Summer is now on us, and with that comes our summer holidays, visits to the beach and music festivals galore, and, if like me you can’t go a day without a bit of Bob Dylan or Chase n Status then it might be in your interest to read on.
Victoria Beckham – Fan of the X-Mini Mini 2 portable speaker
I tested two portable speaker systems this week, the X-Mini Mini 2 Capsule Speaker, and the KitSound Infinity-X Solar Speaker. I was already impressed with the original X-Mini Capsule. It offered good all-round sound, and most impressive was the bass from its small tangerine size. The battery life wasn’t great though. When added to just about any portable music player both devices would suck the life out of each other quickly, but as I expected this was addressed by the newer Mini 2 Capsule, playback now extending to 8 hours.
X-Mini Mini 2
Controls on the Mini 2 are restricted to an on/off switch and volume control. There is also a short 3.5mm jack built-in. Plug this directly into your laptop, or MP3 headphone socket, and off it goes. (You can also use this jack to piggyback off a second X-Mini for stereo sound, which is clever, and the speaker comes with a second 3.5mm cable if you need it too). With its powerful little mono 1.9watt speaker, larger 40mm driver, and positive endorsement via Twitter by UK style icon Victoria Beckham, the X-Mini 2 speaker is hard to beat.
Kitsound Infinity-X
Next up was Kitsounds Infinity-X Solar Speaker. This is physically a much larger proposition. It is a solar powered stereo speaker boasting that 8 hours of sunshine gives you 8 hours of continuous playtime. I plugged it into my Blackberry, got my Spotify app going and I put it on the windowsill to play out. I was happy to see all the arrows light up on the small sundial, which meant full-charging, even on a cloudy Scottish day.
The Infinity-X homes 2x 1Watt speakers, which doesn’t make it much louder than the X-Mini, and on paper the frequency isn’t as good as the Mini 2 either. However, in real-life I think it sounds great. I admit the bass is lacking a bit but the system on a whole sounds less forced than the Mini 2.
All in all the X-Mini 2 is a good speaker to have if space is premium, it is small enough to lose at the bottom of your handbag but still packs an impressive punch on the move. You could also buy two for the price of one Infinity-X, taking advantage of stereo. I wouldn’t trust it’s 8hr power operation though, if you had no other source of power for charging then you might want to opt for the Infinity-X solar speaker instead. I will be taking the Infinity-X to Hop Farm camping this weekend, and the X-Mini 2 on my summer holiday for the hotel balcony.
Buy the X-Mini Mini 2 from Phones4U HERE – from £19.99
Buy the Kit Sound Infinity-X Solar Speaker from Amazon HERE – from £39.99