If you’re serious about your music when on the go, you can either get yourself some really nice headphones, or opt for Bluetooth portable wireless speakers. The advantage wireless speakers have is that you can share your music with everyone around you and they sound way better than the built in speakers on any device. This is especially true of iPhone speakers which are decent for use as a speakerphone, but I never really liked them for music use. In fact, I will say that my number one favorite accessory for my mobile devices is that of the wireless Bluetooth speaker. I can listen to my music anywhere in the house and not be shackled to a dock. I actually have several of these I use around the house, some better than others but one of my favorites is that of the Divoom Onebeat-200. This is a portable stereo speaker that features rugged construction, speakerphone capabilities, and most importantly, sound that can fill an entire room.
Design and Usage
When I say this is one of my favorite speakers, it’s true and much of it has to do with the way that the Onbeat-200 is constructed. When viewed from afar, it just looks like your typical rectangular-shaped wireless speaker that you’ve probably seen plenty of. But upon closer inspection, we find that this isn’t your typical plastic box. The the unit itself may have a thick plastic shell for the main body, there is another equally thick layer of rubber surrounding it. That means that the Divoom Onbeat-200 is not only good looking, but quite rugged as well. The rubber outer band acts as a shock absorber if the unit is dropped but also has the secondary function of adding grip to the unit when placed on a surface. That makes it harder to knock over by accident.
The speaker grilles on the Onbeat-200 are made of perforated metal and features embossed patterns that adds more style to it. Underneath this lies 2 x 2-inch speaker drivers giving you stereo sound.
Divoom made using the Onbeat-200 quite simple by only including the bare minimum number of buttons needed to control it. Up top, we find 3 buttons, a plus, square, and minus button. The plus and minus buttons are used to change the volume with the secondary function of allowing for advancing or going back to the previous track of a playlist. The square button is used to play and pause music during music playback or used to pick up a call when used in speakerphone mode. On the side, there is an on/off switch as well as the USB charging port and an aux jack you can use for devices that do not have Bluetooth.
Although I love the look of the Divoom Onbeat-200, my favorite feature of them is the fact that this thing is loud and I mean really loud. I can crank these things so loud that I can hear them from a completely different room in the house and not only that, they sound just as clear cranked up as they do when played at a more moderate level. There is no sound crackling or distortion. What’s also amazing is the amount of bass the Onbeat-200 puts out. For such a little speaker, the bass is pretty thumping when compared to others.
Like most of these types of speakers, the Onbeat features a built in rechargeable battery that will keep your speaker powered for about 8-hours. What it doesn’t do that I’ve seen some other speakers do is act as a backup power supply for your mobile devices so this unit is strictly for audio only.
Specs
- Output Power: 4 Watts x 2
- Total Peak Power: 6 Watts x 2
- Driver Size : 2″ x 2
- Speaker dimensions:165Lx52Dx70H (mm)
- Operating Range: Up to 10 meters/33 feet
- Bluetooth Compliant V2.1 +EDR
- Bluetooth profile support A2DP Stereo
- Signal-to-noise: 75dB
- Charging Voltage: USB or AC/DC wall adaptor 5V
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for an affordable yet powerful portable wireless speaker, I highly suggest the Divoom Onbeat-200. Yes it may be from a company that you’ve probably never heard of before but the performance on these speakers are just as good or if not better than some of the more well known speaker brands. It’s well made, fairly tough and rugged, and sounds great. Not only that, it comes in a variety of different colors to suit many different fashion tastes and weighs less than a pound for easy portability.
Now when I say affordable, I mean it as this unit only costs around $70 if you buy it directly from Divoom. It’s a really good price for a a really great sounding speaker.
