Dubai
When Jabra, maker of headphones and Bluetooth accessories, gave me the Solemate Mini ultra-portable speaker for review, they told me that this small device can offer high quality sound.
I doubted how such a small device, which is the size of a Pepsi can, can produce a rich sound. But the device can really produce rich sound by pairing it with your smartphone or a tablet via Bluetooth or near field communications (NFC).
The device can also stream music even with a Bluetooth-enabled laptop or MP3 player.
The Mini is good to fill a bedroom or an office and don’t expect it to be used for parties. It is a perfect travel companion for music lovers.
There are three buttons on the top of the speaker – two buttons for reducing or increasing the volume and the middle button for answering or ending a telephone call and for checking the status of the battery. By pressing the middle button for two seconds, a male computer voice will tell you whether the battery life is high, medium or low. On the right side of the device are the on/off button, a headphone jack and a USB outlet for charging the device.
Voice guided
Pairing is easy with the help of voice-guided instructions and tells you when it is connected. Press and hold the middle button for about four seconds until pairing mode is announced and the Bluetooth light on the right side of the device flashes. By pressing both the volume up and down buttons together can mute or unmute the microphone.
The device has two powerful small speakers with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) technology that can optimise users’ voice and music and suppresses echoes. It comes in red, yellow, blue or black shades. It just weighs 295 grams.
Another advantage is that it has a USB cable to connect it to non-Bluetooth devices and the cable has a storage below the speaker.
The speaker is covered by rubber to help it protect from shocks and to stay intact without skidding even at high volume. The speaker is also water and dust resistant and can be taken outdoors or to the beach.
The device does not have an equalizer to control the bass and treble. The Bluetooth range gives almost 10 metres. The Mini is very good in mid-range and high-end sounds but heavy bass notes get distorted.
The Mini has a microphone and can be used as a speakerphone which means that users can make and take a call just by pressing the centre button to receive or reject calls. The centre button can also be used for redialing the last number. The call taking quality is not so loud and the speaker has to be kept near the ear but the receiver hears the voice clearly without any distortion.
Regarding connectivity, it has Bluetooth 3.0 and NFC.
The non-removable battery provides life of about eight hours. The device is priced at Dh399.