Musically yours

Jabra's SOLEMATE is a boombox for your phone

If you’ve always wanted a loudspeaker for your phone but were turned off by the Chinese contraptions on sale, here’s some good news. Jabra, known for their Bluetooth accessories, has come out with SOLEMATE, which is basically a boombox for your phone.

Turn it on and a resounding grunt lets you know the speaker’s turned on. Audio and visual alerts tell you when it’s connected over Bluetooth. Besides Bluetooth, you can connect your phone/tablet/PC with a 3.5mm audio cable or over USB.

The speaker’s not devoid of punch and if you’re into rock or techno, you’ll love the big sound from the portable speaker. It’s also great to blast those party tunes for a quick jamming session and connected to a tablet it provides the right amount of grunt for all those games. Thank its integrated sub-woofer for that.

If you’re into classical music, you’ll find the bass a tad overbearing. And if you’re planning to watch a multi-channel audio movie on a PC connected to it, you might lose out on the dialogues, thanks to the thump. Besides acting as a portable speaker, the SOLEMATE performs great as a speakerphone, with loud and clear conversations — Jabra’s forte. And it comes with its own all-weather bag to cart it along.

The speaker is sweat, dust, splash and shock resistant, the company claims. We can vouch for the sweat and dust bit and it looks well-built. And it weighs about 600gm and comes with a strap, so it’s no big deal to carry it around.

The speaker comes with a built-in rechargeable battery which is good enough for at least five hours of music over Bluetooth at normal volume. Expect it to last longer if you’ve connected over USB or cable.

The boombox is an able companion for your mobile device and comes in a choice of two colours — black or white. But good things in life don’t come cheap, this one retails for Rs 10,990.