Everyone loves a good speaker, especially one that they can carry around with them. They fill a room with music that you can sing to, dance to, and have fun with.
There are a lot of portable speakers to choose from. Some have colors, some are odd shaped, but they all fill a room with a special mood and set the atmosphere. Choosing the right one to do that though, is tough.
To attempt to win your heart over, Tribit is going after the big boys of the portable speaker market with their X-Boom Bluetooth speaker. With booming bass, loud speakers, and a “bring anywhere” design, it certain puts up a good fight with the similarly matched Logitech, Bose, and JBL speakers.
Welcome to my review of the Tribit X-Boom Bluetooth Speaker.
Design
Popularized by brands such as Logitech, Bose, and JBL, the cylinder portable speaker shape is now commonly seen amongst many Bluetooth speakers as it offers ease of carrying, exposed bass speakers, and a durable design.
Following the trend, Tribit’s X-Boom is a handheld cylinder-shaped speaker that positions itself to compete with the brands above. Made of a mixture of rubber and vinyl weave with an internal plastic body, the X-Boom is one of the better-built speakers out there.
Standing tall at 7-inches and weighing 1.1 pounds, the X-Boom can be hooked to a backpack via its permanently attached strap or easily moved about with minimal effort. Moreover, Tribit’s cylinder-shaped speaker has a smooth back allowing you to place the speaker flat on a surface rather than the usual standing position.
Black and white, the X-Boom looks both modern and stylish in all expected environments. It may not have a color changing case like JBL, but the simplistic design here is just as welcoming.
The front of the X-Boom consists of three large white buttons. Two are for volume control with the center circle button acting as a multifunctional button that can play, pause, answer calls, and end calls.
Powering the X-Boom up and enabling the XBass technology are controlled through the rear I/O. Here, we find a blue-lit power button, a Bluetooth pairing button, XBass, a battery power indicator, a micro USB and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The micro USB charging and 3.5mm headphone jacks are secured behind a thick rubber plug that assists in waterproofing the entire X-Boom speaker. The exposed bass speakers are sealed against water with a silicone cone.
Tribit’s speaker layout for the X-Boom has two bass speakers as well as two internal side-firing speakers. The bass speakers are both exposed with nothing preventing the sound from reaching your ears.
With that said, caution needs to be taken with the exposed bass speakers. While it’s great to see them bounce up and down, their exposure means that fingers and other objects can easily break them.
When this speaker is turned up to its maximum volume, it can easily fill a room with loud, crisp sound. More on this later.
As a portable speaker, Tribit made the X-Boom survive any environment you may take it to. Not only does the strong rubberized frame safeguard against accidental drops, but also the IPX7 water-resistant rating protects this speaker from drops into water up to 3 feet for half an hour.
Tribit’s design of the X-Boom is a well-rounded look that is both stylish and sturdy. In their marketing material, Tribit calls this the perfect travel companion, and I find that claim to be well made. They designed it as such, and I see this lasting for years to come.
Functionality
Using Bluetooth 4.2, the Tribit connects to practically any device, and if Bluetooth isn’t an option, it can be connected via the 3.5mm headphone jack. Setup is as easy as that.
Once connected, the 5200mAh, 20-hour continuous playback battery will ensure that you and your friends are enjoying music all day and all night long.
I connected the X-Boom to my Galaxy S8+ and used both YouTube and Pandora Plus for my source of music.
The first thing I noticed with the X-Boom is that it was difficult to tell the difference between Tribit’s XBass on and off modes. While I couldn’t hear a difference, I decided to keep it running all of the time as I never felt like it oversaturated a song with bass.
As I previously mentioned, the speaker layout of the X-Boom has horizontally firing normal speakers and vertically firing bass speakers. This positioning of the speakers fills an entire room with sound and allows everyone to enjoy the music.
For bigger parties or bigger rooms, Tribit gives users the option to pair two X-Booms together for a theater experience and to generate true stereo sound.
My choice of music consisted of rock and roll, pop, hip-hop, and instrumental. Throughout it all, it sounded excellent with the melody and rhythm being pleasant to listen to. The X-Boom truly fills an entire room with sound, and it does so well.
Lows, mids, highs, and the bass were all in perfect balance with each music genre meeting both mine and my friends’ expectations. I felt that the speaker sounded best while standing, but your mileage may vary on whether you want the speaker standing tall or lying flat.
When cranked up to the maximum volume, the music doesn’t get tinny or distorted. Rather, it sounds just as pleasant as before, but louder. You can sometimes notice on some songs that the bass can be a notch overpowering at a louder volume, but it did not happen enough for me to be upset.
All in all, I’ve enjoyed using the Tribit X-Boom Bluetooth speaker. Its functionality allows it to be versatile and offers powerful, room-filling sound. Comparing my Logitech UE Boom and JBL Pulse 3, I found that the X-Boom gets right up there and plays along just as nicely.
My Final Thoughts
Priced at a reasonable $69.99, I find that the Tribit X-Boom is a fantastic Bluetooth speaker that can be brought to every party and be placed in any environment. The speakers pumping out the sound are loud and powerful without distorting the music that we all love.
For design, the X-Boom is simplistic while still being a great centerpiece in a room or on the table at a gathering. I am a fan of the black and white color scheme followed by the fabric weave material. Following all of that, its light weight and ruggedness makes for a complete portable speaker.
Functionality of the X-Boom is superb as water, dust, and dirt don’t affect this usability. All music genres sounded great to my ears, and the dual bass speakers made everything fun and enjoyable. To complete the speaker, it’s easy to pair, use, and it’s a great travel buddy.
The X-Boom passes my review testing, and I find that anyone looking for a new, reasonably priced portable speaker, this would be a great option. More so seeing that it comes with an 18-month long warranty.
Buy it now:
© 2018 Justin Vendette
