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Bose SoundLink Revolve full Review
Bose is one of the best-known lifestyle audio brands in the country, and much like Apple, its products usually look fantastic and cost a lot. Recently, the company added a pair of Bluetooth speakers to its SoundLink series. The SoundLink Revolve and SoundLink Revolve+ boast of 360-degree sound and are IPX4 rated for water resistance.
Today, we’ll be testing the Bose SoundLink Revolve, which is the smaller of the two. This speaker retails at Rs. 19,900, which is more than twice the price of similarly featured competitors such as the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom. No doubt you’re paying a hefty premium for the brand name, but let’s see if Bose has managed to deliver audio that is good enough to justify this as well.
Design
The Revolve takes the design of the SoundLink Mini II and stretches it into a cylindrical shape that slightly resembles the Dalek robots from Dr. Who.
It features a strong aluminum housing which comes in either silver or black and features a rubberized base and buttons. The speaker feels extremely well made and should put up with being tossed in a bag with some keys and knick knacks.
On top of the speaker you’ll find buttons for controlling every feature of the speaker, including volume, playback, Bluetooth 4.0, aux and power. Bose’s multifunction button controls everything from music playback to activating voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant. The SoundLink revolve works great as a speakerphone for taking calls, something the UE Wonderboom, another well-regarded speaker that we reviewed earlier this month, lacks. Its microphone is located on top of the speaker, so it’s able to hear your voice from any direction.
Performance
The biggest reason go to with the SoundLink Revolve over one of its flat-faced friends is if you want omni-directional sound. With it, you can move around and experience the same sound wherever you are. This is great for parties so everyone can have the same listening experience no matter where they’re sitting.
In terms of volume, the SoundLink Revolve does a great job of pumping music loudly in all directions. That said, if you place it at the center of the room, the speaker lacks some bass response but that can be remedied by placing the speaker near walls to help reflect sound and increase bass response.
Overall, the Bose SoundLink Revolve’s sonic performance is excellent, especially when compared to our other favorite 360-degree speaker, the UE Wonderboom. Where the Wonderboom sounds strained, the Bose plays loudly and effortlessly.
Bass response also sounds richer and more controlled than the Wonderboom, which features a mid-forward sound. However, you should take into account that the Wonderboom is half the price of Revolve.
Compared to the aging SoundLink Mini II, the SoundLink Revolve sounds almost as good but can’t match the expansive soundstage and instrumental separation of the Mini II – though, admittedly both speakers sound very good and you’ll be hard pressed to notice the difference unless you listen to them side by side
Battery
The built-in battery is rated to run for up to 12 hours on a single charge. In our tests, we managed to get 9 hours and 21 minutes of continuous playback which is well short of the rated 12 hours. Considering that we had the volume cranked up to about 70 percent most of the time, this isn’t too bad. Charging the speaker from zero is a painfully long wait though, even if you’re using the bundled adapter. It takes a good three to four hours to recharge completely. There are also no audible prompts to tell you when the battery is running down – the speaker just shuts down when it’s depleted.
Verdict
For its size, the Bose SoundLink Revolve offers incredibly loud and warm sound. It handles low notes effortlessly without you having to blast the volume. However, as good as the speaker is with bass delivery, this can be its downfall as it simply devours the mid-range at high volumes in some tracks. Also, this is not the speaker for you if you enjoy high-resolution music files as there’s little reward to be had.
The design of the driver is such that you don’t need any surface to reflect off. In fact, it sounds best when placed in open spaces. Build quality is excellent, and we like that this device can withstand some degree of exposure to liquids. If we could change anything, we would have liked quicker charging. Perhaps Bose could have incorporated some sort of fast charging method.
The SoundLink Revolve is quite expensive at Rs. 19,900. Its bigger sibling, the Revolve+, costs Rs. 24,500 for which you get a larger driver and better battery life. The Bose SoundLink Revolve is a good-looking little speaker that manages to make nearly any audio source sound pleasant, and sometimes, that’s all that matters.
Price (MRP): Rs. 19,900 /310.53$
