Nokia Play 360 °

Disclaimer: The post was not written by a Nokia employee, a fierce fan, a non-lead analyst, or even by request.

In this post I want to tell you about my experience of using the Nokia Play 360 ° wireless speaker, which is distinguished, first of all, by the fact that it uses NFC technology to connect with smartphones. Since at the moment NFC is used only in Nokia N9, the latest smartphones on the Nokia Belle OS and in a number of “Androids” (WP devices from Nokia with NFC support are expected this fall), standard connectivity is provided to connect all other devices to the Nokia Play 360 °. 3.5 mm mini jack TRS and Bluetooth.


The device comes in a fairly compact box with a nice texture.


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Delivery set - the speaker itself, the charger, the case, the warranty and a short instruction.

The body of the speaker is a cube with rounded side faces, carved (actually not) from a single piece of aluminum. Bottom Nokia Play 360 ° bottom is made of polycarbonate and framed with a rubber edge for better stability and reduced vibrations, while the upper part is covered with a cloth.



On this very upper part, near the front side of the speaker, there is an inscription NFC. She unambiguously hints that this is where the NFC module is located to connect the smartphone with the speaker, and this is true! - connect the phone on the other side of the speaker is no longer possible.



I happened to check the connection via NFC using the Nokia 700 baby on the Nokia Belle OS, and it passed just in a second. Technically, the connection is via Bluetooth (Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR), and NFC eliminates the user from unnecessarily entering the settings, turning on Bluetooth, searching for a speaker, and entering the PIN code for the peyring - it’s nice that you can avoid wandering through the menu with a simple touch of the device.



To connect to the dynamics of a smartphone / computer / tablet without NFC, you will have to spend precious 30-40 seconds of time. However, you can connect via mini-jack.

If you have two Nokia Play 360 ° speakers, you can combine them into one wireless stereo system. To accomplish this kind of magic, it is necessary to simultaneously hold the power button for five seconds on two devices, after which the speakers begin to talk in female voices: one broadcasts “Left channel”, and the second picks it up - “Right channel”. And the Nokia Play 360 ° left speaker becomes the main one - only through it you can make an NFC connection. To make it easier to distinguish between the speakers, on the left Play 360 °, the display around the Bluetooth button glows a rich blue color, and on the right - a light blue.



In addition to the mini-jack, on the back side of the speaker there is a micro-USB connector for charging the device, as well as a power button - it would, of course, be the place on the front side, but oh well, I am writing off the “matter of taste”, since the device is small and accessible before the button is completely simple.



Instead, the front side has a large Bluetooth power button, an indicator of its operation (and battery level), as well as two buttons for controlling the volume (however, you can adjust the speaker volume via a smartphone, since Play 360 ° supports the A / V Remote Control specification Profile v1.0).


On the bottom of the cube posted a brief instruction.

Now about the sound. Nokia Play 360 ° is equipped with a high-quality 2.5-inch wide-range speaker with a neodymium magnet. The diffuser in the device is directed upwards, so that the sound spreads in all directions, that is, to the very 360 °. Thanks to the phase inverter on the right side of the device, the Nokia Play 360 ° has excellent bass and low power consumption. Problems with the reproduction of high frequencies in the speaker either. According to the documentation, Nokia Play 360 ° can reproduce sound in frequencies from 20 to 20,000 Hz. The output signal level is 2.1 watts, so the dynamics will be enough for a small room. The signal-to-noise ratio is 81 dB at a distance of one meter, and the total harmonic distortion is less than 2% with an input signal of 20 mV.

If we drop all the numbers and talk about impressions, then we have a loud and clear sound. When playing compositions with a normal bitrate (for me it is ≥256 kbit / s), the speaker behaves extremely decently, but when it is lowered, compression flaws become noticeable - which, in fact, once again speaks about the quality of Play 360 °. Music lovers will surely be delighted with the support of apt-X technology, with which you can transfer CD-quality music via Bluetooth. The undoubted advantages can be attributed to the fact that at maximum volume the speaker does not begin to rattle. But the most important advantages of the Nokia Play 360 °, which for me played the primary role in choosing this speaker, is Nokia’s traditional long life of the device from the battery and the cost of the device. Nokia Play 360 ° costs 5990 rubles; for comparison, a similar Jawbone Jambox wireless speaker costs exactly two thousand more. With regard to battery life, the speaker from Nokia allows you to play music for more than 20 hours from one battery, which is two times more than the speaker from Jawbone. The device works on the standard for many Nokia phones lithium-ion polymer battery Nokia Battery BL-5C 1020 mAh.

I was able to find only one minus for this accessory: despite the fact that Nokia Play 360 ° directs the sound through 360 °, here one speaker is used, “looking” up - if you put something on the top of the speaker, Play 360 ° immediately surrender positions in the sound.

To sum up: Nokia Play 360’s speakers for me were the ideal solution because of the optimal price-performance ratio - at the moment no competitor is able to offer such a high-tech device at such a price. One of the significant advantages was also the possibility of using speakers with all possible devices (tested on Nokia 700, Nokia Lumia 800, iPhone 4 and iPod classic player), even analog ones. Moreover, these dynamics are a vivid example of the fact that it is possible and even necessary to produce high-quality accessories that are compatible with devices from different manufacturers, not only their own.

Advantages:
+ sound quality
+ ease of connection (thanks, NFC!)
+ apt-X support
+ battery life
+ price (5990 rubles in the official store )

Disadvantages:
- the location of the speaker
- inconvenient location of the power button