I Already Liked Anker’s ‘Built for the Wild’ Bluetooth Speaker, but It’s a Bargain at 32% Off

Acum puțin mai puțin de cinci ani, Anker a lansat o Difuzor Bluetooth numit Soundcore Motion Plus that turned out to be quite popular because it delivered surprisingly good sound for its fairly compact size and $100 price. In some ways, Anker’s new Soundcore Boom 3i is the spiritual successor to that speaker. It’s similarly shaped but has more of an outdoor adventure slant with Anker calling it “built for the wild” and billing it as the first Bluetooth speaker with playback in water, as it floats and “auto-corrects” to keep the speaker drivers facing upward just above the surface.

I’ve been using the Soundcore Boom 3i for the past few days and have mainly been impressed with it, but the speaker is a lot easier to recommend to CNET readers when Anker told me that if I applied the code BOOMTEST1 at checkout at Soundcore.com I’d get $45 off the black model, dropping the price to $95. Meanwhile, the code BOOMTEST2 gets you $40 off either the blue or yellow model.     

As you’d expect from a speaker that promotional photos show strapped onto a kayak (it does have a detachable carrying strap), the Soundcore Boom 3i is fully waterproof and dust-resistant, with an IP68 rating. Anker takes things a step further, touting the Boom 3i as “5X” saltwater-resistant. “While typical speakers may rust in under five months, Boom 3i stays corrosion-free for up to two years of beach, boat and seaside use.”  

Nu ar trebui să vă așteptați la un sunet audiofil de la o boxă Bluetooth mono de acest gen. Dar, în mare parte, Soundcore Boom 3i vă oferă ceea ce doriți de la o boxă Bluetooth portabilă din punct de vedere sonor. Prin asta vreau să spun că se aude tare pentru dimensiunea sa - cântărește aproximativ 750 g și măsoară 21,5 x 8,9 x 8,4 cm - plus că produce o cantitate rezonabilă de bas și are o claritate destul de respectabilă. Puteți găsi boxe care sună puțin mai natural, dar aceste tipuri de boxe portabile robuste nu sunt concepute pentru ascultare critică.

I used it outdoors and inside in a few rooms, including a bathroom (it does make for a good bathroom speaker), and it was able to fill smaller rooms with sound. You can tweak the sound with the equalizer settings in the Soundcore companion app for iOS and Android and play around with the settings for the built-in beat-synched LED light show, which I kept turned off most of the time. You can also pair two of these speakers up in stereo mode and get significantly better sound.  

I tested the speaker’s playback in water by dropping it in my bathtub. (Once I get to a pool, I’ll drop it in there.) It indeed flipped over, so the speaker drivers were facing up, and the music kept playing, though the audio got a little garbled when a little wave passed over the speaker, and the drivers started spitting water out.

One of the problems with Bluetooth devices is that Bluetooth doesn’t transmit through water, which is why you have to load MP3s into memory when using wireless headphones while swimming (you can’t stream music to the headphones if you’re head is underwater). I don’t know where the Bluetooth antenna is on this speaker, but presumably it’s on the side that stays above the surface when the speaker is floating. 

Măriți imaginea

De fapt, poți activa un mod Buzz Clean din aplicație, care face ca boxa să vibreze și să elimine murdăria și particulele, cum ar fi nisipul, după o zi petrecută la plajă. După ce termini Buzz Clean, poți clăti boxa pentru a o curăța complet. 

Boxa are și o altă caracteristică interesantă: ținerea apăsată a butonului „BassUp” de amplificare a basului timp de 5 secunde declanșează o alarmă de urgență de 96 de decibeli — Anker spune că se aude clar de la o distanță de până la 100 de metri — cu lumini LED roșii intermitente. Puteți apăsa orice buton pentru a opri alarma. 

Autonomia bateriei este estimată la 16 ore la volume moderate, ceea ce este decent pentru o boxă de această dimensiune. De asemenea, merită menționat faptul că Boom 3i are o rază de acțiune Bluetooth de 30 de metri, ceea ce este mai bine decât cei 10 metri obișnuiți cu multe boxe Bluetooth.