Mobile Phone Accessories Review

The nXZEN Plus 5500 is the latest headset from Canadian manufacturer Gennum. Unlike its predecessor, the recently reviewed ZEN Z-470, the nXZEN Plus does not look like a space age hearing aid. Instead, it retains a much more conventional form factor. While physically the nXZEN Plus doesn’t appear related to the Z-470, once you start to use the headset, the similarities become more obvious.

The nXZEN Plus comes with a similar list of accessories to that of the Z-470. Included is a USB charging cable, two ear hooks (interchangeable and different sizes), a hard copy of the user manual, and a quick reference card. The audio interface cable featured with the Z-470 is replaced with a stereo audio cable, while the AC wall charger, bag of replacement ear tips, and installation CD remain unchanged.

One feature retained by the nXZEN Plus is the eight band graphic equalizer (included on the installation CD). This feature allows the user to completely customize the sound coming from their headset to their exact audio taste. You can simply install the software on a Bluetooth enabled Windows PC and tweak until you’re happy.

The included stereo audio cable allows the user to pair the device with their phone, then plug the audio cable to their CD/ MP3 player, and have the audio delivered in stereo to them via the headset and an extra ear bud attached to the audio cable. The best part about this feature is that when a call comes in from your mobile phone, the audio (from your player) is muted in the headset while the ringing tone and call are played. The other ear bud proceeds to play the audio from the player throughout the call though. This idea has a lot of potential, although in this instance the audio quality for music (even with some tweaking in the graphic equalizer) was a bit too far behind a good set of headphones for this to be a common replacement.

The nXZEN Plus has retained the excellent audio quality which was the strongest feature of its predecessor. While it has dropped its off call environmental audio enhancement (LEAP), it has improved greatly upon its noise cancellation and reduction.

This improvement is evident in the noise and wind test results for the nXZEN Plus. The noise reduction was excellent. The person on the other end of the phone will know that you are on a headset, but they will more than likely have no idea how noisy the environment surrounding you is. The nXZEN Plus definitely outperformed its predecessor in the wind test, and while there was still some interference, it was a great deal better.

The volume is a little soft in some situations, but generally speaking, it is loud enough to do the job. As a result of the ear tip being another in-canal version, outside interference is minimal in all situations.

As mentioned, the Gennum nXZEN Plus 5500 has a fairly standard look for a Bluetooth headset. It is a very manageable size at 57mm x 28mm (2.25″ x 1.10″), and is quite light, tipping the scales at just 17g (0.6oz). The body itself is sturdy and solid, though the ear loops seem quite fragile, evident by the smaller of the two being damaged in transit. It appears one of the joins on the ear loop is a little more fragile than it should be. Despite this, the ear loops are compatible with both left and right ears, and changing ears is an easy task.