[Review] X-Mini WE thumbsize speaker

We all love music, and we all love to carry our music along with us to everywhere we go. To listen to those music however can be quite a nuisance as some of us prefer to use earphones, whereas some of us prefer to use headphones. Here comes the other group of people – those who prefer portable loudspeakers. Let’s get on with the review and see how this small little speaker fares out!

Looking at the box of the X-mini WE speaker, it looks pretty simple and shows the speaker through the transparent plastic. Taking out the packaging entirely, there are a number of things included within the box itself.

[nextpage title=”Contents”] Inside the box there is an audio jack/USB to microUSB cable, a wrist strap, user manual, tech spec sheet, an introduction to Children International, and the speaker. The inclusion of the Children International is to inform the customers that for every X-mini product sold, an amount is donated to them.

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For the little speaker itself, the only thing I can tell you is that the speaker itself is really, really tiny. It is of course not literally as tiny as my thumb as what was described as a thumbsize speaker, but definitely a very small speaker.

The cable included has an integrated cable management clip, but it is a little too tight for the cables to go inside the plastic clips itself.

It has Bluetooth connectivity and also a 3.5mm audio jack output and also a micro USB port for audio input and also for charging.

The accessories included a wrist strap, which I think is not quite suitable. For my entire time with the usage of this speaker, I find myself not carrying it with the wrist strap, but around my neck with a neck strap.

The speaker itself looks like a handgrenade for some reason with its gunmetal colour. There is a piece of rubber wrapped around the speaker’s body and has a metal ring at one side that has another piece of rubber for the tweeter for protection. That piece of rubber for tweeter protection is truly important as a hole on the tweeter itself means that the entire speaker is unusable as the sound quality will be truly hindered. Thankfully, the protector fits nice and tight on the lid and gives quite a lot of clearance so that there are some space between the tweeter and the protector when it is being pressed.

[nextpage title=”Performance and sound test”]The speaker itself has Bluetooth and NFC built in, alongside with audio in and out through the micro USB and the 3.5mm audio jack respectively. There are two modes to this speaker – direct audio output by connecting the USB from source to the microUSB of the X-mini WE or Bluetooth connection to play music. I couldn’t really find the real purpose of the former mode as it is only useful while charging and playing music from a laptop and nothing else. You can still charge the X-mini WE while playing music via Bluetooth too. I did found out one sub-mode that can be improvised through the features available on the X-mini WE, but more on that later.

Connecting via Bluetooth through NFC is as simply as it should be – just flip the switch on the X-mini WE to the Bluetooth icon and wait until it beeps and flashes red and blue light repeatedly, then tap the bottom (where the NFC is) of the speaker to the phone or any devices that has NFC. Bluetooth will automatically be paired, and music will be played!

As the device is connected, there is a periodic flashes of blue light that I find a little distracting at first, but luckily it isn’t very bright and can be ignored if you turn the speaker slightly. To play music through the micro USB port on the X-mini WE, just plug in the audio jack at the end of the cable included in the package to the audio source and plug the micro USB in to the speaker itself, then flip to switch to the left to switch it on, and a red light appears, and it does not flash.

The sound quality of the speaker itself is truly decent for its size. If I am to compare this to the JBL speakers that are built into my laptop, I would say that they are more or less the same, albeit that the X-mini WE is a mono speaker. Through a large variety of songs tested on this speaker – ranging from genres such as electro, oldies, classical and pop, the results in summary are as below :

Lows : Not that strong and distorts at slightly lower frequencies, but definitely makes a distinctive punch in the sound produced (very noticeable in electro songs)
Mids : Sharp and clear, no overlapping. (noticeable in pop songs)
Highs : Generally acceptable, distorts as it goes a little higher.
Vocals : Crisp and clear in general, can be listened distinctively.

The results above are tested under an appropriate volume. Distortions are happening everywhere and I couldn’t really get a good taste of music through this speaker at all. Lowering the volume however, sounds a lot better than before, but then again, music is meant to be enjoyed at whatever volume that suits the beholder and the speaker shouldn’t hold it back.

On Windows (Windows 8.1 to be exact) volume control, 20 sounds perfectly fine for all songs, but distortions are very obvious when the volume pops up to about 35. Since there is no independent volume control on the X-mini WE, you can pretty much get a very rough idea on how loud that is.

As for the sub-mode mentioned earlier, since there is a 3.5mm audio output port, the X-mini WE can act as a bridge between the phone and some other speakers, as for my case, I tested it to bridge the audio to my Edifier C3 speaker and it works perfectly well. In bridge mode, the voice produced is absolutely the same as directly connecting the speaker to my audio source.

There is one thing in particular that I don’t like about this little speaker – there is no 3.5mm audio cable for output built in, meaning that it does not have the ability for daisy chaining multiple speakers together, which is unlike the other X-mini speakers that are available.

[nextpage title=”Battery”]Given only a 230mAh battery, X-mini’s website said that the speaker can have up to 6 hours of playback. For me though, I only charged it about twice throughout the entire review, and have been carrying it around, using it everywhere for my entire time with the X-mini WE, definitely keeps up to the 6 hour mark. While charging, the light flashes red colour, indicating that it is charging. After charging is complete, the light switches off entirely.

[nextpage title=”Wrap up”]The X-mini WE is definitely a strong little speaker that has all the basic features included. The sound quality however is acceptable, but distorts on most songs when the volume is pumped up a little. There is no independent volume control, which is a hit and miss. I personally don’t have any specific preference as the volume control poses its own set of pros and cons especially when it comes to Bluetooth speakers. You also might want to get yourself a neck strap as the one included is a wrist band, which I find inconvenient to be used at all. The hand grenade design definitely pops but the rubber used in attracts dusts like magnet and yet luckily again, the rubber can be removed entirely from the speaker to do some serious cleaning.

• Pros
  • Very, very small sized
  • Has a rubber flap to protect the tweeter
  • Has NFC for ease of connectivity
  • Has an extra “bridge mode”
• Cons
  • Very expensive
  • Sound distorts at a slightly higher volume
  • No daisy chaining
  • Distracting light indicator

Rating
Personally, I’ll give it 6/10 for its size and sound quality. Albeit the distortions that comes alongside with higher volumes, it all comes down to what volume you enjoy your music with. As for the price, RM159 is seriously too much to ask for such a speaker. I personally would like to listen to my music at varying levels of volume, as I enjoy some music at a higher volume and some music at a lower volume. As the X-mini WE is available across Malaysia, I would really recommend you to try the X-mini WE out first before you make your purchase.

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