Divoom’s Bluetune Solo is a nice, portable speaker that sounds decent enough for the price

Making wireless, portable speakers is all about compromise between weight, size and sound quality. Make something small enough, and physics dictate that the speakers won’t have enough physical mass to generate great sound. On the other end of the scale, if you make a speaker that’s big enough to deliver kick-ass sound, it won’t be portable, at all.

That was the dilemma of Chinese speaker maker Divoom with the Bluetune Solo, but thankfully they pretty much got the balance of size, sound quality and portability right. Retailing at Php 2,500, the Bluetune Solo is a great choice for people looking for a portable wireless speaker that hits all the right notes. You can check out our unboxing of it here.

We can’t help but fall in love with the utilitarian design of the Bluetune Solo. It’s a handsome, simple design that we like a lot, which is a sharp contrast to the gaudy, uninspired design of other portable speakers. There are no audio controls for the Bluetune Solo aside from the call/pair button on top of the device. The on off switch is located on the bottom. The two ports for the Bluetune Solo – the microUSB port and the audio input port is located near the bottom of the device. The audio input port on the bottom of the Bluetune allows you to daisy-chain a couple of these things together as you wish, a feature increasingly present on portable speakers.

Pairing the Bluetune Solo was easy enough: just press the pair button on the top for a few seconds till it flashes, then you pair it as normal.

Sound quality for the Bluetune Solo is relatively good, though it still sounds a little tinny, though that’s really the fault of the device – it’s a problem that all speakers of its size suffer from. It’s capable of filling a small room with decent enough sound, though it distorts at higher volumes. The X-bass feature gives the bass a bit of an oomph, though it still suffers on higher volumes. It also annoyed us that it didn’t have external volume controls, and forced us to go to our device to control the volume when we needed to.

The Bluetune Solo also has an internal microphone, and acts like a speakerphone when you get a call. We tested the functionality by calling a few of our contacts over the phone, all of which reported that they heard us crystal clear over the relatively small mic.

The Bluetune Solo has its faults yes, but in the grand scheme of things, those faults are relatively minor. At only Php 2,500 it’s relatively inexpensive, and is a great choice for people looking for a decent portable wireless speaker on a budget.