Accessory Review: X-Mini Speaker

Posted by Renee in Accessories, Featured Articles, Videos on Dec 11th, 2010 | one response

I bought an X-Mini II Capsule Speaker for a friend several months ago, and he raved about it so much, I had to get one for myself and share it with you here!

We all know that electronics like laptops (and yes, Android phones) don’t have the greatest speakers. If you want to play music or listen to a podcast when it’s not feasible to wear headphones, like while you do housework or are in the bathtub, or if you want other people to be able to hear the music you’re playing, you need a portable speaker to plug into your phone’s headphone jack. The speaker needs to be small enough to take away from your desk, hold a charge as long as your phone does, sound good, and play music louder than your device can by itself. On all of these fronts, the X Mini II Capsule speaker performs well.

There is a wide variety of Portable Rechargeable Speakers available on Amazon.com and at other retailers online, but many of them are branded for iPod, and as an Android gal, I refused to buy an “iPod Speaker”, even though it would likely use the headphone jack and therefore would be compatible. When I was buying a speaker as a gift for my friend, I read the reviews carefully and thought he would like the highly-reviewed black X-Mini II for his Android phone. Little did I realize at the time that it would become his primary laptop speaker, too! He raved about how long the battery lasted on one charge, and he hasn’t had any problems with it after using it almost daily for several months. I heard it and was impressed with the sound, too.

So, I got myself the Red X-Mini II for my Droid (and laptop) and have been pleased with it so far! I wanted to tell you about it before the holidays because it would make a great gift. You could even hang it on the tree like an ornament!

X-Mini on Amazon.com

If you’re a true audiophile, you probably won’t be impressed with the range and bass compared to larger speakers, but for a tiny portable speaker that doesn’t have to be plugged into a power source, you can’t get much better sound than you get from the X-Mini. It sounds a bit better than you’ll hear in the video below, because that’s a recording from a point-and-shoot camera which doesn’t have the best microphone and adds strange clicking sounds, plus the video had to be compressed for YouTube, but I think you can tell there is a marked difference.

The only negative I noticed was that the built-in cable is so short that it’s almost useless (I can’t use it on my laptop since the audio-out jack is on the front and the speaker would get in my way there), but it does keep the whole thing neat and compact – you could just throw it in your purse without worrying about wrapping up a cord – and it’s nice that you can’t lose the cord when on the go. As you’ll see in the video, the charging cable doubles as a longer audio cable, so you’re not limited by the short built-in one.

Check out this quick video demo to hear the speaker compared to my laptop and Droid speakers, and see how it looks up close!

The X Mini II Capsule speaker works well, would make a great gift, and is affordable. It’s currently about $20 shipped on Amazon (updated price and link in linked widget above). Get one for yourself or a friend!

Do you have an external speaker for your phone? Tell us about it in the comments!