Review: Rapoo A300

The Rapoo A300 is billed as compact, powerful, stylish - and for the most part it delivers.

It has the option of a direct cable connection using the 3.5mm jack cable supplied with the unit, or via Bluetooth connection which, if desired, can be set up using the Near Field Communication (NFC). Using NFC to set up Bluetooth is a nice touch, and it definitely worked as advertised for a creating the initial pairing with my test phone – a Galaxy S4. I should confess though, that given how easy it was a pair it with my tablet using the regular Bluetooth interface, the NFC pairing seems a bit of a gimmick.

It has a built-in battery that, according to the specs, should last up to eight hours. Though I didn’t run it for that long, I can confirm that after two-and-a-half hours of music and videos it was still going strong.

Charging is via an included micro USB cable you can connect to your computer, though it doesn’t come with a USB wall adapter, which is a personal pet peeve. (Ed: When power sockets with USB plugs become standard, we can get rid of the hundreds of these things, and they always have different ratings eh!)

The speaker itself is reasonably powerful for its size and they’ve definitely done some tuning work to balance the treble and bass. The net result is audio quality that is robust and very listenable, even by someone as picky as myself.  But be warned: this is not a hi-fidelity unit and, if you listen very closely, you will be able to hear some impurities introduced either by the Bluetooth interface or by the tuning.

At the end of the day, it’s designed as an external speaker for portable devices and to provide the power and frequency range that is difficult to achieve within the constraints imposed by a tablet or phone, and I think it does a pretty good job.

(Ed note: I too have been playing with this and I must say the sound quality is impressive, I’ve been using a BEM (review coming soon), and the sound quality is much better, it has enough bass to feel it through the desk).