Turcom unveils their new rugged portable speaker, the Titan

We are at it again with another Bluetooth speaker review and this time around we have a smaller, more portable audio device with Turcom’s TS-455 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker. This little speaker come equipped with two speakers packing 5 watts of power each and wrapped in and smooth looking Aluminum casing. Along with the sleek design, this speaker is not built to be babied as it is rated at IPX5 standards so it water resistant to boot. In terms of the other technical internal specs, we have a Bluetooth 4.0 chip and 1800 mAh battery to allow 12 hours of playback between charges. Sounds good on paper, so lets see how it performs out of the box. 

 

For starters, this little speaker looks smooth and aluminum shell is a great complement to the MacBook while being slim enough to fit in my laptop bag without excessive bulk. The battery life is also surprising as most of the compact, or even the larger speakers I have reviewed, do not come with lengthy 12 hours standby. What good is the long battery life if you are like myself and forget to turn off before stowing away, well Turcom thought of this as well by including an auto-sleep function. In terms of the sound, it was not great, but it was not bad either as it was just enough to fill a room with clear sound with good highs but the mid and low range were nothing to write home about. 

 

Is this a bad thing, not at all when you see how slim and compact the durable aluminum wrapped speaker is. The internals and features are also some of the speaker’s stand out features over other portable wireless speakers in it’s class. The incorporation of the Bluetooth 4.0 chip allows this speaker to sync up with any Bluetooth compatible device such as computer, tablet, or phone. Now for the price tag, Turcom has the speaker priced at $55.99 which is a fitting price for it, but at the time of this review, the speaker was marked down to $37.99, which is great price point for this little beast. 

Amzer Crusta; A rugged case for the iPhone 6, packing layers

We have received our first rugged case for Apple’s new iPhone and this gem has a couple tricks up it sleeve. The first are the numerous layers of protection, not one, two, or three, but four layers of Army Grade protection. The other standout feature is colors, lots and lots of colors, 42 different combinations to choose from. The Crusta is also the first case to use embedded tempered glass, which happens to be just one of the four layers of protection. The remaining layers consist of a glass screen protector, textured finish TPR ring, and a belt clip holster.

Once I got Amzer’s Crusta on my phone, it felt right at home and surprisingly did not feel too bulky, granted I opted not to use the belt clip as my phone usually resides in my pocket. I opted for the green ring and the grey TPR ring, and while it did regretfully feel Seahawk-ish, yuck. The case did install easily and did feel snug with no wiggles or rattles. The glass screen protector was also the easiest screen protector for me to install without bubbles, just be sure to clean the face well before install to remove dust and dirt.

I like Amzer’s Crusta, as it does provide the protection that our delicate devices need. The downside in which I immediately noticed was that this did not provide protection from water like a number of rugged case makers have started incorporating into the design. The plus side to the lack of waterproofing is that the case is also significantly more affordable, sporting a price point of $45.00. The plethora of color combinations is also a huge plus for the case as you can personalize to your liking to stand out or match with your personality.

Kicker’s KPW takes a beating and does not skip a key

Kicker has released its new portable Bluetooth speaker, the KPW, a durable water resistant speaker and a convenient design. Similar to the BoomBottle from Scosche, the KPW’s design allows it to fit easily in most any water bottle holder. Dune season has started so what better way to review a durable speaker than to put it in the cup holder of a RZR XP1000 and see if 1) it stays in the cup holder and 2) still worked after three days in the sand. Let’s see how the handheld speaker stood up to the torture. Three days out in the sand dunes, the KPW was placed in the cup holder by day and campfire by night. I did not expect this little speaker to be keep up as well as it did, I only had to charge it twice and it stayed in the cup holder while jumping and when hitting hard lines. The sound quality was better than most sharing the same size and the individual passive woofers made a noticeable difference as it took the place of the car stereo we usually used without worry of waking up to a dead battery. One end twists to control the volume and a button to take calls but my only gripe I noticed was the lack of ability to change tracks.The KPW is a miniature brute in that it is durable, small, loud, and stays where you place it. With sand virtually everywhere, the KPW kept going and now that I am back home and the speaker and I got a thorough cleaning, the beast still sounds like it did when it took it out of the box with the only casualty being the volume knob has a little grind to it. The closest comparison to the KPW that I have come across is Scosche's BOOMbottle, but Kicker's portable speaker outperforms it in every way and I am now a big fan of the individual passive radiators for additional depth. The Kicker KPW is available now in black or white for the price of  $179.95.

Divoom's Voombox Outdoor ups the ante with more speakers and power

Divoom has provided me with their new rugged wireless Bluetooth speaker, the Voombox Outdoor. The new addition to their lineup has added more oomph by packing Bluetooth 4.0 wireless connection, 5 drivers with 15-watt output, and a microphone into a weather resistant case. On top of the beefier build both internally and externally, the speaker has onboard controls, a twelve-hour battery life, and comes in an assortment of colors. Now that I am synced, charged, and by the pool it is time to see how the Voombox Outdoor compared to the previously reviewed Onbeat-200.

The addition of drivers to the already compact design is my favorite part of this speaker. While most wireless Bluetooth speakers come packing only two drivers and a passive radiator, the jump up to five drivers really makes a difference in regards to the sound quality while filling larger areas with ease. The speaker is about the same size as those dual driver speakers, but is quite a bit heavier and not so much that it looses portability, just enough so that it is more difficult to knock off tables or shelves. However, should I have dropped it, which I did and kept on ticking as it was built to be tortured.

The rubber texture did pick up a lot of dust but it was a small price to pay with a speaker you can practically play catch with. I was expecting a bit more bass from this speaker, there is more depth but does not come close to those with a larger subwoofer. The battery is no slouch either as it has more speakers and wattage than those other guys but it packs more juice with up to 12 hours of playback before recharging. Divoom's Voombox Outdoor is available now in red, blue, black, and dark green from a number of online retailers.