Accessories: Pocket Boom Portable Vibration Speaker, demoed with Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia 800 (Video and Pics Review))

The folks at MobileFun sent this to me aaages ago but never got around to posting due to other commitments, but now with much of the heavy term and exams over for a while, I’m able to look at accessories again. What we’re looking at is the Pocket Boom Portable Speaker.

Package:

• Instructions
• 1 x Pocket Boom
• 1 x USB power cable (short)
• 2 x replacement sticky pads

The Pocket Boom

What’s so special about the Pocket Boom? It isn’t just like any other portable speaker.  It’s one of those conduction speakers where sound is conducted through the object it’s attached to, creating the sound you hear. I’ve lost the packaging and instructions but I do remember it saying something about cardboard working great. And indeed it does. I’ve got a couple of videos to share with you guys, one just hands on with the Pocket Boom and the other with music.

Hands on 

Performance Demo

Around the device:

The Pocket Boom feels really sturdy and has a kind of rubbery feel on the outside. When put away, the Pocket Boom fits into the hand in the shape of an attractive black capsule pill. The on/off switch, power indicator and DC IN are all together. Unfortunately you can’t charge batteries this way, it’s just for powering. The cables are discretely hidden away with the 3.5mm jack tucked around the bottom yet still easy to pull out.

The top side opens out into a dome that reveals the speaker cable. This extends past the length of my external keyboard (possibly 30cm+?) so you can rest your pocket boom near your music player and have it attached to your desired surface. The head of the speaker is where sound comes from. This has a sticky pad bid that you should use to attach to your surface. This can be taken off and reattached. The more solid the attachment, the clearer the sound.

However, when the sticky circular pad looses its stickiness, sound does begin to muffle as the airwaves push against the speaker and the surface so less conducted sound and instead more distortion. You are provided with two replacement sticky pads but I think there should be more. Also note that you should note that one side of the pad is much more stickier than the other. Make sure the more permanent side sticks to your speaker.

Now you’ve extended the speaker, something really cool is how you get it back out. I did this wrong in the video but what you do is put the cap on the main body, hold both ends and just keep the main body. This will nicely wind up your cables and if you align the notches as in the first picture, it’ll close tightly on that to help keep the lid closed.

This takes two AAA batteries which are easily accessible with a nice and rigid battery cover that’s easy to put back.

Performance

For something so tiny, it really does pack a booming punch, with distinct bass that gets louder and clearer the bigger the cardboard box you use.

Note, it doesn’t have to be a cardboard box, it can be the table, the TV, your forehead etc. When it is not attached to anything you won’t be able to hear much, but attach it to the right thing and it sounds great. It is significantly louder than the phone speakers and for something that is so tiny, it produces sound that’s relatively quite clear (provided you have good attachment) and respectable bass.

Check this video out again, start at about 3:25

Battery wise, well I’ve not tested it long enough where the phone won’t die first.

Conclusion:

It’s a funky little speaker with an awesome conduction twist. Solidly build, looks great and sounds awesome as long as it can firmly attach to the surface. Speakers as small as these are obviously not for audiophiles but they are a great option for folks that travel or just a nice geek thing to have. With just your phone, a pocket boom and and easily obtainable cardboard box (or other useful surfaces) you can have music a crowd of people can listen to on the go.

It would be nice if they included more sticky pads and made it clearer which way they should be attached. Also cool would be if there was some charging mechanism but I don’t know if that would bulk this up or make it

These can be picked up at MobileFun for £19.99, making it one of the less expensive conduction/vibration style speakers available (as well as being nicer looking)

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/pocket-boom-portable-vibration-speaker-black-p32135.htm

Check out their other mobile phone speakers.

Tags: featured

Category: Accessories, Nokia