What is the HTC BoomBass speaker?

The HTC One was a phone that raised the bar for phone speakers, featuring a pair of BoomSound drivers that sit to each side of the screen for a proper stereo image. The HTC BoomBass ups the sound quality of these speakers further.

It’s effectively a subwoofer for an HTC One, HTC One Mini or HTC Desire 601 that doubles as a phone stand.

HTC BoomBass – Design and features

The HTC BoomBass is a little cube-shaped speaker, an innocuous accessory for your big shiny phone that’ll look cute on a desk or bedside cabinet.

When not holding a phone it’s a plain plastic cube, but the bottom slides out along a rail, letting it turn into a phone stand. This is an optional extra – if you want it to stay a dinky little cube, it can.

The HTC BoomBass uses Bluetooth to communicate with the phone, and has NFC to make pairing with a phone quicker and easier. As such, it works just like many of the new Bluetooth speakers of this year.

The speaker’s grille is on the top of the BoomBass box, and there’s a little port on the rear of it to improve the bass response – which is what this accessory is all about. The HTC BoomBass has an internal battery charged through a microUSB port on the rear, making it an effective portable speaker. Of course, its cuboid shape means it is a chunky little beast.

HTC BoomBass – Sound Quality

In terms of specs at least, the HTC BoomBass seems to have its sound quality cred down. It uses the aptX codec, which transmits music at a higher bit-rate than ‘standard’ Bluetooth. Of course, in reality it’s overkill in a box like this.

Bluetooth quality loss is most noticeable in the treble register – which the BoomBass doesn’t handle – and any device of this size, sound quality is limited primarily by the size of the driver.

HTC couldn’t tell us exactly how big it is, but given the size of the box it’s unlikely to be much more than two inches. That’s pretty small for a bass driver.

However, it does work. The HTC BoomBass speaker significantly increases the beefiness of the HTC One’s sound, making it sound more powerful, if not exactly room-filling.

It’s important to manage your expectations with the HTC BoomBass, though. It’s a neat little thing, but as it matches its output with the BoomBass speakers of the phone it’s paired with, volume output is always going to be limited.

Early Verdict: a neat idea, but is it worth the money?

The HTC BoomBass is a neat idea, and a solid extension of what HTC got right with the HTC One BoomSound speakers. However, if you want pure sound quality, you’d probably be better spending on your money on something like the Pasce Minirig, which cuts out all the flashy tech features in favour of sound quality and battery stamina.