Normally when I write speaker reviews, it is during the summer. I get to rave about how the warmer weather brings outdoor activities and music. Expect, on this past Halloween day in Wisconsin, we received five inches of snow fall.
Luckily, I am the type of person who likes to sing and dance while I cook dinner and with Christmas around the corner, I can play Christmas music for my review all day long.
While outdoor parties have come to an end for the year, we’re all bound to have indoor family parties and a little background music lightens the setting for all.
Today, I’m taking a look at a new brand, Earfun, and their well-priced and modern Bluetooth speaker. Supporting USB-C, Bluetooth 5.0, and IPX7 rating, let’s see if this speaker has enough to win me over.
Welcome to my review of the Earfun Go portable Bluetooth speaker.
Design
Wrapped entirely in rubber, the Go is a compact and extremely portable speaker for all environments.
The rubber exterior wrapping of the Go resists dings, drops, scratches, dirt, and even water. Protecting the front facing speakers is a metal mesh grill which is matte black like the rubber wrap. Additionally, Earfun screen-printed their logo onto this grill in a subtle gray color.
On the bottom of the Go are for little rubber feet that let the speaker sit on a flat surface. Unlike other speakers, the Go is meant to only be used in a horizontal position. The pill shaped body, however, does have flat sides. If desired, the Go could be stood up vertically.
In internals are protected by an aluminum frame. The speaker is shockingly shock and crush proof due to this excellent build quality. This does come at the cost of a little weigh to the speaker.
In terms of inputs, the Go has a 3.5mm headphone jack that allows direct connectivity to the speaker over the expected Bluetooth connectivity. Additionally, there is a USB-C plug which is used for charging the device.
I was personally happy to see that Earfun included the USB-C plug over the outgoing micro USB standard.
Both connectors are well sealed behind a rubber plug. The plug seals shut with a rubber gasket perhaps a little too well. Even by digging my nail into the slot, it was tough to remove the plug and I could see women with longer nails accidentally breaking a nail getting the plug removed.
The firmness of the rubber plug does allow the Go to be IPX7 waterproof. With so much rubber, the water beads right off the body and the speaker stays incredibly dry.
Right beside the connectors, there is a carry hook to hook the Go to a backpack or another object if walking and playing music.
Finally, on the top of the Go are the user interface buttons. Power, Bluetooth, play/pause, and volume controls can all be found here. Something that I enjoy about the volume control is that the Go controls the volume on the host device and is not independent. Meaning, you can increase the volume to max on your phone without controlling the speaker.
Functionality
Supporting both iPhones and Androids, the Go speaker is a universal device thanks to the Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. Once connected, the speaker becomes an accessory of your phone in that it can even be used to call Siri or Google Assistant.
The Earfun Go has three front facing speakers. Two 12W, 1.75” drivers and a center 2” subwoofer is the powerhouse of this portable speaker.
I loaded up my music mix on YouTube Premium on my Galaxy S10 Plus smartphone and have been using the Go for music at night for the past week.
Immediately you will notice the punch of the Go’s bass. The bass output of the speaker is solid and seriously can really punch your chest once the volume is turned up.
A song that really expresses the Go’s ability to play music is Devil Woman by Cliff Richard. The song has a mixture of bass, guitar, and strong vocals.
Hovering between low and high volume, the song and bass sound great for a tiny portable speaker. Considering the wattage and size of these speakers, they seriously get you moving to the music.
If you max out the speaker, the music gets incredibly loud. It’s the last 5% of volume where the speaker becomes so loud that it can be a tad too loud for your ear while standing close by. At this point too, it can sound a tad tinny.
In general, the music of this little Go speaker sounds just as good as a Logitech UE Boom Mini. Lows, mids, and highs all sounded fantastic at both low and high volume; just max volume felt a little uncomfortable.
All this music will continue for a little under a day before the 4400 mAh rechargeable battery will need to be recharged. Luckily, after a four-hour break, you’ll be back in action for another day’s worth of music playback.
I previously mentioned that the speaker is IPX7 waterproof rated. To elaborate, the speaker can take splashes, rain, and can even fall into the shallow end of the pool and survive. Not many speakers are submersible.
My Final Thoughts
My initial thoughts of the Earfun Go was that this was going to be another inexpensive speaker to review. In reality, it’s a portable Bluetooth speaker that really packs a punch and handles all music genres quite well.
Starting with the superb rubber body to the powerful 12W speakers, it was hard to find anything that I didn’t like about the Earfun Go and easily receives a stamp of approval from myself.
Priced at $39.99 I find that this makes for an excellent speaker to bring with you while on the go to any travel adventure.
Buy it now:
© 2019 Justin Vendette
