X-mini Nano-X review: Ultra-portable and surprisingly powerful

Carrying a good loud and good sounding speaker was never as easy — thanks to the advancements in technology, times have now changed. With each passing year, the portable Bluetooth speaker's segment is getting comprehensive. Bluetooth speakers have been evolved so much especially in terms of miniature sizes.  Now, you can get a good performing speaker in the smallest form factor and at an affordable pricing.

X-mini is one such company which has been targeting that affordable pricing in the audio segment lately. They are also known for making good quality speakers along with other audio accessories. The company had recently launched Click 2, which was as small as a moisturising cream container. X-mini is now offering its new portable Bluetooth speaker called X-mini Nano-X, which defeats the Click 2 with an even more compact body. Yes, the Nano-X is almost the size of a volume control knob.

Build, Design:

X-mini Nano X, as the name suggests it is a Nano-speaker. It is ultra-portable and can disappear easily into your palm. It is so small that it can be carried in your shirt pocket too. Weighing around 48g, the Nano-X comes in a full metal body with a cylindrical build. It sports the speaker grille on top and a button at the bottom — nothing more than this. The bottom has a rubberised base to ensure it does not slip off a flat surface. A tiny LED indicator also settles on the bottom to show you the status of the speaker — Bluetooth, pairing, power on and battery. Having said that, on the whole, the speaker is well built with a sturdy metal finish and features in Mystic Grey, Midnight Blue and Crimson Red colour variants that make the Nano-X very cute and attractive.

Specifications:

The Nano-X is built using a magnetically shielded 33mm driver with an impedance of 4 Ohms, Signal-to-Noise ratio of ≥90db and a frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz. The total audio power output is 2 Watts. The Nano-X features a micro USB port to charge the internal battery, which is rated at 300mAh. The battery, when topped up, can run the speaker for 6 hours in total. Charging the speaker takes approximately 2.5 hours, but will depend completely on the type of charger being used.

Performance:

The Nano-X looks pretty tiny; but when it comes to audio quality and performance in terms of loud volumes, we have yet to see any other speaker come close to this baby. The Nano-X sounds surprisingly loud for its size and can fill any small-to-medium-sized room with ample sound. You can use this speaker as an extended audio accessory for your smartphone, laptop or tablet. Sadly, there is no 3.2mm audio jack that allows non-Bluetooth media players to connect. Casual quick parties, small get-to-gethers, or binge-watching on your smartphone are some simple areas where the Nano-X fits in perfectly.

While the audio quality is loud and clear, it does get a little distorted towards higher volumes. However, there is lack of bass, but we cannot complain here due to the speaker's size.

The speaker supports Bluetooth v4.1 and has an operating range of 33ft. The portable speaker supports A2DP, AVRCP and HFP Bluetooth profiles.

The speaker has a single button on the bottom and mentioned earlier, this is purely for power on/off. But similar to the Click 2, the Nano-X's button also acts a remote shutter for your smartphone for clicking those group or wide angle selifes. The speaker also has a built-in microphone for calling and can be handy while having conference calls as it can fill up an entire room of your office/conference room quite comfortably. The button also acts as a regular in-line remote control for playing/pausing or skipping tracks and also for calling or redialing numbers.

Verdict:

If you usually use your smartphone for music and videos and also share screen time with friends around, then the Nano-X is what you should consider. It is loud, clear, feature-rich and definitely tiny. The high portability and good performance are what we consider as worthy a price tag of Rs 1,790.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.