I’m sure I’ve said it before, Bluetooth speakers are a dime a dozen and often follow one of two designs: rectangular or cylindrical. Our Xoopar Xboy Stereo review takes a look at a pair of cute looking Bluetooth speakers that can be used in tandem to provide a stereo sound experience while streaming music from your favourite device. Read on to see how they sound!
Specifications
The Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speaker has the following features and specifications:
- Wireless Speaker with massive bass (10W)
- Built-in hands-free speakerphone
- Micro-SD card slot
- Breathing body light
- Can pair 2 Xoopar Xboy Stereo for stereo sound experience
- Wireless version: Bluetooth v4.2
- Transmission distance: Up to 10m (33′)
- Output power: 10W
- Frequency response: 90Hz – 16KHz
- SNR: >80dB
- Battery Type: 2000mAh Grade A Li-ion rechargeable battery
- Battery life: 8 hours (medium volume)
- Input power/current: DC 5V/800mAh
- Recharge: Micro-USB
What’s in the box
- Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speaker
- USB to Micro-USB charging cable
- User Manual
- Safety Guide
- 1-year warranty
Design
Right off the bat, you’ll notice the fun, boy-style design of the aptly named Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speaker. The main speaker portion rounds out the top of the head which is finished in a mesh fabric. Around the head about where you’d wear a headband is a solid plastic piece which wraps around the entire head portion.
On the backside of this plastic piece is where you’ll find the Micro-SD card slot, Micro-USB charging slot, 3.5mm AUX jack, LED light, skip back, play, and skip forward buttons, and finally the light toggle button on the far right.
Underneath the headband, the head style continues with a soft touch plastic with an inverted V in the middle creating the look of a pair of glasses. This soft touch plastic piece wraps around the back and down towards the neck area. Underneath this, and rounding out the head portion of the design is the lower face which is constructed of a metal speaker grille. While it offers some differentiation of the body parts, the only component under this grille is the microphone which is located by the inverted V cutout.
Below the head is the rest of the body in a somewhat squashed, bulbous shape sitting atop a pair of oval-shaped feet. The tummy of the speaker lights up as well, giving it a fun look but also allowing it to double as a night light if that’s something you need. On either side of the body are two arms with slightly open hands (cables fit nicely in here for whatever reason you may have to use it for that). The arms are adjustable up and down from about 90º (parallel to your desk) to about 45º down.
On the bottom of the feet are an ovalish rubber piece to prevent sliding around while the speakers are on a shelf or desktop. There is a clear plastic piece which should be removed in order for the feet to be effective.
Overall, the Xoopar Xboy Stereo speaker is pretty solidly designed with durable materials which are sure to stand the normal beatings inflicted on devices by kids. That’s not to say they look cheaply made by any means and given the design choice, I suspect these speakers will be more favoured by kids. In the words of my 11-year old daughter when she first saw them: “awwwwwwwww… they’re so cute!!!”
We were sent a pair of speakers to test the stereo functionality. Our pair came in mint and pink, you can also get them in orange, black, or gray.
Ease of Use
For the most part, the Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speaker is pretty easy to use. Turn the speaker on by pressing the play button on the back for 3 seconds. At least that’s what the manual said, in reality, it took more like 8-10 seconds. When first turning the speaker on, it will exclaim rather loudly “Hello, I am ON!” and the LED light will start blinking blue. It will also, again loudly, exclaim “Looking around!” Locate the Xoopar Xboy Stereo on your smartphone and pair it. Once successfully paired, the speaker will then exclaim “I GOTCHA!” While the audio cues were fun the first time, they are quite loud and do get a bit annoying after repeated use. After that, use as you would any other Bluetooth speaker.
The play button can be used to play/pause the current track as well as answer or end a call. The previous track button also doubles as volume down if you hold it for about 3 seconds instead of a single press while the next track button does the same but increases the volume.
Finally, to turn the speaker off, hold down the play button on the speaker for 5 seconds (again, that’s what the manual says but it’s more like 8-10).
