Today we’re looking at the Solemate from Jabra. The Solemate is a durable, small footprint mobile Bluetooth 3.0 speaker and speakerphone.
Here is a video walkthrough of the device itself.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the Sole in Solemate refers to footwear and not to a philosophical concept. Sole means the sole of a shoe and the bottom of the solemate looks remarkably like a work boot. Cleverly hidden in the tread of the shoe is an included 3.5mm male to male adapter for AUX inputs. The cable itself is shielded in a woven nylon type material to give it durability. In the package you’ll find a stylish black protective bag, as well as the necessary cables to charge the device. The device shows three simple buttons on top, volume up and down as well as a multipurpose word bubble button. The word bubble button allows you to handle anything related to phone calls including a long press for voice dialing. The company that makes the solemate, Jabra, cut their teeth on Bluetooth earpieces and speakerphones and it’s apparent here as phone calls were very clear on both sides. Of course you need to consider proximity when using something like this. The Solemate is one of the larger mobile Bluetooth speakers on the market, but I find the size satisfying and it helps the bass as the unit has more air to push out to you. You can feel the sound of the Solemate. The mids can get a little buried at times but overall the sound is the loudest I’ve seen to date in the mobile Bluetooth speaker market. The sound quality is on par with the speaker I’ve called the best available overall, the foxL v2 by soundmatters (click here to see my recent review of the foxLv2). The Solemate is almost double the size of the foxL v2 though, and so the foxL retains its top title overall. Keep in mind while comparing, the Solemate does pack 3 speakers into its small enclosure compared to the standard 2 for most mobile speakers I’ve seen. It’s boasts 8 hours of overall battery life per charge and at the highest volume I didn’t get quite 8 hours, but very close. It also claims a 33 ft. range and I had no issue up to about 40 with an open view of the speaker.
Thank you again to Jabra for supplying their product for review.
Make sure you’ve seen the video walkthrough here.
Main advantage: One of the most rugged mobile speakers I’ve handled, dust and splash resistant, above average sound and loudness, auto pairing, great style, easily fills a medium sized room.
Main concern: Higher price and one of the largest still mobile speakers you’ll see.
Unique features: Omni-directional microphone for speakerphone with noise cancelling, rugged “sole” bottom grips during loud bass, ability to mute speakerphone calls
How much: Currently available on Amazon.com for $179.99
Alternatives: foxL v2 by soundmatters, Jambox by Jawbone, and many others
Is it worth buying: If you don’t mind the larger size, I haven’t seen a better mobile Bluetooth speaker overall.
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@gadgetPOP
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