Gadget Review: Soundcore Pyro Mini portable Bluetooth speaker is tiny but fierce

The dictionary defines the word ‘pyrotechnics’ as a display of fireworks or a brilliant performance of a specified skill. With the Soundcore Pyro Mini portable Bluetooth speaker, Anker seems to have cleverly shortened that adjective and added the word 'mini' to it to make it an apt description of its small wireless speaker.

This Soundcore product may look small, but it gives quite a pyrotechnical performance when it starts playing — one that not only belies its small size but also provides fireworks in more ways than one with its multi-coloured LED lights changing psychedelically with the music.

At a mere 11.5cm width and 8.5cm height, approximately, and less than 7.5cm in depth, when you pull it out of its small box, the Pyro Mini fails to impress with either its size or weight, but definitely makes an impression with its design and finish. The device’s shape is an oblong oval, and while the plastics are hard all around, they are finished to a smooth consistency and there is a small nylon strap jutting out from the side for easy of carrying. There is a USB-C port, an aux in and a TF card slot while rubberised buttons on top control power, volume and track control and the LED lights.

Those lights change colour with the beat and pulse of the music you are playing and can be controlled via the Light-DJ section on the Soundcore app, which also has the customisable equaliser settings for the sound.

Speaking of the sound, while the Pyro Mini belies expectations when it starts playing, its light weight and small size keep the bass down, and the in-app equaliser doesn’t do much either for the sound. But that is just as well, because this mini speaker sounds great just as it is.

For starters it is loud enough to take your party to the picnic or the poolside, which is helped by the IPX7 dust and waterproof rating. And, with around 10-plus hours of use on a single charge – albeit with a not-so-fast recharge time of three hours – that party can go on for a while.

The loudness does not compromise on musical mids and terrific trebles, though, which together produce a full-bodied, clear and voluminous body of sound that more than makes up for the bass. We played our customary eclectic variety of music on our test mule and while the point of this speaker is neither to be bass enough for hard rock nor nuanced enough for classical, it does do what it says on the tin: produce some size-defying fireworks in the palm of your hand, or wherever you set it.

Couple that with great utility in taking calls clearly with the built-in microphone and you also have a practical speaker for your worktable, while the circa Dh55-75 price range at most online retailers is the real value-for-money pyrotechnics of the device.

Soundcore Pyro Mini portable Bluetooth speaker

Hits:

- Good sound in a small package

- Battery life

- Value for money

• Gadget Review: Soundcore H30i offers great sonic performance