INTRODUCTION

   For the past 4 years or so most smartphones I’ve used featured speakers (sometimes more than just one for virtual 3D audio) that could deliver quite a punch for their size. However no matter how much powerful a smartphone speaker is it can never be powerful enough (if you like listening to music) and at the same time using it means that your smartphones battery charge will reach critical levels before long. Portable Bluetooth speakers are the obvious solution to that problem but most of the available units currently are not what you'd call small and so one must spend quite a bit of time searching for the ideal portable speaker, size-wise speaking. Sandberg may not be the first company to come in mind when looking to buy smartphone peripherals but their latest pocket Bluetooth speaker just might be what many of you have been looking for.

   Sandberg A/S is a Danish company with a clear ideology: We want to make it easier to get hold of computer accessories. Everyone should be able to find the right accessories in the shop and get them to work once they've got them home without the need for specialist knowledge. The basic idea of Sandberg wanting to make things easier for both consumers and dealers has imbued the spirit of everything that Sandberg has done since 1985, when the company was founded by the two brothers Martin Hollerup and Erling Hoff Petersen.

   Much like most similar speakers designed for "on the go" use with smartphones the pocket Bluetooth speaker by Sandberg is a Bluetooth 2.1 compatible 3W mono speaker unit with support for A2DP/AVRCP devices. Unlike however other manufacturers that focus on eye candy designs (making it harder to carry the speaker in your pocket) Sandberg has opted for a much simpler (yet less impressive) design and longer battery life. True we all want to own something nice looking that gets to stand out from the crowd (who doesn't?) but when it comes to portable speakers i think that size should matter the most. Personal preferences aside however the time has come for us to take a close look at the Sandberg pocket Bluetooth speaker.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The pocket Bluetooth speaker arrived inside a very small cardboard box with a large product image at the front and its main features listed around it.

Listed at the rear are the bundle contents, the unit specifications and a few words about the product written in 6 languages.

Upon removing the top cover we see that the speaker is placed between two cardboard pieces so it should stay safe during transport.

Just the basics in the box so aside the pocket Bluetooth speaker you are also getting a USB charging cable and user's guide.

THE POCKET BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

The Sandberg pocket Bluetooth speaker comes in silver color, is made by hard plastic and measures 8cm in diameter and 4.5cm in height.

To have a better understanding of just how small the pocket Bluetooth speaker is i placed it right next to the LG Optimus 2X.

The company along with the product line logo is placed at the front.

The company logo is also present at the rear top of the speaker.

Aside the 3W/100Hz-20KHz speaker at the top of the unit we also see three control buttons one for play/stop/power on-off, one for fast forward/next/volume increase and one for rewind/previous/volume decrease.

However the real buttons are placed at the bottom of the unit and also double as three rubber feet.

So when you press one of the markings at the top you are actually using the buttons located at the bottom. I'd rather see touch buttons on the top of the unit but these also work well.

The AC charging port is placed at the rear of the unit, right beneath the lanyard.

The stripe/ribbon placed around the center of the unit is actually an activity LED which turns red when you charge the unit, red/blue when the unit is in discovery mode and blue when its being used.

During discovery mode the device is listed as X3 so don't be confused when you see that.

CONCLUSION

   I've been using the pocket Bluetooth speaker for almost 10 days now and although it took me around 7 hours to completely charge it the first time now that has dropped at around 6 hours and 20 minutes so Sandberg is quite close to the 6 hours recharge time stated in the specs. However not even once have i been able to touch 8 continuous hours of playback as stated in the specifications. I did manage to surpass 6 hours and 40 minutes at full volume but that's all. Perhaps Sandberg is using the maximum playback time at medium volume level in their specifications sheet, which would make sense. Regardless however almost 7 hours of continuous playback is nothing to laugh about and i doubt most people will be using it for such long periods of time. My only complaint about the pocket Bluetooth speaker is the volume level which although quite acceptable and on par with other similarly sized speakers I’d really like more (you never know when you might need it).

   Most if not all products manufactured by Sandberg are unfortunately not available in the USA however the pocket Bluetooth speaker currently retails at around 60Euros inside the EU a price tag which puts it right between similar products. Still although personally i like the way it sounds while the size/design make it extremely easy to carry around there are plenty of people out there who will most likely go for something better looking and at the same time cheaper (plenty of OEM units in the market) and so i really feel that Sandberg should drop the price a bit to hit the competition. Overall the pocket Bluetooth speaker is a good choice for people who want a portable Bluetooth speaker to pair with their smartphones, especially if they want to carry it around in their bags or even their pockets, however don't expect miracles in terms of audio volume since you may be disappointed.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size
- Battery Life
- Rechargeable
- A2DP/AVRCP Compatible 

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Design (For Some)