Today I have the SHARKK Portable Boombox Speaker which we will be taking a closer look at. Portable speakers are becoming more and more popular these days as people are trying the find the smallest product that will still produce high quality audio as well as being loud. Let’s see if this ‘little’ boombox can live up to this.
Opening the packaging you’ll find the speaker center stage in all it’s glory. Removing the speaker you’ll notice that it’s actually quite heavy for how small it is. You’ll also get a USB power adapter, a micro USB cable, AUX cable as well as a nice fabric travel pouch. It’s nice to see that a mains power adapter is actually included as with most speakers that we have reviewed this is a rare occurrence.
The speaker it self packs a 2,500mAh rechargeable battery to ensure you get plenty of playing time – up to 10 hours. Also integrated is a microphone so not only can you play your music, but also make and receive calls, which is always an added bonus. Using this function you’ll be able to answer, reject and also redial any calls.
On the right end of the device you will find the power button, headphone jack, AUX input and also the micro USB port used to recharge the speakers battery. When you hold the power button to switch the device on the speaker makes an incredibly loud, and actually quite annoying deep bass noise. Certainly the first time I switched it on it made me jump! It is also equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC technology. And of course because of the integrated microphone you can use Siri – if you actually use it…
The dimensions of the speaker are 2.3 x 7.4 x 2.7 inches which is around the size you would expect for a portable speaker like this. As mentioned before the device does weigh a little more than you would expect and may put a few people off if buying purely for the portability. But we can’t forget that this is due to the amount of features & functions that are packed into it.
Flat micro USB cable included
We now get to sound quality where the boombox performs pretty damn well. All range’s are accounted for well and overall the quality of sound is impressive. As you increase the volume you would normally expect to find some distortion in the quality but fortunately there is very little if any that we could hear. We did however find that when using with our Apple headphones that came bundled with the iPhone 5 that the speakers didn’t actually play anything through the headphones but instead just silenced the speakers.
After further testing we found that this was because the headphones have the in-line mic and therefore the jack has the extra connection line on. We tried with the old pair of Apple headphones with no microphone and they worked perfectly. It’s a little unfortunate that they haven’t taken into account the new headphones and i’m sure will bug a few people.
Verdict
Overall this mini boombox produces a quality sound to an incredible volume. The simple rubber feet on the bottom of the device work well and prevent the device moving even slightly. With the call functionality and also Bluetooth connectivity this little speaker packs everything you would need on your travels. The sheer weight of the device may be enough to put some potential buyers off and it’s also unfortunate that the headphone jack doesn’t work with the new Apple Earpods. Putting these 2 minor annoyances aside though and you have a excellent and well built product.
You can check out the Boombox over on Amazon.com using the link below.
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