REVIEW: Motorola ROKR EQ5 ultra portable bluetooth speakers

[Guest dwallersv]

My latest BT gadget. I'm really getting to be a nut about these toys. Anyway, using a BT headset to listen to internet radio or stored music is great, but I've found there are plenty of situations where I'd like to be listening but still need to be able to hear the rest of the world, and the activity in question is just physically awkward with a headset in some mild ways (for instance, I was hanging some bifold doors the other day, and my Moto S9-HD headset, that I love, doesn't like you swivelng your head around much).

So, I started the internet search for a bluetooth speaker. Required was stereo A2DP support, decent sound, enough power to be loud. After searching around, I settled on the Motorola EQ5. It's a neat little package with sound far bigger than its size.

First, my pics, then the narrative:

From the pictures you can see that it is almost exactly the same size as the O2.

CONSTRUCTION/BUILD

This is a solid, well-built accessory, with metal speaker covers, quality plastic where plastic is used, and nice aesthetic touches like the chrome M logo on the front, rubberized plastic on the bottom and edges for "cling" on whatever surface it's placed on, attractive chrome trim around the front edge and the top "phone" button.

In addition, there is a sturdy hinged stand on the back that can be pulled out to prop up the unit at a good angle for transmission into the room area where you are listening.

Now, obviously due to the size this unit will not be going "boom" in the low-end bass range like much larger speaker drivers. However, Motorola has done everything they can to squeeze out as much bass from this little device as is physically posible. First, the speaker drivers themselves are large, full ovals that fill the space provided for them, as opposed to the typical cell-phone "speaker" which is usually a tiny, dime-sized piece of vibrating cellophane, utterly incapable of reproducing anything below 1kHz with any fidelity. These drivers do a good job down into the low hundreds of Hz range.

Still, these are (relatively) tiny speaker drivers when it comes to music. You won't be "feeling" the bass. However, Moto has gone one step further and ported these drivers, something generally a more high-end stereo speakers, woofers, etc. This was clearly a design decision to really give some respect to audiophiles (again, within the limitations of something this size), and was a design decision and effort that took some effort. The result? Speaker ports on the upper right and left sides of the unit where, when music is playing and there is bass content, you can indeed "feel" the bass if you put your fingers near the sides.

What does this mean? Again, this will not thump your tummy and toes with a banging bassline. However, the porting make a tanigble difference to your ears, the richness of the sound, and in the end delivering a pleasing fullness to the sound. I tried plugging the ports with a piece of kneadable eraser, and the difference in audible bass response was significant.

Buttons are smartly placed for easy access (see the pictures). On the front face are the volume up/down buttons at the top, track/chapter back, play/pause, track/chapter forward on the bottom. On the top edge is the "phone" button, which is used to answer calls, make voice-dial calls. In between the - and + volume buttons at the top front is a multicolor status LED (more on this later).

Finally, on the lower left side is a microUSB connector under a rubber cover, used for charging (AC adapter included) the internal LiION battery. On the lower right is a similar cover beneath wich is a standard 3.5mm input jack for wired input (basically a line-level jack). With this you can use the speakers with a non-BT device that has stereo out.

OPERATION/FUNCTION

This is a full-featured hands-free BT phone device. There is a tiny (cell-phone equivalent) microphone on the right side. Full stereo hifi A2DP sound.

The unit is turned on via a small slide-switch on he bottom edge of the unit. Once powered up, a pleasant little "ding" sounds, and the status LED lights up solid blue. The LED is quite bright -- too bright, IMO, which is probably my biggest "con" with this accessory. The light, especially when connected and playing sound, can be an annoying distraction, since it blinks. In particular, while watching video on your phone and using the MQ5 for sound, the light is rather annoying. I simply covered mine with a square of black electrical tape, since it isn't essential.

While solid blue the unit is waiting to pair, or connect with a device it is already paired with. In the latter case it will simply connect, the LED will change to green, and then go out, occassionally blinking on for a moment to remind that the unit is connected.

Once connected, the 5 buttons on the front can be used in the typical manner with a BT A2DP device. Volume up/down, track forward/back, and pause/play are typical, so I won't go in to detail here. As is included on some devices, pressing and holding some of these buttons invokes additional functionality of the AVCRP profile: Pause/play -> stop; REW/FF for the track back/fwd buttons (subject to support of these functions on your player). So, the 3 control buttons actually provide 6 control functions.

One note about the status LED: When an A2DP channel opens (this is different from the device being connected), the LED changes to a slow, steady pulsing rather than a blink. As I said, this can be very annoying under certain circumstances.

On the top of the unit is the multifunction Phone button, very similar to this control on most BT handsfree devices. With the button you can answer calls, reject calls, redial, voicedial, etc.

SOUND QUALITY

Fabulous. Again, this is not your home-theater stereo speakers, so appropriate expectations are necessary. That said, this speaker unit sounds excellent. It is decent for listening to music while doing chores or home-improvement projects. IF listening to talk radio (something I like to do when, say, hanging doors :(), it is without criticism.

The unit includes SRS WOW HD enhancement built-in -- similar to the MotoROKR S9-HD headset. This can be toggled with a button combination. I leave it on -- it does a nice job of enhancing low-end and increasing perceptual stereo separation.

Plenty of power in this little baby. Turned up full is simply too loud. Not distorted, just too loud! A full charge on the battery lasts... well... a long time. I don't know how long, because I haven't drained it empty yet in any situation. I've had the thing playing all day -- 7-8 hours -- and it still wasn't signaling it was about to die. Good enough for me!

Now, don't expect audiophile stereo separation from something like this unless you're pretty close, and right in front of it. Still, stereo perception is not non-existent, but to be real here, it's not going to reproduce spatial relationships in music (or anything else) like a pair of isolated earbuds will.

OTOH, there is stereo perception there even from a good distance away compared to a mono speaker. Perhaps it's those ports on the sides which aim in opposite directions from each other.

Finally, as a speaker phone this accessory is da bomb! If you need a SP as part of your business/job on a regular basis, you can't beat this little gem. Get one. Works much, much better than the O2 itself in this role, and works great for a meeting placed in the middle of a conference table. It includes echo cancellation and noise reduction, so as an SP it works waaaaay better than the O2 (or pretty much any cell phone) on its own. I haven't used it much as an SP, but the few times I have it seemed like we were using a high-end, expensive, Polycom, not a little cell phone speaker dealio.

PRICING / AVAILABILITY

Okay, this is almost the best part of the whole review. Moto lists the EQ5 in the Motorola Store for $119.99US. At that price I never would have bought one.

However, the genuine article, brand new, can be had on the street for $35 -- that's not a typo. At that price you're getting bare-bones, no fancy packaging, bulk-packaged OEM version. I got mine from online retailer cellphoneshop, $35.99, $4.99 S&H, for a total of $40.98. What a deal! For the price of a decent dinner, you can have one of these.

Overall I highly recommend adding this to your stable of BT accessories. You'll get years of great use out of it, with your O2, but as with all BT devices, it can be used with lots of other things. BT iPODs (are they here yet?), laptops, heck -- anything. An ultraportable speaker has so many uses... on vacation? Speakerphone call with the family and grandparents back home. All sorts of things.

Edited June 2, 2010 by dwallersv