Indian manufacturer Amkette recently launched its TruBeats S50 Smart Speaker in India. Currently available at Rs.3499 on Amazon India, its a lot more than just a portable Bluetooth speaker. There’s a built-in FM radio, an alarm clock, and can also play music over a wired connection. Besides, it also features an SD card slot along with USB slot for added convenience. While its certainly comes loaded with a lot of features, let’s see if it can deliver where it matters – the sound quality. More importantly, is it worth the buck. Let’s find out.
Look and Feel
I really dig the speaker’s design. Its looks sleek, is well-built, though a little hefty to carry around. It seems Amkette made it tad heavier on purpose to make it more robust. The speaker sports a black matte finish that looks rather elegant and would complement your home of office decor.
The clock display on the front grille shows time in a large red that looks cool. Overall, the build quality and design work rather well for the price. The only downside would be its weight as its quite bulky for a Bluetooth speaker, not something you could easily tuck away in your backpack.
Connectivity, Performance, and Features
Pairing the TrueBeats S50 Smart Speaker is quick and easy. It easily latches on to your smartphone’s Bluetooth’s connection, and you’re ready to go. But in terms of audio quality, this one leaves you wanting for more. Volume levels aren’t that loud, and I’m afraid it can’t hold on its own to run a party for you but for individual use it might just suffice. The speaker has good bass, but there’s a hint of distortion while playing music at max volumes.
The 3600 mAh battery on the Amkette TruBeats S50 is quite a workhorse. Once fully charged, you can easily get around 8 hours of continuous playback.
Highs and mids are also sharp and well defined, though, the overall soundstage has a high pitch to it which makes the overall experience not so enjoyable. Put simply, the sound quality won’t leave you disappointed, but not thrilled either.
It appears Amkette has made a few sacrifices on the sound quality to make way for an array of features. It has all the connectivity options you could ask for such as a USB, a microSD slot, a 3.5mm jack, FM Radio, an Alarm clock, along with Bluetooth and NFC connectivity. That said, Bluetooth connectivity lacks the range to roam around freely, as the connectivity loses strength as soon as you move out of the 12 feet radius. Also, the FM Radio struggles to find a clean reception as playback seems a bit muffled and distorted.
However, the 3600 mAh battery on the Amkette TruBeats S50 is quite a workhorse. Once fully charged, you can easily get around 8 hours of continuous playback. Even the standby time on this thing is quite astounding. Besides, you can even use the speaker to charge your phone.
Wrap Up
If you’re looking for a Bluetooth speaker that comes loaded with features, then the Amkette TruBeats S50 should be your go-to device. For the price, the kind of utility and versatility it offers is unmatched.
That said, audiophiles looking for a budget speaker with a clean and balanced should look elsewhere. As the sound quality and clarity was just not good enough. I am not an audiophile by any means, but the audio quality from this speaker was rather flat with little distinction between highs or mids ranges. Maybe I am expecting a lot from a Rs.3500 speaker, but it clearly needs some improvement in this area.
