by Anyone who lived through the ’80s will remember those ridiculously large “portable” boom boxes that were popular toward the latter half of that decade. If you’re still sore after years of carrying a briefcase-sized stereo on your shoulders, Logitech has a new wireless speaker so small and light that even your chiropractor would approve.
The Logitech X100 is a Bluetooth A2DP-enabled wireless speaker aimed at the mobile crowd, serving up rich audio from smartphones, tablets, computers, or other devices within a 30-foot range. Not much bigger than a donut, the X100 is sold in five stylish colors (green, grey, orange, red, or yellow), each with a rubberized exterior rugged enough to take the music anywhere you want to go.
Around the side of the device are power, volume control, and Bluetooth connectivity buttons; in addition, the X100 features a 3.5mm audio jack for connecting other devices, and a micro-USB port capable of fully charging the built-in lithium-ion battery in about two hours. The X100 can also send or receive hands-free smartphone calls, and the speaker remembers the last two connected devices, although only one of them can actually output at a time.
Logitech claims a full charge keeps the X100 cranking out tunes continuously for five hours, although we managed to go an entire workday using iTunes on our MacBook Pro with Retina Display at lower volumes. While it worked perfectly indoors, the X100 is even better suited to taking music on the road, pumping out impressively rich, clear sound, considering its diminutive size. There’s no stereo output and bass lovers will have to settle for a bit less “oomph” than they may be used to, but the X100 otherwise delivers the goods.
The only real exception we found was hands-free phone calls, which were unfortunately muffled to the point of being nearly unusable with our iPhone 5s; callers reported having a hard time hearing us, as well. There’s no battery indicator to keep tabs on how long it will be before the X100 conks out, although a bright blue light under the speaker grille works in conjunction with melodic beeps to indicate when the unit is powered on or off, and anytime a device is connected or disconnected.
The bottom line. The Logitech X100 Mobile Wireless Speaker delivers surprisingly big sound for its nearly pocket-friendly size, although we don’t recommend relying on it for important hands-free speakerphone calls.
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