The team at Cubed3 loves its music, be it generally or on the gaming front, so when companies bring out new products that claim to be the very best in portable audio, interest is piqued. For the duration of 2013, the firm favourite in terms of quality and price has definitely been the Music Angel Friendz, which lasts a whopping 150 hours in addition to producing amazing sound for a budget price of £25. XMI has slammed its X-mini UNO Capsule Speaker down on the table now, for around £40, claiming it has taken the crown. Tech Up! delivers the final verdict
According to XMI, this UNO is the first in this particular line of (award winning) X-Mini Capsule Speakers to feature new ceramic drivers that help to deliver a clearer, crisper sound than previous models. Whilst Cubed3 has not used other devices by this company before, the sound quality is indeed extremely impressive for such a small piece of kit. It is also great how compact it is, opening up – concertina style – to add more bass to the sound output. In terms of overall volume, it does not pack quite as much of a punch as the Music Angel Friendz, but the added bonus it does have is a volume wheel.
The expansion of the speaker is a patented extendable vacuum that mimics the resonance of a sub-woofer – the Bass Xpansion System – and although emitting a mono sound, just like the Music Angel Friendz, a string of the UNOs can be connected together using the ‘modular Buddy-Jack’ design to increase the range of the brilliant bass sound that defies the size of the diminutive portable speaker.
One of the big selling points is that ceramic tweeters produce a wider frequency range that covers higher and lower sounds when compared to aluminium ones. This basically means that whereas some other speakers may start to crack and lose clarity when the volume increases, the UNO has no problems of the sort. It has a battery life of more than 20 hours between charges (two-to-three hours for a full charge via a micro-USB cable), which in itself is amazing, but not a patch on Music Angel’s life (which the company is already working on increasing to a whopping 250 hours at the moment, complete with increased bass!). Still, most people will get a heck of a lot of use from this trendy speaker!
Some portable speakers struggle to live up to their ‘portable’ nature, because despite being easy to carry round, they are not really sturdy enough to be thrown in a bag and transported from place-to-place, coming in handy when camping, at house parties, barbeques, and so on. This is where the UNO shines, with it being compact, strong, and even the audio cable attached can be safely tucked away, clipping nicely underneath on the base’s indented section.
As ever, here are the raw technical details for those that are drawn to such information:
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- Dimensions: 60mm x 47.5mm (closed resonator)
- Net Weight: 112g
- Speaker: Magnetically Shielded 40mm 3.6Ohms
- Loudspeaker Output: 2.5W
- Frequency Response: 150Hz-20kHz
- Signal-to-Noise: >= 82dB
- Distortion: <= 1.0%
- Playback Time: From 8 to 20 hours
- Battery Capacity: 500mAh
- Battery Charging Voltage: 5V
- Battery Charge Time: Minimum of 2.5 hours
