What is it?
The Ecko Unlimited Blast is a portable bluetooth speaker and speakerphone that can be used with all bluetooth enabled devices including phones, tablets, mp3 players and computers.
What does it do?
The Blast can be used to listen to music and answer calls anywhere due to its portable nature. The speaker comes with a 300 mAh rechargeable battery giving 300 hours of standby time and 4 hours of audio play time. If you decide to use it as a speakerphone, you will get 5 hours of talk time. Ecko also included a solid noise cancelling microphone which allows callers to hear you clearly with practically no background noise.
What’s wrong with it?
Some users may not like the fact this unit has only one speaker which is located on the bottom. The metal stand is crucial to ensure you get clear sound out of the base. In testing it without the stand, the audio was a bit muffled meaning if you lose that stand the audio will definitely suffer. The overall sound quality was a bit tinny but it was definitely loud. Bass was decent when you consider you only have one speaker .
Why do you/don’t you need it?
People looking for a small rechargeable speaker with an interesting design may want to pick this up, especially with it’s attractive price point on Amazon. I used it in my office and it was acknowledged often for its cool design. I have been an Ecko supporter for quite some time and I think their foray into personal audio has been solid thus far.
My Take:
I usually use headphones at work so I don’t disturb my colleagues, but I decided to try it out for a week just to see how it was received. A large number of co-workers really liked the design while others thought it was a legitimate spray can. The audio at modest volume is clear and bass-heavy music does tend to bump the speaker around which can be annoying if the speaker is close to an edge. I wouldn’t cite this as a con since I doubt most offices will take too kindly to someone playing their music that loud anyway. The tinny sound is really dependent on the music you are playing and is not really noticeable. I would have liked the option to lay the speaker on its side, but I guess the designers wanted to keep the can motif front and center which I feel does hinder this device a bit.
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