HIS Wavemaster MOBI Portable Speaker System Review

With the non-stop uptake of smartphones and tablets over the past few years, it’s only natural to see an increase in the availability of after-market products from 3rd party accessory manufacturers. Accessories such as screen protectors, phone case/covers, portable phone chargers and portable speakers are all on the increase with plenty to choose from. A while back, we looked at two portable speakers from XM-I … the X-Mini Max II and the X-Mini Hello Kitty Special Edition Capsule speakers. Both of these capsule speakers produced very good sound with good bass.

Today thanks to HIS, we’ll be taking a look at their Wavemaster MOBI portable speaker system. This tiny speaker comes with an integrated “Class-D” amplifier for excellent acoustic performance (with a 360° sound field). While the integrated Li-Ion-battery (USB chargeable) allows up to a maximum of 10 hours playback.

Here’s a little about HIS and Wavemaster taken from their website …

The Wavemaster MOBI Portable Speaker system produced by HIS are available in 4 colors … white, black, pink and green. What’s unique about these MOBI portable speakers, is that it features a pop-in/pop-out base. Pushing the upper and lower part of the speaker together, reduces its size for easier packing/storage. When fully “popped out” it also helps to increase the sound volume and bass. I’ll be testing the MOBI mobile speaker on my iPhone 4 … let’s hope the sound produced is as good as it claims. Time for some specifications …

Features and Specifications

A Closer Look

The box and packaging is neat and tidy. The arcylic box is a nice added bonus, which gives it a feeling of quality, plus it’s great for storage. Inside the box, you’ll find a USB cable for charging the speaker, some instruction manual (not that you need it), a nice storage/transport bag and of course the speaker itself.

The overall build quality waa pretty good, better than I expected. The speaker itself is compact and light, measuring only 80mm x 50mm and weighing 90g. At the base of the speaker, you’ll find a short audio cable with a 3.5mm jack suitable for a majority of mobile devices. There’s also an on/off switch at one end, and a micro-USB charging port on the other end.

Verdict and Conclusion

After playing around with it, and listening to my favorite tracks for a week, I have to say … I’m pretty impressed with the overall sound quality.

The bass was OK, the mid-range was full-filling, and the highs were sharp and clear. It was more than enough to satisfy my listening needs (I’m easy to please … hahaha). However, don’t expect miracles from these tiny speakers … they’re designed as a portable speaker system for mobile devices.

Speaker volume was pretty loud, and the playback duration was nearly 10 hours, which I liked. What I didn’t like was the length of the audio cable … it’s way too short in my opinion.

Being a single unit, stereo sound is not possible of course, but you do get good acoustic performance with a 360° sound field. This is all thanks to the high quality 3.8 cm speaker driver and their integrated “Class-D” amplifier … I’m still trying to figure out what this “Class-D” amplifier is.

The pop-in/pop-out base is a novel idea, although I’ve seen this design before on the X-Mini Max II. When the base fully “popped out” it  helps to increase the sound volume and bass, which is nice. Pushing the base back in will make the speaker smaller, allowing for easy storage and transport.

Pricewise, the Wavemaster MOBI Portable Speaker System will cost you around USD $39.00 (Euro 29.00), which I think is correctly priced … But I’ve seen cheaper and I’ve also seen other portable stereo speakers systems (left and right) on the market for about the same price.

Final words.

All-in-all, I think the Wavemaster MOBI Portable Speaker System by HIS is a decent product. It’s light-weight, compact and produces good quality sound. It’s perfect for any user who’s always on the go …

SCORE

7/10