After pairing, it's show time.  I just cannot believe how poor the voice is.

Before buying BH102, I owned a no-name Bluetooth head set.  That one has excellent quality receiving voice, but out-going voice is often inadequate unless I carefully adjust acoustic path.  With BH102, remote voice is often garbled, and my other parties always complain that they cannot hear me clearly, no matter how I adjust acoustic path.

Worse, the range of this Bluetooth head set is really short.  If I am in the kitchen and the phone is in the living room, noise interferes with conversation.  This is barely 5 m (16 ft).  The no-name headset works at even longer distances.

. Value - or the lack thereof

I purchased BH102 in a promotion where the rebate matches the price: $15.  What do I get?  A headset that is useless for normal conversation.  I can only use it in emergency situations.

In short, with intolerable voice quality, this is a useless piece of junk.