Reviewed by: Melissa Tam
The ‘HMDX Jam’ by Homedics is the latest portable Bluetooth speaker to enter the market of cool gadgets. For a retail price of $39.99 it comes in six ‘flavours’ including: Strawberry, Grape, Blueberry, Blackberry, Apricot and Apple.
With extremely cute and clever packaging, it makes a play on the word ‘jam’ with the speaker being encased in a package that emulates a jar of jam. It definitely has great shelf appeal.
In terms of specs, the Bluetooth speaker connects wirelessly up to 30 feet away with any smartphone, tablet, and desktop/laptop that is Bluetooth-enabled. It charges easily through USB with about four hours of non-stop playback. Not too shabby for a tiny speaker. And if you’re not particularly tech savvy – don’t worry – pairing the speaker to a device is extremely simple. (It also helps that the product has the pairing code ‘0000’ printed on the bottom as a friendly reminder!!!)
Now onto the most important part: sound quality. I paired the speaker to my iPhone 4 and laptop, which took only seconds to do on each device. A loud beeping sound is produced to let you know it is connected/disconnected. Not ideal if you’re in a public place – heads definitely turned to see where that sound came from.
Testing the device on a lower volume level on both devices, it produced a surprisingly crisp and pleasant sound, much better than what you would get from your built in laptop or smartphone speakers. If you are looking to crank the volume on your device to full blast however, the quality begins to suffer and what was once crisp was replaced with poor bass levels and noise. These are definitely meant for personal enjoyment rather than rocking a party, which is exactly what you would expect from a speaker this size. And at under $40, you will be hard pressed to find a better portable speaker, let alone one with BlueTooth capabilities.
What it boils down to is: if you’re looking for an affordable, cute little portable travel speaker to use while you’re on the move – then these are perfect.
For more information, visit: http://www.homedics.ca/audio-and-electronics/portable-audio/jam-wireless-portable-speaker.html
