Umi BTS-2 compact Bluetooth speaker

Rating: 4/5

Review:
A good compact speaker

I was sent this Umi BTS-2 speaker for review.  I think that as a small unit for under twenty quid (at the time of writing) it's pretty good.

The speaker is very nicely packaged and comes with a micro-USB charging cable, a jack-to-jack lead and an adequate manual in comprehensible English. It has a good, durable feel to it and seems solidly made with a stylish look.  It is very compact - I measured it as 17.5cm (l) x 5cm (max width) x 6cm (h).  The AUX input and charging port (and a reset hole) are on the back so they are reasonably accessible but unobtrusive. The controls are on the top; they are stylish (but not that clear) and work very well, giving volume up and down, pause/play and skip forward and back, plus the power button and a "mode" button if you want to change input modes without unplugging the AUX cable, or change the Bluetooth pairing. Hands-free phone calls via the inbuilt microphone are simply controlled by the pause/play button. Bluetooth connection was straightforward; it is solid with a good range of at least 7m and the jack input allows connection to non-Bluetooth devices.  I noticed no difference in sound quality between the two modes.

In use, I found the sound pretty good for such a small speaker. I have listened to a lot of music through it, including my Test Playlist from Tudor choral music to London Grammar and it all sounds pretty good. The output is clear and hiss-free, the tops and middles are very good and it goes surprisingly loud (to me) without distortion. The bass is not great – for a small unit at this price it's not bad, but don't expect hi-fi depth: things like the low strings in Sibelius's Karelia Suite or the deep bass in London Grammar's Hey Now get rather lost. Battery life seems to be around 8 hours and may possibly improve to the manufacturers' claimed 10 hours after a few cycles.

I think the speaker is good value at this price. It's a very nice-looking object which is well made and has decent sound as a desk or bedside speaker, for example.  Recommended.

Amazon page HERE