Creative Muvo 2c
Bargain bluetooth speaker sounds like a great choice
If we had a pound for every waterproof portable Bluetooth speaker that popped up among our press releases… well, we still wouldn’t be able to afford many of them. The Muvo, however, costs a reasonable 30 quid, and its soft-touch finish comes in a choice of colours (including turquoise, red and black). Despite the rubber seals over the ports, it’s only splashproof (not waterproof), so you should keep it out of the pool, but it’s also rated to resist particles such as sand.
The passive radiator design pulls more bass out of the single small speaker driver than you’d expect, addressing a limitation of mini speakers like the Skullcandy Shrapnel (see our review, Issue 480). The mid-range can get a bit muddled, with rock-band instruments blurring together, but vocals sound clear. We only needed to use 10-20 per cent volume when the Muvo was on our desk. Turn it all the way up and, while it’s never going to power a party by itself, it delivers a surprising amount of sound without much distortion. If you want stereo, two units can be linked, an appealing feature considering you could buy both for less than many rivals.
You can play music from a microsd card, which is a nice idea but not especially convenient, given the lack of a screen to select your songs, or even skip forward/ back buttons. There’s also a jack input, and unusually you can get audio from a PC via USB, tweaked using Creative’s Sound Blaster Control Panel program.
But the Muvo’s main use is to play via Bluetooth from your phone or tablet. Creative’s app failed to identify all the music on our Android phone, but you can stream from most apps by choosing the Muvo as the Bluetooth audio device. We found the connection very reliable, and it’ll switch automatically to hands-free on incoming phone calls. The battery lasted six hours in our test, charged via USB.
The UE Wonderboom (£69 from Amazon www.snipca.com/24719) offers richer sound, longer battery life and full waterproofing, but at more than twice the price.
SPECIFICATIONS
A surpringly good portable speaker for your holidays
1x driver • Bluetooth • 3.5mm analogue stereo input • USB input • Microsd card slot • Microusb charging port (cable supplied, charger not supplied) • 67x93x38mm (HXWXD) • 159g • Two-year warranty www.snipca.com/28324
VERDICT: It can’t beat the sound of bigger speakers, but in a small package at a fair price it’s a very good holiday buy ★★★★★ ALTERNATIVE: Skullcandy Shrapnel £13 It’s heavier, with fewer features, but this decent splashproof speaker is now ridiculously cheap on Amazon