Our Wonderful engineering team is back with another exclusive personal gadget review. This time, we have some special stuff for your guys as I am sure many of you would have heard about HiddenRadio 2 that raised nearly 720,000 $ at the Kickstarter campaign last year. We just received the speaker a bit late since the batch manufacturing of new gadgets takes some time and extends the timeline of the delivery process. Now that I have got these speakers, I am really pleased I waited for it to ship and didn’t cancel because this diminutive speaker is a force to be reckoned with. After the first version of HiddenRadio speaker, this is a good upgrade, and it is getting popular reviews throughout due its quality sound and seamless connectivity.
First of all, since seeing the promotional video at the Kickstarter campaign and backing it, I knew that this new sound component won’t look anything like a normal speaker in real life, and it was true. The packaging itself was minimal and opening it revealed the gadget in a nice arrangement complete with a safety guide, high-speed charging cable and a thank you booklet from the Hidden team.
Design
The whole size of the new HiddenRadio is not more than a big coffee cup with its 3.4-inch radius design and 4.3-inch height. The beautiful metallic cap of the speaker and small size make it appear like a new Apple product, and you are somewhat baffled not to find that bitten fruit’s logo on the back of the device. Immediately you appreciate the design and feel satisfied that somebody other than Apple is capable of making such a beautiful device. A simple tap on the top of the device deploys the speaker, and the cover raises itself to expose the speakers. It is a neat way to make it compact enough for portability and retain the same metallic design when the gadget lies dormant. Hell, it can be a decoration piece in your living room and get noticed by any visitor!
Working and Sound
The new speaker from Hidden can be paired via Bluetooth to almost any device and operating system since it supports every platform. There are apps coming for Android and iOS within the next few months that will add unique functions to the speakers. It automatically gets paired with NFC-enabled phones by tapping on the top with it, and it will immediately start streaming sounds without any lag. The sound quality is superb and balancing highs, and bass in it has been one of the achievements of the Hidden team since speakers either tend to be either good with bass or with highs. The top of the speaker is a touch system that can be used to play/pause sound, change track and even adjust the volume. The feeling of controlling a speaker from the top is good because there is no more fiddling around with buttons or wires all the time.
Speaker Coupling
If you buy two such speakers, they connect with each other and provide some of the best stereo experience you have seen in portable speakers. So, once they have paired, you can place them apart at different places in your home, and it will give the desired effect. The long-lasting 24 hours operating battery means that it won’t need charging for a long time, and it will last for a whole trip if used smartly. It can also be used as a speaker for your alarm since we can’t get into the bed with our delicate phones in our pockets and outside, they don’t provide enough sound level to wake you up. The 90 dB power of these speakers means that you will be up in no time, but do adjust the volume before going to speak or the loudness will make you want to crush it to pieces while in sleep!
Verdict
Although the price of the new sound system from Hidden is relatively expensive compared to other versions out there, its utility, quality and dynamic design means that it makes up for the cost. Overall, a very nice speaker with an awesome stereo quality that is missing from portable speakers. Its Kickstarter campaign is still giving away these speakers at an early bird price of 149$. So if you are a music junkie looking for a portable solution, this is a must buy!
This is a review written by me on behalf of HIDDEN. The opinions and text are all mine.