The speakers work in unison to give you a portable stereo effect wherever you carry them, and even work independently.

Rating: 4/5

Bluetooth speakers are popular, but their market isn’t exactly very innovative when it comes to design. Compared to wearable audio products like neckbands, headphones and the growing variants of true wireless audio earphones, fresh designs in speakers seems to be a dying a breed. However, the folks over at Boult Audio sent us a product that made us rethink the statement.

The Boult Vibe speakers, the product we have today are two small and compact speakers that pack a punch. They work in unison to give you a portable stereo effect wherever you carry them and even work independently. We test the speakers thoroughly to understand how good these tiny boomboxes actually are.

Design, Build

The Boult Vibe speakers are basically two cylinders. They’re less than two inches tall and wide and are small enough to carry in your pocket. The sleek black colour looks good in pretty much any setting. Both speakers have backlit logos that look awesome when the speakers are in action.

Below both speakers are a button and a covered MicroUSB port. The power button that turns the speaker on and off and the ports can be used to charge the two speakers individually. The chrome rings below the two speakers look classy, and also fold out to double up as quick fasteners that you can use to quickly hook the speakers to various objects like your bag, your belt, or even your keychain!

The charging dock also has another logo that is backlit, which again, looks futuristically cool. The dock has slots for charging the speakers on the top, and a MicroUSB port on the back that is used for charging. It is noteworthy that the dock has no power-bank feature and cannot charge your speakers on its own without a power adapter connected to it.

One thing we didn’t like was that despite the whole product offering three backlit elements in both the speakers and the dock, there is no way to figure out if the speakers are being charged. No separate LED, no blinking of the backlit logos, nothing. This is annoying because there is no way to figure out if your speakers are connected properly in the dock and are being charged. The logo on the dock lights up when it has a power source connected but there is no change when the speakers are actually placed on the docks.

Performance

The Boult Vibe speakers are pretty powerful for the compact size they come in. The sound is crisp and clear but only until you turn the volume up to the highest levels. Higher volumes begin cracking the sound and the bass especially is easily distorted on high volumes.

The sound itself is rich and punchy. The 5W speakers are heavy on bass and bass heads will love the output on these. The speakers are great to pair with your laptop or phone at home and will definitely enhance your gaming, movie and music experiences. High volumes do sometimes vibrate the tiny speakers enough to move them forward. If you don’t want the speakers to fall over, either use the chrome fastener below them or keep them on the charging dock itself, which will prevent movement.

While the Bluetooth range is good, connecting the speakers to each other can be cumbersome the first time. The speakers do not talk to each other automatically until you long-press the power buttons below the speakers and then press one of them again to connect them to each other. Battery life is not excellent on the speakers but still passes as average as far battery life on portable wireless speakers is concerned.

However, the good side to this is that the speakers can be used independently, individually even if they are turned on together and are in close proximity to each other. While we don’t know why you’d do this, it is possible.

Verdict

The Boult Vibe speakers are a good set of speakers. While the sound is good, it is the compact size and portability of the gadget that bags it the brownie points. The speakers pack enough punch to boom through your house, in a garden or at a beach. You’d actually be surprised at the power output of these speakers considering how small they are.

But perhaps the biggest plus point of the Boult Vibe speakers is that you get all that rich-sounding portable audio experience at a price of under Rs 3,000, and that makes this a standout product. The speakers are also+ available for as low as Rs 2,600 on Flipkart and are an absolute steal for that price. A serious no-nonsense value for money audio product from Boult Audio.