Jawbone Mini Jambox review

The tiniest model in the Jawbone range is the Mini Jambox, available in a staggering array of colours and patterns. While many portable speakers look a little cheap and tacky, Jawbone’s blocky little speakers ooze style.

The Jambox is around the same size as an elongated pack of butter, and feels well made. The silver metal finish and dimpled decoration of the version we reviewed is particularly attractive. Inside the speaker is a stereo pair of drivers and, in between, a passive bass radiator to help round out the bottom end of the speaker’s sound.

On the top, you’ll find a play/pause button that remotely controls your Bluetooth audio source, and the speaker’s volume controls. The right hand side bears a power switch, Bluetooth pairing buttons, Micro USB charging input and a 3.5mm input for other audio sources. The Mini Jawbone also has a built-in microphone, so you can use to it make hands-free calls. Unusually, its Simultaneous Multipoint connection feature means that you can connect two devices to it: one for music streaming and the other for calls.

Detailed configuration of Simultaneous Multipoint and other settings is available via Jawbone’s Updater program, which lets you configure the speaker’s settings from a Windows PC via a USB connection. This tool also lets you update the speaker’s firmware, change the audible prompts it uses to tell you its status and enable LiveAudio virtual surround sound, which is designed to make games and films more immersive. As far as surround sound goes, it’s not particularly impressive, but it’s notable that such a tiny speaker manages to produce any impression of directionality at all. You have to connect the speaker to your PC to switch modes, though, and doing this just to play a game on a tablet seems like more effort than it’s worth.

When it comes to music, the Mini Jambox sounds surprisingly harsh, with an over-prominent treble and upper mid-range that made the speaker tiring to listen to. This was particularly noticeable on orchestral music and tracks dominated by a piano or church organ, but other test tracks were also affected, with high notes that sounded too pronounced in the mix. Acoustic percussion didn’t fare too well either, with drums sounding flat and distant. This flatness was shared by rock and metal with a strong bass or midrange emphasis, although we were pleased to note that overdriven guitars didn’t suffer the same harshness as our orchestral recordings. The speaker does best with pop and dance, with its bright treble complementing the aggressive synths of our hard dance test tracks.

The speaker lasted for a little over eleven and a half hours in our tests, which is pretty good given how small it is. It’ll certainly keep you entertained for a day, if not a weekend. Although the Jambox Mini looks fantastic, is small enough to fit in a coat pocket and has some interesting extra features, its sound quality doesn’t match up to that of its rivals. It’s also an expensive speaker, so you’re definitely paying a premium for the Jambox’s design. If you need a highly portable stereo speaker, the Scosche BoomBottle is nowhere near as pretty, but it’s tough, sounds good and has a battery that’ll last for ages.