Anker A3143 Bluetooth Portable Speaker Review!

[ThinkWithPortals]

Hi. I'm bored, so I've decided to review this little speaker that I acquired around Christmas, the Anker A3143. Enjoy!

(This is my first time reviewing anything so please let me know if you have any constructive criticism. Thanks.)

DESIGN & PHYSICAL OVERVIEW:

 The speaker looks slick, with a curvy modern design that is beautiful yet subtle enough to blend in to a setup. Mine spends most of it's time at the base of my monitor smack-dab in the middle of my setup and I think it looks great there, very subdued with only the inoffensive chromed Anker logo attracting the eye. The front is entirely mesh (it's a speaker, what exactly were you expecting?) with the left side completely blank and the right featuring a 3.5mm audio jack and the Micro-USB charging port. The top is a glossy plastic, which I'm personally not a fan of as it attracts fingerprints and dust/hairs VERY easily. There are four buttons on the top, a power button (with integrated charging LED) a play/pause button (with integrated pairing LED) and volume up and down buttons. The speaker measures 21 x 6 x 6cm and weighs 620g, making it very portable and easy to throw into a suitcase, backpack or handbag.

 

SOUND QUALITY:

 

The sound quality of this speaker is stunning, plain and simple. The wizards over at Anker managed to get two stereo 10W drivers into this tiny package, and it certainly sounds the part. Bass is godly for a speaker of this size, easily capable of shaking a table at just shy of 75% volume, and highs and mids are clear. One caveat I have is the fact that short, quiet sounds can sometimes get drowned out, but this is a really small criticism given all of the good points. I have this thing connected to my Nexus 6P and playing tunes constantly whilst I'm at my computer and just browsing, and it's impressively loud and clear. Excellent.

 

BATTERY LIFE:

 

As I've mentioned before, I use this thing at my desk while I'm on my PC doing anything other than gaming. What I haven't yet mentioned is I use this thing on battery, all the time. I never use it whilst charging, so battery life was important. And boy, does this thing deliver. In constant use at around half volume I get around 6-7 hours before the red "Battery low LED" turns on. This means I'm able to use it all day constantly and only plug it into the Micro-USB cable it shares with my Galaxy Tab 4 at night while I sleep. By the way, an orange LED appears on the power button while it's charging and flashes to indicate that the battery is fully charged.

 

OVERALL:

 

DESIGN: 7/10. Looks sharp without being tacky and it very portable, but the use of glossy plastic prevents it from scoring any higher.

SOUND QUALITY: 10/10. No complaints to speak of.

BATTERY LIFE: 10/10. No complaints.

 

Conclusion? Buy it. This speaker offers a smart design and outstanding sound quality in a small form factor for an incredibly reasonable price. This would be a great product at $80, but it's only 60 meaning I can't think of a reason not to buy one. It's truly excellent.

 

Thanks for reading!