For all the gazillions of wireless speakers out there, Jawbone’s Jambox is almost certainly the best-known. Last year the company introduced a Big Jambox, so it shouldn’t really be any surprise that they’d come along with a smaller one as well: Mini Jambox.
In terms of functionality, it’s what you’ve come to expect from a Jambox. It pairs via Bluetooth with your mobile device so people can hear your music from more than two feet away. It runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that should get you 10 hours of use. And it claims to have high-end audio quality, because that’s always what every company claims. What’s different is that it’s smaller. Sort of.
See, if you looked at the Mini dead on, you wouldn’t know that it’s smaller than the standard-sized Jambox. In fact, it’s ever so slightly longer and taller (6.06 x 2.28 inches on the Mini, versus 5.94 x 2.24 on the standard). Where it’s smaller is its thickness. It’s just 0.97 inches thick, versus 1.58 inches on the standard. In other words shaves off roughly 39 per cent of bulk. It also only weighs nine ounces to the original’s twelve.
So, yeah, it’s definitely smaller, and it would definitely fit into a backpack more easily (though it couldn’t look/feel good in jeans pockets) but we’re not exactly talking night and day here. It’s only modestly Mini. That said, if Jawbone can get the same, solid out of it but make it smaller, we’re not complaining.
And actually, Jawbone claims that the Mini Jambox has both more volume and better quality audio than the standard Jambox. The body is made from a a single piece of extruded aluminium which the company claims acts as the “ultimate audio acoustic cavity to pump out incredible sound.” We’ve yet to go ears-on, so we can’t weigh in on that yet, though.
The Mini Jambox will be up for pre-order beginning tomorrow at Jawbone.com, and should hit major retail stores by the end of the month. It will be available in nine colours and in five grill textures. Additionally, the free Jambox app for iOS and Android will be getting an update that allows for playlist creation and better music management across different streaming services (that option will only be available for iOS initially but will be coming to Android “soon”).
The Mini Jambox will cost you $US180, which is a little tough to swallow at first glance, considering you can get the normal Jambox for about $US150 right now. But it’s a bit more portable, and if there really is a noticeable bump in audio quality, that might just be worth it. [Jawbone]