The Mengo Aquacube is a speaker that is meant for on the go lifestyles. As of November 2016, this is the smallest Bluetooth speaker I have tested and I came away impressed with the results. It is small, cute, durable and plays music. What’s not to like?
The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the Mengo Aquacube Bluetooth Speaker is really small and really colorful. It is definitely a speaker you can take on the go. Outside of skinny jeans this should fit comfortably into most pockets. The size is very similar to a squared off golf ball. The rubber is very soft and provides lots of padding for any mishaps. The color is vivid and matches the picture on Amazon. Overall it is a very attractive little speaker with a silver driver in front and a “sub” driver in back. I took it on vacation with me and it was complimented a few times on its look.
To be completely candid, the Mengo Aquacube isn’t the best musically. This is a speaker with a purpose, which is not to make home audio obsolete. To judge the Mengo Aquacube based on its sound would be missing the point, but here I will discuss it critically. First from more than maybe a foot away there is no bass. Zero bass. Just nothing. Even though it has good dynamics at times, it mostly feels hollow and empty. However, the Mengo Aquacube can play loud enough to fill a room with music. Will it be room shaking? No, of course not, but it will play music cleanly and do it from a diminutive form factor. That is the point of the Mengo Aquacube to me. To be small enough to take anywhere and play clear, dynamic audio, and not damage the foundation.
Presentation: Slightly Forward
The presentation is lively, if not slightly forward. The dynamics on songs is very impressive for a speaker this size. Certain rock songs really stand out as the guitar can really take off with this speaker. The volume is respectable and although it can fill a room, it wouldn’t be enjoyable. This is a speaker best used near field or on the desk in front of you.
As mentioned above, the bass is really non existant in the Mengo Aquacube. When sitting up close it has a nice “slam” but it really is devoid of any real low frequency energy. The graph will show it rolls off early but the drop is smooth.
BASS QUANTITY: 1
BASS QUALITY: 4
CLARITY: 5
COMPARED TO HIGH END HOME AUDIO SYSTEM: 0
OVERALL: (based on size)
5.0
The Aquacube scored in the bottom 3rd of our battery tests, although still put up more than 14 hours under my testing. I conducted the battery test with the speakers at their half way point in volume, or one above if the range was an uneven number. From a foot away the mid point decibel reading on a white noise signal was only 57db which makes it 14db under the average for the other 12 speakers I tested. Given this wide discrepancy it is safe to say if the Mengo Aquacube was playing at the average 71db the battery performance would be much worse. However, under mid volume listening conditions the Mengo Aquacube was able to last an average of 14 hours and 21 minutes.
Lets see, its tiny, its waterproof, and it comes with a key ring hole and carabiner. I think that just about sums up portable.
I found the Mengo Aquacube a mixed bag when it came to features and usability. Its biggest feature is being waterproof and they certainly back up their claim. The Mengo Aquacube also handles phone calls along with its audio duties.
The problem I have is while I appreciate their inclusion of track skip abilities, I personally believe they implemented the volume and skip buttons backwards. I would much prefer the simple push be to adjust the volume and the long press to be to skip songs, but they have it the other way which can make turning up and down a song a more tedious affair than it needs to be.Obviously Mengo didn’t feel that way, nor do a bunch of readers, so that is just a personal opinion.
In real world use, the Mengo Aquacube was easy to use with some minor issues. Simple to turn on and quick to automatically connect to my phone. However, I personally hated how quickly it engaged the auto shutdown. I understand the concept and why its probably a good idea, but when you are too aggressive it becomes more annoyance than anything else.The battery charger and line in jack is located behind a flap on the side. The flap can sometimes be challenging to force closed, but once you get used to it it snaps in fairly quickly. It has a key ring notch and carabiner to take along wherever you go. Relatively feature rich.
8.5
