The X-mini series of speakers are designed for ultra portability. I have previously reviewed the top of the line speaker within the X-mini world being the Max II Capsule Speaker. However I have a review today of the X-mini II capsule speaker which has many benefits over the prior speaker I mentioned.
The X-mini II is is a single mono speaker unlike the X-mini Max II. This a far superior design and I will get into that later on. The whole unit is coated in plastic rubber coating sporting a decent degree of durability and keeps it from being attacked from finger prints.
The speaker has the same main exterior function to that of it's big brother. The on and off switch is placed on the back of the speaker. On the side there is an audio jack input which additionally outputs audio as well, I will get into this nifty concept later on. The opposing side to the audio jack locates a mini USB port for charging and it's also capable of inputting and outputting audio too. To keep the speaker compact, X-mini have incorporated a twist mechanism that separates the top and bottom of the speaker like an accordion, this is design is intedned to output greater sound. Overall the design is simplistic but very likeable and functional.
To hook the X-mini II up with a device on the fly is an inbuilt audio jack that curls up under the base. Because the cable is always easily on-hand, it makes the unit a lot more functional whereas with the Max II speaker it felt awkward and complex to use. You can also use the cables provided in the box which have one mini USB port for linking up to charge and also attached is an audio jack for plugging into your device of choice.
A feature that I found to be very clever and serve a genuine purpose is ‘Buddy Jack’. This allows you to link any X-mini speaker to any other X-mini speaker for even bigger and better sound. In theory you could link thousands of X-mini speakers which would definitely make for a rather interesting YouTube video. To link them up simply connect the speakers either using a USB mini cable or an audio jack. It doesn’t seem to matter how you link them because the X-mini’s just sort themselves out. So you could attach a mini USB to one speaker and on the end of that cable there could be an audio jack and they will just work seamlessly.
The actual sound quality is interesting. Something I mentioned in my X-mini Max II review is that this speaker has more bass and that to me is very strange. I would always expect stereo speakers to have more bass, but this definitely incorporates more. In comparison to many speaker systems on the market today, the sound to weight ratio entailed here shouldn't be sniffed at. The sound isn’t tinny or distorted, it’s very loud and clear. Granted this isn't a $400 Bose sound dock but it's nevertheless impressive and an ideal speaker for getting that bigger sound quickly. The one speaker designs works really well.
Battery life has been nothing short of impressive. I've been using the X-mini II all over my house for casual listening for the past few months and have only had to charge three times so far. According to X-mini the battery lasts for 12 hours on one full charge, I challenged X-mini to this claim and found the battery lasted just over a solid ten consecutive hour run with volume nearly turned all the way up, not to shabby.
Overall I would recommend this over it’s big brother. It’s a lot easier to use because the audio jack is built in. Even though the sound quality is worse than it's bigger brother, it isn’t too noticeable. The design is fantastic and very compact, it’s everything you want from a portable speaker. To top it all off the price is ridiculously cheap within UK and USA at £13.60 and around $16.
