You've probably seen Jawbone JAMBOXes in the corners of Apple Stores or in gift guides online and had no idea what they were. I know I didn't. They just look like prisms that are nearly fully made of the kind of material you see on speakers. But they're probably the most interesting gadget I've ever reviewed. To just call them speakers doesn't do it justice. Keep reading for my review of the Jawbone JAMBOX after the jump.
The audio quality is extraordinarily high for a device this small from a company you probably haven't heard of. This isn't coming from Bose or Altec Lansing or something like that. What really makes the difference in these speakers is that the whole outer edge speakers. You can really feel the bass bounce along to the music if you hold it in your hand. The bouncing of the bass almost makes you forget about the backing of the songs or the rhythm and you almost start to focus on the rhythmic beat of the bass.
The bass can almost seem too powerful at times since the device is basically bouncing up and down so you have to put it on its side which can make the buttons a little harder to get to but it's not a big deal. It increases the audio quality significantly. Even the instruction manual advises this so it's standard practice. The music sounds way better than standard computer speakers even those on the higher end from Altec Lansing. You really feel like the music is there with you because of that bass. It's ridiculous. There's no other way to describe it. I felt like there would be an earthquake if I powered the music up enough.
The buttons on the device are a little confusing at first since they don't say what they do. But once you look in the manual for about two seconds you'll be fine with that. They have simple functions and even enable you to pair your phone or Tablet to the JAMBOX with no trouble. You once again need a little help from the manual but it's fine. There are only a couple buttons so it's not a problem.
And the most interesting part is that once you pair these to your phone, you can answer and end calls with the JAMBOX. Once you pair it, you just hit the talk button on the JAMBOX and you're actually talking on the device since there's a built in microphone. If you're far away from your phone, you can just answer or hang up on the JAMBOX like it's a regular call. The voice quality is essentially the same as your phone's service so you can be rocking out one second, hear the box ringing, answer it, hang up and go back to jamming.
The phone is really the most intriguing part to me. It's a completely unexpected feature but really is worth it for these. When you combine the speaker, microphone and phone combination along with Bluetooth connectivity, you've got an excellent device here. Completely worth the price. Welcome to JAMBOX.
