Tronsmart T7 Review
A rugged and fun-sounding portable speaker
Verdict
A fun-sounding speaker with solid build quality at an affordable price, the Tronsmart T7 is a good companion for your outdoor jaunts.
Pros
- Robust build quality and waterproofing
- Fun, bassy sound
- Affordable
Cons
- Not quite 360-degree sound
- Low default volume
- Battery life levels very dependent on volume
Availability
- UKRRP: £59.99
- USARRP: $49.29
- EuropeRRP: €50
- CanadaRRP: CA$62.68
- AustraliaRRP: AU$69.62
Key Features
- 360-degree soundClaims to support all-round stereo sound from any direction
- 4 LED modesSwitch between different LED modes for party vibe
- IP ratingIPX7 water resistance
Introduction
Prospective buyers in the market for a portable speaker are not short of options. Whatever shape, size and or price point, there’s plenty to occupy yourself with when deciding.
Tronsmart is not the most recognizable name in the Bluetooth speaker market, but they’ve been plugging away at increasing people’s awareness – they even have footballer Luis Suárez onboard as a brand ambassador to help sink its teeth into the market. The T7 speaker is one of more than a dozen affordable efforts they have to pique your interest.
So even Tronsmart isn’t immune in offering their customers plenty to pick from, but what makes the T7 the speaker to choose over all the rest?
Design
- Good build quality
- Volume wheel
- Waterproof design
The Tronsmart T7 opts for the cylindrical design Ultimate Ears popularized with its Megaboom line-up in the mid-2010s. It’s a speaker that feels sturdy and hefty at 870g, skirting that fine line of being a ‘portable’ speaker.
Its black finish – the only colour it comes in – is rather nondescript, lacking the fun options of the Megaboom range. But there is some colour to be found with an LED halo of light at the top that pulses when music is played. A press on the power button (or a rummage through the app) switches through four modes to add a party vibe to this speaker.
The rest of its design hits all the expected points for a portable speaker. The fabric that wraps around much of the speaker feels coarse but also makes it easy to grip, the material is waterproof at IPX7 if you decide to take this speaker for a little splash at the seaside.
The rest of the speaker is made from hard plastic, tough enough to resist knocks and drops, with a wrist strap or lanyard for keeping it on your person or strapping it to a bag/trouser leg.
At the top is a volume wheel that clicks like one of those medicine bottle caps as it’s twisted to provide feedback, a rather intuitive way of managing the volume. Around the back are buttons for power, playback, activating stereo pairing, and a little flap that reveals the USB-C port for charging. Next to that is a card slot for inserting a microSD for playing music if you don’t want to use data by streaming over Bluetooth.
The overall look reminds me of the Sony SRS-XB23 speaker, except its girth is a little thicker, and the Sony speaker features a better dustproof rating.
Features
- Can call up mobile voice assistants
- Claimed 12 hours of battery
- App support
The Tronsmart T7 supports Siri, Google Assistant and Cortana voice assistants, though none of them is built in. A double jab to the play button brings up the voice assistant of choice on your mobile device.
You can take calls with this speaker if you want it to pull double duties when connected to your phone, and it is (according to Tronsmart) easy to switch between Bluetooth and a microSD card by tapping the power button twice. That hasn’t worked for me so far.
Twelve hours is stated for battery life but with the volume control (and LED lights) it’s difficult to gauge just how much battery is lost. If you leave the volume control ‘untwisted’, the speaker is not particularly loud, so a combination of the volume control and nudging the volume up on the source device brings it to a better footing.
It means after several attempts at draining the battery, at its ‘default’ volume barely any battery is lost, but at higher volumes the T7 experiences precipitous drops. Its true battery life is therefore tricky to get a bead on, but its reported 12 hours puts it among the likes of far more expensive efforts in the Sonos Roam and Audio Pro P5. It’s likely much less if you put the volume up.
Download and open the Tronsmart app and there are firmware updates, EQ options (Default, SoundPulse, Deep Bass, Classical, Rock and Custom) and the four LED light modes to choose from in RGB, Circling, Breathing and Beat-Driven.
