onlyfoolsandmobiles

Yesterday I got a call from the Helsinki flagship store telling me that my Play 360s had arrived! So here are a few thoughts and few pictures about the Nokia Play 360s.

(Yes I know there is a N8 in the picture too – it is my back-up Nokia N8. I love using the device so much I need to make sure I always have one for pictures. )

I chose the black Play 360s for one reason only -they will match my black Nokia N9 when it arrives. Well, they look really good in black as well.

If you want the full specifications then click here. Personally I prefer to use something rather than read the specifications.

I have used Nokia portable speakers for quite a long time, I have the Nokia MD-3 and two Nokia MD-11s which I use on holiday. Both are fantastic portable speakers, but the Play 360′s are in a different league even though they are obviously not as portable due to size. But, as you will see, they are not exactly huge either.

So what do you get with the speakers? In the box there is a micro usb charger, a 3.5mm double ended jack cable and a cover/carrier for the speaker. See pictures below

How easy were they to set up and start using?  In a word “very” – it took less than 5 minutes to decide where to put them, plug them in and pair the two speakers together. All the pairing instructions are inside the box lid.

Linking a phone was simple for me as I have two C7s, both running Anna, so NFC capability has been enabled. Simply tap the back of the phone on the top of the speaker and the connection is established. One thing to note is if the phone is in offline mode it will ask you if you want to enable the connection. Annoying I know, but until Nokia put a Flight mode on separate to the offline mode they cannot really change this. As soon as the device is paired the music starts and oh my! What a glorious sound! They are loud too. I doubt I could stand to hear them at full volume, I am old and my ears just could not take it.

I also linked an E7 using a standard bluetooth connection, all you do is hold the connection button for 1.5 seconds and then search on the phone.

One nice touch is when the speakers are paired they act as one unit, so if you turn off one, the other one turns off too. The only problem with doing that is when you turn one back the other one does not turn on too. However when you do turn the other one back on, and connect a phone, you get the speaker linking together again and designating channels. One speaker will say “Left Channel” and the other will say “Right Channel”.

One other thing that I have noticed is that the volume control on the phone has no effect on the volume of the speakers. They have to be controlled separately. The only exception to this is when you turn volume to zero on phone it then mutes the speakers.

So Nokia, if you are listening: it would have been good to be able to control the volume from the phone.