As the name implies, the Xoopar Xboy Stereo can be used in tandem with a second speaker to give you a left and right channel while listening to music. To do this, the instructions say to turn both speakers on at the same time, select one as the host by double pressing the play button and the second will pair to the first. The first couple times I couldn’t get this to work as instructed so I paired one speaker to my smartphone first. After it was paired, I turned on the second speaker, double pressed the play button on the host speaker and still nothing. Turning them both off then on again and I heard the “Hello, I am on!” in tandem with one speaker saying “I gotcha” after having connected to my phone while the other said “Looking around.” After a few seconds, the second speaker gave the “I gotcha” as it paired with the first speaker. Each time after that, when turning on both speakers at the same time or the second speaker after the host was connected would result in them pairing in stereo mode.
Sound Quality
Out of the box, the Xoopar Xboy Stereo speaker is quite loud at max volume. Fortunately, it’s still pretty crisp and clear with very little distortion at maximum volume but, unfortunately, there is no bass whatsoever. Without an equalizer enabled, the speaker definitely favours the high end/vocals but isn’t very balanced at all. When an equalizer is enabled on your smartphone, you can get mediocre bass levels albeit more punchy and which doesn’t resonate as you’d expect the bass to do. In addition, the maximum volume is reduced by about one-third when we used the equalizer on our testing device. While this is fine when streaming from a device that has an equalizer, if you’re using the microSD card slot or AUX port with a device that doesn’t have a built-in equalizer, you’ll be stuck without the bass end of the spectrum.
The sound quality noticeably increases when you pair two Xoopar Xboy Stereos together. You’ll still be lacking the bass end of things without an equalizer but there is a bit more balance between the mid and higher end of the spectrum and we all know stereo sound sounds better than mono or pseudo-stereo. When used as a pair, the primary speaker will be the left channel and the secondary speaker will be the right. Being accustomed to single Bluetooth speakers with multiple tweeters for stereo or stereo-simulated output, the difference when using two speakers with distinct channels separated by a larger distance is definitely the way to go.
Reception/Call Quality
While these speakers are listed with the usual 10 meter/33 feet reception range, I was able to leave my smartphone in the basement and walk up to the opposite end of the second floor of my house and still have solid reception on them. To be honest, I was actually blown away by this as most speakers started to cut out about halfway up the steps to the second floor.
As far as call quality goes, it’s pretty decent as well when you’re within a foot or so of the speaker so the caller can hear you adequately without you having to shout. That’s pretty standard fare for most Bluetooth speakers that have speakerphone functionality.
Battery Life
Xoopar claims a battery life of about 8 hours on medium volume with these speakers. While it doesn’t specify if this is with the “tummy light” on or off, we were able to get around 8 hours on medium volume with the speakers while the LED was in pulsing mode. With an equalizer off, the medium sound volume is plenty loud for most rooms, with an equalizer on I found that about 65-70% volume was a bit more acceptable.
When depleted, the speakers take roughly 2 1/2 hours to fully recharge. While charging, the LED light on the back is solid red and turns off once the speaker is fully charged.
Price/Value
Looking at the materials used in the construction of the Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speaker, I expected them to retail in the $30-40 range. Unfortunately, these speakers will cost you $79.99USD a piece which means you’ll have to shell out close to $160 for a pair if you want to use them in stereo mode. Personally, I feel that the $35 price point is much more reasonable for these speakers, maybe even a bit high considering the unbalanced sound quality.
Wrap-up
While the Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speakers are definitely cute to look at, due to their mediocre balanced sound quality, they are definitely priced high. This is definitely unfortunate as the sound quality is acceptable for kids (my daughter really liked them and didn’t complain at all about the sound balance), the price is a bit high as an impulse buy for your kids. Should you choose to anyways, they do feel pretty durable and you can almost be guaranteed that your pre-teen will love the child-like look and LED tummy on these “cute” speakers.
*We were sent a pair of samples of the Xoopar Xboy Stereo Bluetooth speakers for the purposes of this review.
Last Updated on April 13, 2018.
