“The Emoi Mushroom is an affordable Bluetooth speaker which comes with an LED lamp attached to the top”
Smartphone manufacturers go to great lengths to hype up the speaker output of their offerings, but let’s be honest, phone speakers can’t compare to the sound from a Bluetooth speaker, even a cheap one at that. If you are looking to upgrade your audio game, then you would be glad to know that e-commerce websites are flooded with a myriad of Bluetooth speakers which don’t cost a pretty penny and sound significantly better than your mobile device.
Recently, I was given the opportunity to test out the Mushroom speaker from Emoi which doesn’t just retail at a wallet-friendly price, but also comes with mood-lighting functionality. If you were in the market for an affordable Bluetooth speaker, then I firmly believe that you should pick up the Emoi Mushroom. Here’s why.
Table of Contents
The Lowdown
The Emoi Mushroom Bluetooth speaker has been constructed out of plastic, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that the product looks or feels cheap. On the contrary, I was pleasantly surprised by the speaker’s solid construction and suffice it to say, Emoi has cut no corners as far as the design of the unit is concerned. The buttons on the outer shell of the speaker have a nice tactile click and the mushroom-shaped rubberised dome attached to the top won’t come off unless you pull it with a lot of force. Furthermore, while the sound output of the speaker is directional, the speaker grill covers the entirety of the base in order to give the speaker a consistent look.
In terms of port and button placement, the Mushroom speaker comes with five buttons situated on the front comprising a power on/off button, a play/pause button, buttons for increasing/decreasing the volume and a key to vary the brightness of the light from the rubberised dome attached to the top. Towards the back of the unit, you’ll find a micro-USB port to charge the device along with four LED indicators which will give you a rough idea of the amount of charge left.
Unlike most affordable Bluetooth speakers, Emoi’s Mushroom doesn’t skimp on features either and comes with a bunch of useful tricks up its sleeves. For starters, you can download the speaker’s companion app and change the colour of the dome as per your preference. Moreover, the app allows you to set alarms too and even comes with an option to set a timer post which, the speaker will automatically turn itself off. The companion app also comes with an option to turn on white noise which should help put even the most restless sleeper into a deep slumber.
Coming to the meat of the matter, the Emoi Bluetooth speaker sounds downright average, though that was something I was expecting going into the review. But bear in mind that the Emoi Mushroom speaker isn’t geared towards audiophiles and that the target audience is restricted to users who are tight on budget and want a decent sounding speaker. With that said, the 3W driver unit packs a good punch in the low-end and the mids sound superbly clear too. Unfortunately, songs from the metal/rock genre are not the speaker’s cup of tea and sound shrill and distorted at higher volumes. As far as the connectivity is concerned, I’m happy to report that I didn’t come across any instances of track-skips or other connectivity issues during my time with the Emoi Mushroom. In the battery department, the Mushroom is backed by a 1,750mAh pack which gives varied battery life depending upon how you use the speaker. You will be able to get around three hours of music playback when using the speaker with the mood-lighting turned on, but the duration shoots up to around seven hours when using the speaker without any lighting effects.
Verdict
Coming back to my original point, the Emoi Mushroom makes for a great purchase for someone who’s looking for an affordable Bluetooth speaker. To sweeten the deal further, Emoi’s Mushroom even comes with an LED lamp along with some other handy features like the ability to set an alarm and so on. Lastly, for its asking price of Rs 3,000, the speaker doesn’t sound terrible either and therefore, gets a recommendation from me.
Editor’s rating: 3.5 / 5
Pros:
- Comes with mood lighting
- Nifty software additions
- Affordable
Cons:
- Sound output could be better
