Divoom Airbeat-10 review

Divoom’s Airbeat-10 packs a surprising punch for a speaker of such a diminutive size; at 45 x 78 x87mm, it’s only a fraction larger than the QDos Q-Bopz but is arguably much better looking. W

While the bulbous Q-Bopz was made from a rubbery material that made it somewhat resemble a clown’s nose, the Airbeat-10 Bluetooth speaker is a combination of plastics, metal and shock-absorbing rubber. It’s available in several different colours, too, including black, red, white and blue.

The Airbeat-10 is undeniably flexible; it has a 2.5in tripod thread in the base for mounting to a range of accessories, and an alloy hook on the side lets you attach the speaker to a rucksack when you’re outdoors. Unfortunately a carabiner clip isn’t included, but you do get a suction mount and handlebar mount. The latter worked perfectly well but we found the suction mount wasn’t strong enough on bathroom tiles, which was disappointing. Still, it helps prevent the speaker being knocked off a more horizontal surface.

Divoom claims the Airbeat-10 is perfect for the beach or the shower, but after a few weeks’ exposure to moisture in a bathroom the screws and metal speaker grille had both begun to rust. It’s puzzling and disappointing that a rust-proof material wasn’t used instead.

Sound quality went a long way to make up for this, however. It was particularly loud for a small speaker, making it a decent choice for a shower speaker or for taking outdoors when it comes to sheer volume. It was also pleasantly bassy, yet delivered decent mids and trebles with a surprising amount of discernible detail considering the price. If you weren’t aware of the source of the sound you might even be fooled into thinking it was coming from a much larger speaker. There’s actually only a single 2in full range driver and a passive radiator inside, but they combine to deliver a nice and warm sound far from the thin sound often found with small-size speakers.

There’s also a built-in microphone for hands-free calling but we found the microphone lacked sensitivity, so you’ll need raise your voice or be sat relatively close to the speaker to be heard clearly. Volume controls and a button for playing and pausing tracks on the side of the speaker can easily be operated with wet hands.

There’s only a 500mAh battery inside, in part dictated by the small size of the speaker. It still lasts for around six hours of use before you need to find a power supply, and you can charge via Micro USB using the port hidden behind a splashproof rubberised flap. There’s also a 3.5mm auxiliary connection for connecting a wired device rather than using wireless Bluetooth.

If it weren’t for the rusting issue the Airbeat-10 would be the perfect compact Bluetooth speaker and we would have been inclined to give it a higher score. If you aren’t too dissuaded by the flaw, however, it’s still a great sounding speaker.