Accessories: Nokia Play 360 Blue, NFC speaker unboxing, demoed with Nokia N9 (+Gallery).

I’ve been itching for one of these for a long, long time but Nokia UK/Nokia Connects didn’t (and still don’t) have any trial units. Fortunately Nokia Australia had one for Michael – you might have seen his post back in February:

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/02/10/accessories-nokia-play-360-speaker/

That was based on two weeks of use.

Well, last week I got contacted by Katie who’s working on something called ‘Best British Bloggers’ and wanted us to take a look at some accessories from www.phones4u.co.uk, one of the major UK mobile phone retailers. Thanks Katie!

http://www.phones4uaccessories.com/11523/product.htm

I was so excited to see the Play 360 on their list. I’ve only had a brief try of these myself at Nokia events, and yesterday at 6am, the postman brought this mystery package in (I wasn’t sure what it could be at the time as I was expecting another similarly sized box).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJNvKNGmE-k

I really wanted to get two to try out the stereo thing, but they could only do one unit per person. You can also find these on Amazon.

Nokia Play 360 Black – £87.82
Nokia Play 360 White – £107.88
Nokia Play 360 Blue – £119.99

I picked Blue due to it matching the Cyan pair of Monsters I had last week, and of course the Cyan N9.

http://mynokiablog.com/2012/04/28/accessories-nokia-purity-hd-cyan-monster-with-nokia-n9-huge-gallery/

Here’s an unboxing and a quick demo again for you guys. This was unboxed yesterday but it took absolutely forever to process (5h -__-) and upload  (estimated 3h) so it’s appearing today instead :).

Quick summary of below: I’m really surprised and pleased by how well this works and how good it sounds. I’ve demoed this with the N9 but it works with all bluetooth music capable devices, and those with NFC give it a quick initial pairing touch.

The speakers are quite something. I’ve not had much time with it but all my housemates are impressed, with the volume, the clarity, the bass and how it can just connect by tapping. With the latter, the NFC tapping actually works very well when done properly. Just bring the N9 over to the label that says NFC and tap. I did this wrong the first time in the unboxing as the NFC positioning has to be right and I was not allowing them to make proper contact. You can also see in that video later, how quick NFC connects (and it’s this quick on my subsequent attempts). But without NFC, pairing is also simple. Just hold for 1.5s on the BT button, find and click connect. Subsequent attempts, you can just press the BT button.

For small(ish) portable speakers, it really does pack a punch. I may not use it much around the house as I already have some speakers set up, but when travelling, or having a BBQ outside, or going to the park etc this is absolutely perfect. Pretty much anyone can connect to it and share their music as long as they have bluetooth (that can send music) or 3.5mm jack

They feel great. They’re weighty, but not too light or too heavy. The main body is a cold blue metal.  This is studded with what looks like a speaker grille though the sound does not come out of the side but out of the top.

The top is a cloth material and the bottom is plastic.

The base has a rubber ring to help grip onto surfaces.

There are four buttons in total.  At the front,  (volume +/-), one bluetooth button  (which lights up white when on, blue when connected and pulses blue when trying to pair/find bluetooth device). There’s also a charging light. This is red when charging and turns off when charged.

On/Off button at the back along with the microUSB port and 3.5mm port.

This comes with a pouch that is lined blue on the inside.

It doesn’t fully cover the Play 360 though that does mean it can still be used when in the case (if  you put it in upright with the material bit exposed).

It goes really well with the Cyan N9

BTW, this works for audio of everything except calls. That’s games, incoming messages (which can be read) the keyboard tapping, videos etc. It’s consistent that it will slowly increase the volume of incoming BT transmission as opposed to just suddenly being blaringly loud – this is most useful when playing music and it not suddenly shocking you.

This is a rather loud speaker, definitely enough to fill a room without having to put on maximum volume (yet whilst on max volume, it is not distorted – but make sure the music source is of decent quality).  Very excellent job, Nokia Accesories folks!

Here’s the full gallery:

Tags: featured

Category: Accessories, Nokia