Review: Eachine wireless Bluetooth speaker with radio and alarm

Here we have another Bluetooth speaker, this time coming in from a company called “Eachine” (EachineDirect). Measuring around 9.5″ long and nearly 2.5″ in height, it rocks at putting out bright sound via multiple sources.

It obviously offers the ability to connect via Bluetooth, but also via line-in so that you can connect any device with a 3.5mm output. It can also read music from a MicroSD card or USB drive. It doesn’t stop there though as it also supports FM radio as well, with quite the reception.

You also find the ability to set the time and use it as an alarm in case you need a wake-up reminder while on the go.

It comes packed tightly in a tough looking box. Inside you find the speaker, microUSB to USB cable (for charging), a 3.5mm to 3.5mm aux cable and a small card thanking you for the purchase with information on how to contact them for questions or feedback. There is no charging adapter, so you will have to use the adapter from another one of your devices such as a phone or tablet. You can also plug it into a PC or laptop using the cable that comes with it to charge it as well.

The outer surface of the speaker is mostly covered with a rubberized layer allowing for a solid grip while holding it. There are even “grippier” feet on the bottom to make sure it stays still wherever it is sitting. The over-all feel and weight of the speaker is pretty solid and looks like it could withstand a little abuse (given, it’s always best that you avoid testing this theory).

Ad – Buy the Eachine Bluetooth speaker on Amazon

On the top side, you find 6 buttons. The first one for playing/pausing your media and also functions as a button to answer calls with if connected to a phone. Following that is a previous and next bottom, both of which also function as a volume up and down button if you hold them down (it maxes out at 16 for volume). Then you have the final three buttons to cover for alarm, radio and Bluetooth mode. There is a microphone dead center of the buttons between the 3rd and 4th button.

On the back side of the speaker, you find the 3.5mm line-in input, the input for microSD, an on/off toggle, a micro-USB for charging and a regular USB input for USB drives. The on/off toggle is nice since you don’t have to guess which button to hold down to turn the speaker on or off. It also helps ensure that you don’t accidently turn it off.

They are available in five different colors including black on black, black with red (the unit we are reviewing), white with red, red with white and blue with green. The second color being the accent color that can be found on the sides, back and bottom.

Bluetooth connection isn’t bad in short range. It operates best within 20-25 feet, but begins to lose connection past that, so it’s best to keep your audio source sitting nearby or don’t walk too far away if it’s in your pocket. Line-in (aux) obviously proves to be pretty solid.

If you don’t have a Bluetooth device, you can simply throw in a MicroSD or USB stick for your source. It has a small LCD display on the front that you can use to browse around with. We didn’t test a MicroSD since for some odd reason, we couldn’t find a spare card laying around anywhere at the time of testing, outside of a few within phones that didn’t contain any music on them. We did however test out a USB stick with a handful of MP3s on it, but we couldn’t get it to do anything. Inserting the drive led to a confirmation of “Lod” on the screen (abbreviated form of “loading”), but it went right back to the clock afterward. We weren’t sure if it requires anything special for USB playback since it doesn’t come with any instructions, but in our case, our test didn’t work out. It may be best sticking to Bluetooth, line-in or radio.

For it’s size, radio reception is really nice. We didn’t find any problems picking up most of the major local stations, and it sounded just as good as a connected device. It also offers programmed slots for your favorite channels using the play/pause button to skip around them. We couldn’t figure out how to save to any of those though.

Sound quality falls more within the range of your highs, with a little coverage of your mid-highs, but not much below that. There isn’t any noticeable bass, so the speaker is best for low-impact environments such as a desk in an office where your not looking to provide DJ services to the co-workers around you. Possibly a bathroom environment or when you are wanting to show a video or game off on your phone. Since there is no real bass coming from the speaker, it isn’t the best for outdoor environments. On a positive note, there is a lack of distortion in lower frequencies due to the lack of bass. It provides crisp/clear highs though which makes great for vocals. We found it fun for brassy music like blues and classical selections, as well as some acoustic tracks didn’t sound too bad. If your are looking for something to show off your favorite rap or dubstep album with, you will want to look at a speaker of a higher price.

GIVEAWAY — Currently the speaker is available only on Amazon, and runs less than $35. Unless of course you would be interested in winning it? We are giving away the unit we sat down with. All you have to do is follow us on Twitter or Facebook and share this review via the same network. We will pick 5 random fans/followers who shared the link and narrow it down to one winner using the Random Thingy Chooser. Good luck!

Our Conclusion

The speaker does very well with highs but lacks most of the lows some people may be looking for. In its price range however, it performs to expectations and the fact that it picks up FM only makes that better. The failed attempt to use a USB stick on it brought the score down a little as well as the missing adapter for the USB cable that would allow you to plug it into a wall if a PC isn’t nearby (we have been seeing this more and more with devices under the $50 price-point). Also since there was no noticeable way to save our FM channels to the presets, that led to some confusion. The speaker feels durable and doesn’t slide around, allowing for easy placement. It may not have fared well, but the FM feature balances things a lot compared to other speakers within the price range. The final verdict was 6.5/10.

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