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Amazon Basics Portable Bluetooth Speaker – Review

19th December 2015 By Gidon 9 Comments

The Amazon Basics range of products generally offer very good value so I was keen to try out their portable Bluetooth speaker.

You can take a look at my video review before reading the article if you like:

Overview

In the box
In the box

Inside the box you get the speaker itself, a micro-USB charging cable and the instruction manual. There’s no wall charger so you’ll need to use your own, or charge via a laptop.

I wasn’t bowled over by the build quality or appearance of the speaker. The glossy plastic feels a little cheap, and the grill inset design covering the two 3W speakers, is not to my taste. But considering the price point, it’s more than adequate.

Close up of power switch and connections
Close up of power switch and connections

Starting at the side, there’s a power button switch, a micro-USB charging port and an Aux-in port. There is no means to pair two speakers.

Along the top, there’s a useful selection of buttons for volume and track selection and there’s a function button that has several uses. It’s used for Bluetooth pairing, pausing music and handling the speaker phone function.

In use and sound quality

Speaker, front
Speaker, front

The instruction manual is clear, and you should be up and running in minutes. When you turn the device on, the blue LED flashes ready for Bluetooth pairing. Select the speaker in Bluetooth settings on your device, and a few seconds later the LED will go a solid blue and you’ll hear a confirmation beep. You can pair the speaker to another device by holding the function button down for a few seconds until the LED flashes again. You can have a number of devices paired, but only one can be connected at any time.

I tried some music tracks streamed from Deezer, and the speaker has a good range and volume for its price point. There’s isn’t much distortion even at full whack.

If you get a phone call while you’re connected, you can answer the call by pressing the function button. This is not something I’d personally use, but a feature that a lot of these speakers have. And it seems to work pretty well.

Battery life is quoted as 8 hours which I think is optimistic, and probably assumes a wired connection. Bluetooth is certainly less, but I’ll try and report back shortly with an exact measurement. A red light flashes whilst charging and switches off when fully charged. (Update 24/12/15 – I tested battery life and actually got over 12 hours at half volume, connected via Bluetooth, which is impressive).

You get a battery life icon with, Apple devices at least, when connected via Bluetooth which is a nice feature. Although this only has two indications: full or empty. When it’s empty, the LED light on the unit also flashes red (with a strong hint of blue).

Battery icon
Battery icon

The biggest disappointment with the speaker is the range when connected via Bluetooth. The manual recommends keeping within 30 feet of the speaker, but I found the audio broke up beyond 10-15 feet (3-5m). This is around half what I’ve experienced from other speakers. I demonstrate this is the video at the start of the article.

Conclusions

I’ve been fairly hard on this speaker, but it’s actually a decent speaker at a good price. It’s a big step up from the audio on your phone or tablet, and if you’re after a speaker that’s no going to break the bank, it’s definitely one to consider.

Pros

  • Good value speaker with decent sound
  • Useful range of controls including volume, track selection and a multi-purpose function button
  • Micro-USB charging
  • Aux input

Cons

  • Bluetooth range is very limited
  • Average build quality – a little plasticky
  • No wall charger or 3.5mm cable supplied
  • No sync of volume between speaker and device
  • There’s no way of pairing two speakers

If you have found this article useful please consider clicking on the link(s) below.  You pay the exact same price and it’ll enable me to keep these articles coming!

Any questions, please ask away in the comments section below.

Amazon US link

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Filed Under: Product Reviews

Comments

  1. kitchen countertops ct says

    5th June 2016 at 7:55 am

    Respect to website author, some great entropy.

    Log in to Reply
  2. Debbie Rush says

    13th November 2017 at 9:54 am

    I was happy with how noisy Amazon Basics speakers could get and increases a power change. It is enough to supply an audio mattress for greater than some people. Thanks for your review. You will get more details here-http://www.speakergy.com/best-amazonbasics-usb-powered-computer-speakers-review/

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  3. MANFRED says

    25th December 2017 at 9:31 pm

    Wish I could turn off the Auto-Off feature. When connected to Echo or other, let’s say for wake-up alarm, it turns off. If it’s plugged in then it should not auto off in my opinion. It has an on / off manual switch.

    Log in to Reply
  4. metrolush.com says

    5th July 2018 at 7:28 pm

    Thee Nokia X3 Red Mobile haas a MP3, MP4, e-AAC+, WMA car stereo files are easily
    playable on the cell. This business of trading is acually difficult enough
    and tuat we should make the most of every edge out there that can be fouund to us.
    Just finished watching Dabangg, Abhinav Kashyap’s sterling
    debut performance.

    Log in to Reply
  5. David says

    21st September 2018 at 9:40 am

    This little speaker looks great, especially for its very cheap price. But what about the sound quality? You said the sound is not too much distorted, but has it enough bass? Or is the sound a little flat? I’d really like to have your opinion about that! Overall a great article and a nice video!

    Log in to Reply
  6. Venessa says

    17th September 2019 at 3:11 am

    Do you have a recommendation for an inexpensive Bluetooth speaker that can pair with additional speakers and sync or whatever? Thx-

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About the site

Gidon’s obsession with technology began at an early age with a BBC B Micro computer. After working for 12 years at British Telecom travelling around the world as a technology researcher he opened a technology retail store in Tavistock in Devon, selling the latest tech and offering IT services to residential and business customers. Read More…

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