After having a tour of Sony’s various products back at CES 2013 earlier this year in Las Vegas, I felt I needed some of a hands on approach with many of the devices. One of those was the SRS-BTV5 (wireless speaker) which actually doesn’t even have an official name.
You can call it the Sony Bluetooth Wireless speaker or others I have seen such as the Sony Sphere and Sony’s Ball of Sound. That last title would have actually been pretty catchy. But besides that does this little sound ball catch your ears? At $69.99 is it worth the price tag?
Sony Bluetooth Wireless Speaker – Style
The speaker comes in the shape of a little ball. I’m reviewing the black model, but there is also white and I have seen Pink and Blue at CES which I imagine will be released later. With it being 2.6 in diameter, 2.8 inches tall and weighing just under 5 ounces you could much toss it in anything without noticing any weight. I have thrown it in my bag, even times put it in my winter jacket. It has a great build quality as I see with Sony products and doesn’t feel cheaply put together.
There isn’t a crazy amount of buttons on the speaker with your volume controls on the left side and mic controls on the right side. The back has a pull out compartment for charging via a microUSB cable and an audio in jack. On the bottom is controls for Pairing and turning off the NFC.
The fact that it’s so small it can be placed just about anywhere whether it be a nightstand, desktop, and blends in without being noticed.
Included with the Sony Bluetooth Wireless Speaker is a micro USB cable mesh carrying pouch to drop your ball in.
Features
Sony touted NFC as a big feature that they would be putting into a lot of its products going forward. Turning on the speaker sets it up to be NFC prepared for pairing. I did try to do it a few times with the Samsung Galaxy Note II and it wouldn’t take right away but using the Samsung Galaxy S III, it paired with ease. Syncing it up via bluetooth with NFC-less devices such as the HTC One S provided instant connection.
As far as battery life was concerned I was able to get about 4-5 hours of constant music blaring through it before needed a charge. I actually fell sleep and woke up and it was still playing.
Sound
Now first off, if you’re expecting earth-shaking tunes coming from this little speaker you may have to rethink how you think music is broadcast. It is one little speaker that has just one driver built-in. Compared to the Jambox that has two or the Beats Pill has 4 times that. While you can get a decent amount of sound out of it, at times I wish I could jack the sound like even more but there was limitations.
If you’re looking to be the life of the party with this speaker, you may get booed. But as far as the life of the office you might be an office setting. I think it works best doubling as either a portable speaker for your smart phone and/or being a laptop/desktop speaker.
Is the Sony SRS-BTV5 Worth the Price Tag?
The most attractive feature about the Sony SRS-BTV5 has to be the design and portability. The sound isn’t the best in the world but once again it isn’t the worst either. Providing it with a powerful speaker could have definitely made it a winner. If you’re sitting at your office desk and want to sync up some tunes from your phone while you do work then its good for you. Trying to do anything further may not provide satisfaction. At $69.99 you’re paying for the various connectivity options and portability. Is it worth that much to you?
You can buy the Sony SRS-BTV5 Speaker HERE
