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Jabra Solemate Review
September 8, 2013 by Jacob Krol in Music, Reviews, Speaker
Our friends over at Jabra have sent us the Solemate for us to review. This is Jabra’s portable wireless speaker, in fact earlier this week they announced the new Solemate Mini. This is the full and bigger version and it is not the only one on the market. There are many other portable speakers from companies like Bose or the Jambox from Jawbone. Jabra has not gone the traditional route here, they have a very unique product. You will notice this right from the design and from the moment you turn it on. At $199.99 it has similar pricing to the other portable speakers, so what makes it special and why should it be your next speaker? We will answer that in the full review, which starts right now!
Design
Jabra did not get the traditional route with the design and with a name like Solemate you might have seen this coming. Unlike the Jambox’s, it has a very unique design. When you think of the Solemate you most likely think of a shoe, on the side of the unit you have a little cloth hook. Similar to what is found on the back of a shoe. It is perfect way to carry speaker and really makes the design better. On the white version, the outside is white as well while the side of the hook is black. It is connected to the main body of the speaker with 2(two) studs and we have a black Jabra logo on the hook. It is built really well and is a really nice addition to the speaker.
On the other side of the device you have the controls and what could be called the user interface. You have 2(two) light indicators, one for the battery and the other for Bluetooth. Then you have a power on, power off, and Bluetooth pairing slider button. This makes it really easy to pair to your smartphone, just simply slide the button all the way up and wait till the Solemate talks to you. Yes the Solemate does talk to you and while it’s waiting for you to pair you get a nice electronic beat. You have a AUX in port, micro USB port, and a microphone here is well. The top of the device is home to 3(three) physical buttons, those being volume up, volume down, and a menu button. If you tap the menu one it will give you the battery level and can control the voice control options on your device.
My favorite part of the Solemate is the “sole” or bottom of the speaker. It really looks like a shoe with the rubber build and the grooves. This rubber is not just for looks, it helps with the control of the powerful bass. The rubber build acts as a bass and sound damper, this way the bass will not shake the surface the Solemate is on and so the device will not move around. This technology works very well, the Solemate does not move around like the Jambox does. During my testing even when the volume was turned up to 10(ten) while playing a song with a ton of bass, the Solemate did not move. Although this does not mean the surface it was on was not feeling some vibrations. A neat feature of the sole on the Solemate is that it is removable and you can swap out different colored soles. They retail for $19.99 and are sold directly from Jabra. The last main feature of the sole is that the auxiliary cable has a home in this area of the speaker. You plug both ends in and it slips right into the groove meant for the cable. With the White variant of the Solemate you get a nice orange auxiliary cable.
Connectivity
The Jabra Solemate has 2(two) made modes of connectivity to play your music. Everything is kept on or inside the Solemate, so you won’t lose any of these tools. One of these modes is wireless and the other mode is hardwire, this way you have plenty of options to pump music from almost any one of your devices. Whether it is a smartphone, tablet, computer, MP3 player, or any device that plays music. The hardwired option is done via an auxiliary cable and a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack. As we mentioned earlier the auxiliary cable is kept and store under the Solemate. Simply plug one end into the speaker and then the other in into the device where the music is coming from. For the consumer who wants to wirelessly stream your music, the Solemate has Bluetooth 3.0 built-in. This will give you a solid wireless connection for around 33(thirty-three) feet. The Bluetooth 3.0 connection is solid and is a great way to pump up the music.
Sound Quality
The Jabra Solemate features a very unique set of speakers inside. On one side of the speaker you have a custom passive bass radiator. This is what gives the Solemate the powerful bass and this is why songs with bass sound great. On the other side of the unit you get 2(two) acoustic tweeters and 1(one) powerful subwoofer. The subwoofer on the front even creates a large bass presence. This unique system of speakers was costumed design by the team at Jabra and it sounds great. In fact the Solemate can reach up to 120 decibels! Whether the sound is all the way turned up or if it is really low the sound quality is great. The Solemate provides much better sound then the other portable speakers on the market. It is even better than the Jambox by Jawbone which has the been the market leader for quite some time. I have feeling that title will be moving over to the Solemate very soon. With the announcement of the Solemate Mini by Jabra earlier this week, it seems they will be expanding in this market as well.
Bottom Line
The Jabra Solemate is an amazing portable speaker. Jabra has really set the bar for the portable speakers on the market. In fact I am calling it the best wireless portable speaker on the market, Jabra has truly out down themselves and the other makers of portable speaker with the Solemate. From giving it a super unique design to a very powerful sound system, you get it all. Every single part of the design is here for a purpose, from the cloth hook on the back to the rubber sole on the bottom, it all works together. You won’t ever forget your auxiliary cable, as it get’s safely locked in place in the sole. 2(two) great connectivity options are on board, those being Auxiliary and Bluetooth. The soles are removable and you can swap it out to a color you love, or mix and match them everyone in a while. It truly let’s you customize your experience with this speaker. The bass on the Solemate is truly powerful and enhances the quality of the sound. Jabra has blown the other portable speaker makers out of the water, the Solemate is the best portable speaker on the market. The Solemate comes in at a pretty good price as well, at just $199.99 it is on par if not cheaper than the other speakers on the market. With the Solemate Mini coming at just $99.99 in Quarter 4, it undercuts the other mini speakers on the market as well. Stay tuned for our review of the Solemate Mini, but in the meantime if you are looking for a portable speaker look no further than the Jabra Solemate. To Get Your Jabra Solemate, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Jabra for providing us with a copy of the “Jabra Solemate”.
About the Author: Jacob Krol
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