Mi Portable Bluetooth Speaker review: Reasonable choice

GET IT FOR:
Rs 2,499
HIGHLIGHT:
Decent sound output


Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker is the latest wireless speaker to get added to the Xiaomi audio portfolio. Xiaomi has a reputation for delivering products that are liked by most. Does the speaker fall in the same category? Read on to find out.

The Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker looks like any other cylindrical wireless speaker. But Xiaomi has differentiated it from other options with features such as the squared-off design, which gives it a fresh feel compared with the circular design. Also, the speaker is designed to be placed in a horizontal position.

Though it can be placed in either orientations, the horizontal one feels more natural. The top of the speaker is home to a couple of buttons such as power, pairing, stereo mode, play/pause and volume. The speaker also comes with a strap that makes it easy to carry around. The Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker comes with an in-built microphone for taking calls. It is also compatible with voice assistants. Call quality using this speaker isn’t that good. In our test, the caller continuously complained that the voice feels like it's coming from somewhere far away. The audio quality is where things start getting interesting.

The speaker is rated to deliver a total of 16W output and that’s sufficient enough for a medium-sized room. We listened to a lot of music on this speaker and we feel that it serves the purpose. Vocals are clear and crisp along with the mids and highs. But with lows, the speaker seems to struggle a bit. The bass is not as tight and punchy as it should be. Rather than bass, it feels more like a haptic motor that resembles and amplifies the bass effect on the speaker. It also comes with a pre-programmed EQ mode which allows users to switch between the natural and bass modes. The speaker also supports Stereo pairing.

That means users can pair two of these speakers together and enjoy the stereo output. The speaker supports all the major codecs. The battery life is good and it managed to last for around 10 hours of continuous listening on around 80% volume level. Overall, the Mi Portable Bluetooth speaker is a reasonable choice if you are looking for an affordable yet fine sounding speaker.

The writer is with gadgetsnow.com