Honestly, it had been several years since I had heard of Tronsmart, or at least it had been a long time since I had one of their products in my hands; the company has existed in China for several years, and lately it seems to have specialized in the field of multimedia products, in this case Bluetooth headphones and portable speakers, also mainly Bluetooth.
The company sent us to try one of its latest flagship models, theHalo 100 which stands out for a feature that could drive some crazy, but perhaps not all: RGB LEDs on the front, as tamarri as they are suitable for a festive environment, or the natural habitat for which this product was designed.
Tronsmart Halo 100 review
Design and construction quality
As I told you poco ago this product was created to be used mainly outdoors and this is testified by the certification IPX6 which characterizes it; this means, for the uninitiated, that it is resistant to splashes of water but its functioning is certainly not guaranteed if we immerse it under water, a habitat for which it is not designed.
Il Tronsmart Halo 100 is made entirely of plastic with the front grille in black painted aluminum: it is 28.7 x 20 x 15cm large and is heavy about 2.7kg, extremely favorable values for travel, especially if you also consider the presence of a practical eco-leather handle on the top that will make transport easier. Also on the top, the company has inserted the key package that allows you to interact with the speaker: these are protected by a rubber part with good touch feedback, there are 8 keys, three of which are for music control, one for 'on, one for control and switch between the various RGB modes and then others to adjust between the various modes of use.
Always well protected from water there are the various doors with which the Tronsmart Halo 100 is equipped: on the lower part on the back the company has inserted a USB-A port to be used as a music source together with a AUX input and a MicroSD slot. Then there is also a USB-C port useful for recharging the battery, just a pity that the company has not integrated a more efficient recharging technology and has stopped at only 5V / 2A, a rather reduced power which implies times of recharge of over 5 hours.
They will certainly not have gone unnoticed i RGB LED that distinguish the entire Tronsmart speaker; let's also say that this is a peculiarity that the brand inserts on almost all of its portable speakers and this Halo 100 could only be included. We have a key that makes us move between the various color combinations which, if necessary, can also be animated to the rhythm of music. Very convenient, then, is the fact that in the RGB LED present in the lower woofer the chromatic animation makes us understand the volume level according to the filling of the circle itself.
Connectivity
The beauty of speaker of this type is the extreme versatility on the connectivity front: it is no coincidence that the Tronsmart Halo 100 can be used primarily via Bluetooth 5.3 and AUX, but also via the USB with file format MP3, and entrance MicroSD to keep everything in even less space. For the first time, extraordinarily with a bluetooth speaker, I didn't encounter latency problems, so if you are thinking of using it perhaps to watch an outdoor film connected to a projector or a television, the audio will be in real time and perfectly in sync with video.
Furthermore, the speaker, as it is equipped with an internal microphone, supports all the main voice assistants in circulation including Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa and so on, logically when connected to a source that supports it, such as a smartphone.
Sound quality and smartphone apps
The most concrete and interesting part is undoubtedly the internal one: the Tronsmart Halo 100 is equipped with four speakers inside, divided into 1 60W woofer, two mid-tweeters it's a Tweet for reproducing high frequencies. Unfortunately, a Bass Reflex is missing which, certainly, would have contributed to making the low frequencies a little more round and full-bodied, which is perhaps missing in the sound reproduction.
Beyond the subtleties of lovers of Hi-Fi systems, I tested Tronsmart bluetooth speaker more thoroughly in different scenarios; I logically left my room, near the PC, and started having fun with more moderate volumes, to understand what this Halo 100 was made of. I then took it outside and turned up the volume to maximum of its range: I did several tests, and the ones that satisfied me the most are those with "old-style" music, stuff like Pink Floid, Police and Supertramp. Taking advantage of the Macbook's equalizer, I managed to get the most out of this speaker, much more than I would have honestly expected: the bass, it's true, lacks a bit of roundness but the medium and high frequencies, the voice and the instruments all sound great.
In case you simply connect with your smartphone, instead, via the DSP integrated into the button "SoundPulse” you will be able to greatly improve the performance of the speaker which, in some contexts, could be a bit flat, like almost all non-equalizable products. It must be said, to be honest, that Tronsmart also offers an application for iOS and Android smartphones in which we find some predefined presets and a simple five-band equalizer which, ok, improves the results but cannot work miracles. If, therefore, you use it with a smartphone, I recommend the SoundPulse DSP optimized by Tronsmart, which does its job well.
For the rest, the smartphone app allows you to update the firmware if necessary, to control the various light effects of the RGB LEDs, but also to modify the source of use; in short, all features that can be done without if you consider that everything is feasible using the buttons at the top of the speaker.
Autonomy
As far as the battery is concerned, I certainly have some good news to give you: if I told you before about how the recharging times are quite long, on the other hand, however, you won't have to worry about low autonomy as the Tronsmart Halo 100 manages to guarantee battery life of about 18 hours, decidedly positive values and which will allow you prolonged use away from the socket.
In case of need, if you should find yourself with a flat battery, you can use the speaker directly connected to the power supply via the USB-C port.
Price and considerations
On balance to take home a speaker Tronsmart Halo 100 are needed approximately EUR 100, an honest figure if you consider the impeccable construction aspect, the powerful sound, ideal even for larger rooms and the battery life, which can be defined as almost extreme in some ways. Among the most important shortcomings there is undoubtedly that of a dedicated power supply and, consequently, the biblical recharging times and the absence of the Bass Reflex for slightly rounder basses. For the rest, for a non-critical listening but for pure fun with friends it is a definitely advisable product.
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