Slick Distributions Soundwave SW50 review

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Verdict:

A great-sounding portable Bluetooth speaker

Review Date: 7 Apr 2012

Price when reviewed: £30

Supplier: http://www.mobilefun.co.uk

Reviewed By: Kat Orphanides

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

Slick Distributions’ SW50 is a compact Bluetooth speaker with an advertised battery life of up to three hours. It has no integrated volume controls, so you'll have to set that from your MP3 player or other Bluetooth audio source. Using our iPod Touch, distortion crept in at 3/4 volume, and at 100% even quiet acoustic guitar music sent the speaker vibrating its way across the table.

Despite this, the SW50’s audio quality proved to be surprisingly good, particularly for a mono speaker. It's better than many integrated laptop speakers with clear treble and even a bit of bass. Tracks with a complex instrumental mid-range lost some detail, but that's not surprising from something that fits in a coat pocket. It's much clearer than most similarly priced and sized speakers we've reviewed.

The SW50's only extra feature is its integrated microphone, which means you can use it for conference or hands-free calls. Although it runs into trouble at high volumes, we appreciated its clear sound and comparatively low price, making this our favourite portable Bluetooth speaker.

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