REVIEW: Desaia Beat Box Bluetooth speaker

Name: Desaia Beat Box

Type: Bluetooth speaker

Specifications: Click here for full specifications

Price: £54.99 direct from Desaia

Desaia may be new kids on the block when it comes to portable audio systems, but their Beat Box Bluetooth speaker shows promise to come. Does it have enough polish to warrant your attention, and your cash? Read on to find out.

Desaia’s Beat Box is almost a perfect cube, barring its curved, slightly tapered edges. It stands just 80mm x 80 mm x 76mm and weighs around the 150g mark, making it an easy fit in even the most modestly sized handbags or satchels. It’s not much of a looker (our review sample was a black model, though more colours are on the way), but its perforated plastic casing and glossy plastic 4-way button pad on top are simple and functional.

On the rear of the speaker you’ll find a port for hooking up non-Bluetooth music devices over a standard 3.5mm audio jack, and a mini-USB port for charging the speaker.

Hooking up the Desaia Beat Box over Bluetooth is a piece of cake. Holding down the Play/Power button fires the Beat Box up, with a blue LED ring flashing around the button pad (which turns red when switching off) letting you know it is ready to pair with a Bluetooth device. It’s then just a matter of using your tablet, smartphone or MP3 player’s Bluetooth manager to search for the speaker and unite the two units in musical matrimony. We used the Beat Box with an iPad, HTC Desire HD and an iPhone 4S, and had no problems at all with dropped connections during lengthy play sessions.

Those musical marathons can last up to 10 hours if using the Beat Box at around half its maximum volume, which isn’t at all bad given the 2-and-a-bit hours charging time needed. It’s even better when you note how loud the Beat Box goes. Despite only having a 2×2 W max output, it gives the impression of going far louder at full volume, particularly when placed on a resonant surface such as desk.

Sonically, there are better performers than the Desaia Beat Box. It pushes its mid ranges too much to the fore, while treble is harsh and lacks detail. Tweaking your EQ settings on your device helps to counteract this somewhat. However, you’re never going to find audiophile quality sound in a device of this nature, so its something of a moot point; you buy a Bluetooth speaker for simple, on-the-go amplification of your digital tunes, and in that regard the Desaia Beat Box fits the bill nicely.

Verdict:

While its audio quality leaves a little to be desired, the Desaia Beat Box performs well when put alongside other similarly-sized Bluetooth speakers. It’s a truly portable bit of kit, offers enough battery life to provide a day’s worth of tunes down the park and (while still a little too expensive in our books at £54.99) is priced competitively against rivals such as Logitech’s Mini Boombox. We expect to see lots of these sitting around outside tents come the summer festival season.