Time to sit down with another Bluetooth speaker to see what it can do! In today’s round, we have the OontZ XL Wireless Bluetooth Speaker by Cambridge SoundWorks. We haven’t had the opportunity yet to review a product from Cambridge SoundWorks in the past, so this is a new brand for us. Some of you may be familiar with the name when it comes to PC speaker solutions from the earlier days of Windows (when CompUSA was still a store you could shop at).
The idea of sitting down with one of their speakers didn’t cross our minds because our memories of the company were of their basic PC speaker lines that didn’t offer much but instead targeted the niches with a limited budget. We were challenged to give it a try though and know when to man up and stick our foot in our mouth when it comes to admitting that we were wrong in our opinions.
The OontZ XL is yet another impressive wireless Bluetooth solution for mobile music. It offers a decent range of sound, a good level of volume without distortion allowing you to cover most environments well, and a battery life of up to 10 hours.
It connects via Bluetooth and Line-in only, so it doesn’t offer NFC pairing sadly but that shouldn’t chase away too many people. It also offers a USB port in the back so you can connect your phone and charge it while playing.
The range of sound that it delivers is pretty good for its size (given, that we have reviewed better speakers within the price range), and it offers a good level of bass.
The design of the speaker is nice and the build quality is quite tough (doesn’t feel like you’re going to break anything). It also weighs in at just under 2lbs which isn’t bad at all for its size.
It has a built-in microphone so you can use it as a speakerphone while sitting at your desk or mobile.
Finally, it has a fun name in our opinion as it resulted in a lot of bad music “beat” jokes since it sounds like the bass count to a track (“oontz oontz oontz oon-oon-oontz oontz oontz”).
Our Conclusion
It is a noteworthy speaker in its class and lives up to the standards that you would look for in a speaker that costs around $50-80. It performs well, is built tough, and has great battery life. It doesn’t offer NFC but Bluetooth connectivity is straightforward. We decided to give it a 7 out of 10.
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