Monday, February 4, 2013

Product review: SimplyVibe SV-X6U1-Black Rechargeable FM, MP3 Player and Portable Speakers


SimplyVibe a mini boom box that can tune FM radio and as well as play the content of USB flash memory stick or SD memory card.

To illustrate my review I am attaching a video and a collage of 4 photos. The video demonstrate FM reception for voice and music, as well as SimplyVibe's ability to play MP3 content from a memory stick.

1. The first photo shows the content of the entire package. Besides the unit itself, the package includes a USB charging cable, an audio cable, a rechargeable lithium battery, and instructions. The unit's size is 6.41 " x 1.50" x 2.30". The photo of the unit show is on 1 inch gridded mat for size reference, I also included a pen in the photo for relative size.

2. I found FM tuner to be a bit weak and a number of stations sounded a bit hissy. The attached video will give you a good idea of the reception I get on two different stations, one station will demonstrate speaking voice, the other will demo music. It is acceptable, but not as good as a larger receiver (I compared it to CC Crane radio FM reception). Photo #4 shows the display during an FM radio broadcast. The display is fairly small, and stays on only for a few seconds. As you see in the video I had to touch the button many times to keep the display active. The unit has a mode which displays a clock, but because the display turns itself off so quickly SimplyVibe cannot function as a general purpose clock. The controls take some getting used to, they are not totally intuitive and the display is faint and might be hard to read for people with presbyopic eyes.

3. Photo #2 show the side of the unit where you plug in USB memory stick, a charging cable, and a SD memory card. The speaker performed much better when playing MP3 music from a memory stick. The sound was louder and it was very clear. It even did a reasonable job with the base for a unit of such small size.

4. Photo #3 shows the back of the unit - the battery compartment and the audio plugs. You can attach headphones to the unit, or attached the unit to a laptop as an external battery.

I found this speaker to be a nice size to stand on my night table. The bottom of the unit is flat and it balances well.

My main use for this unit is when I want to have an mp3 player which has an external speaker instead of headphones. I listen to a lot of audio books, and when I am sick I like listening to the audio books in bed. I don't like falling asleep with the headphones in my ears so SimplyVibe gives me a nice alternative.

I was provided an evaluation unit for testing and review. I noted the pluses and the minuses of my experience in this review, and if you have any questions about the features I have not covered I am always happy to answer comments.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

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