This little speaker packs a lot into a 2 inch cube, and while it’s not the best sound quality you can get, it handily beats out the competition in its price range. It can be difficult to engineer a waterproof speaker design and still deliver adequately on sound. Particularly given the ultra-light and portable size of this unit, I was pleasantly surprised by what it was capable of. This speaker has a lot to offer. As long as you don’t expect the impossible, you should be happy with what you hear.

s2The design of this speaker is impressively small. At less than 2 inches, this is the smallest portable speaker I’ve seen. The rubberized outer surface gives it a bit of grip if you’re going to place it somewhere slick, or you can use the provided attachments to hang it somewhere. Not only is it small in size, but it’s extremely lightweight only coming in at a couple ounces. This is something you could easily put in any pocket and carry around. The most intelligent part of the design is the rubber diaphragm at the rear of the unit which allows it to deliver additional volume despite its small size.

The speaker is extremely simple to use with all of the functions accomplished via the control buttons on the top. Once turned on, it goes into pairing mode. A nice feature of this speaker is that it does include voice feedback for essential functions like powering on and off, as well as pairing. The voice in the unit has a distinct accent, but it’s in English and clearly understandable. It was very easy to pair, and once I did so the signal didn’t waiver. As long as you’re within a reasonable distance of the unit, you should get clear and consistent signal. You’re not going to be able to walk 40 ft. away with your phone and still keep signal, but there doesn’t seem to be a reason for that anyway.

The sound this speaker was able to produce was better than I had expected based on its size and price. It could deliver enough volume to hear from 30-40 ft. away, so unless you planned on hearing this a floor above or below you, the volume level should be more than sufficient. Music comes through quite clear, and the speaker doesn’t produce any noticeable static or hiss. That aspect alone makes it an upgrade from other speakers in this lower price range that often have an underlying static when active. You just need to be aware that this speaker can’t deliver on low frequencies like bass in music. Due to its size and this particular driver, any bass will come through as a soft thump rather than any noticeable boom. Again you simply can’t expect that from a speaker like this, but it is a limiting factor that people who really love things like pop music might want to be aware of.

Final Score: 4/55 Star RatingOverall, if you want an inexpensive, compact, and clear speaker and don’t mind the lack of bass, this makes an excellent option. Coming in under $20 it’s hard to find a better designed and higher quality speaker, particularly one that is waterproof. For hiking, camping, or other outdoor activities where you don’t want headphones/earbuds, this fills the role almost perfectly.

Archeer A109 IPX7 Waterproof Speaker: $15.95 – Amazon.com