Of the EQ options, SoundPulse is a DSP (digital signal processor) that allocates power to the speakers for the best performance, eliminating harsh noises, enhancing bass without affecting the rest of the frequency range and strengthening the stereo effect.
Sound Quality
- Bassy register to music
- SoundPulse DSP offers more clarity and crispness
- Energetic approach
Like many other portable speakers, the Tronsmart T7 has been caught up in the 360-degree audio craze, though this isn’t spatial audio of any kind but how the sound is dispersed from the speaker. Whether you stand or sit in relation to the speaker, Tronsmart says you get an even spread of stereo sound from its dual tweeter and woofer set-up.
And like other speakers that’s true up to a point. Stand in front and then jump to the other side and what happens is the soundstage is reversed. It’s not quite the illusion that the sound is the same wherever you are but at least the speaker isn’t directional to the point where listening positions are limited.
The SoundPulse DSP isn’t quite the upgrade on the default mode as you might expect. California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and Papas sounds thinner with SoundPulse switched on, the goal of the DSP seems to be to render music with more crispness and clarity, but I think in the process it can strip the speaker of some of its body and weight. Whether that’s a fair trade is up to you.
But whether you choose to go for the SoundPulse or any of the other EQ options, the Tronsmart T7 is a surprisingly entertaining speaker for its affordable price. Bass is properly thumping with 268 Badness; the bass extension has more depth and power than the Extra Bass branded Sony XB23. The Sony is perhaps the better balanced of the two across the frequency range, slightly crisper and detailed at the top end but its punchy bass doesn’t register as strongly as the Tronsmart does.
The T7 ekes out more clarity from Muse’s United States of Eurasia, carving out a space for vocals and projecting them better than the Sony, and when the track opens up the Tronsmart’s sense of dynamism is more apparent than on the muddier Sony. The T7 proves to be better with treble with this song than the Sony, registering more detail and clarity from the piano that plays throughout the track’s duration.
Compared to another speaker at the T7’s price, the ultra-compact Tribit Stormbox Micro 2, the Tribit’s tonality with the Muse track is a bit messier, the Tronsmart takes the lead at both ends of the frequency spectrum, though it should be considered the different size and shape of the two speakers as the Tronsmart has much bigger drivers to produce its sound.
There’s plenty of dynamism in Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, the difference between quiet and loud is pronounced enough to add excitement to the track; and vocals are consistently well-managed across a variety of songs and genres from The B-52’s bouncy and buoyant Love Shack, The Cardigans’ My Favourite Game or Hot Chip’s Huarache Lights.
It’s also a speaker that sounds spacious enough that there isn’t a sense of detail being obscured, although its slightly warm delivery does mean the midrange is perhaps not the cleanest or sharpest, but again, for a speaker that costs as much as this does, it’s not a deal breaker.
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Should you buy it?
If you want energetic, bassy sound on your outdoor treks: The T7 is a fun-sounding speaker, perhaps not the best balanced in its default mode, but if you like bass then this speaker produces plenty of it.
You need longer battery life: I’m not too sure whether Tronsmart’s 12 hours truly check out in the real world, it sounds quiet at default volumes and when it gets louder the battery life depletes faster than expected.
Final Thoughts
Though it may not look it from its appearance, fun is the word I’d use to describe the Tronsmart T7. The energetic and flowing sound along with prominent bass delivery generates excitement, a performance that’s more entertaining than some efforts around £100.
Its waterproof design ensures it won’t have trouble being used near water, though I’m not sure about the longevity of its battery life, which is very dependent on the volume music is played at. The 360-degree is perhaps not ‘true’ 360-degree sound, but it does make the speaker less directional and reduces the need for a sweet spot to get the best audio performance.
A fun-sounding speaker with solid build quality at an affordable price – there’s not much to dislike about the Tronsmart T7.
How we test
We test every wireless speaker we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested for a month
Tested with real world use
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FAQs
Yes, simply press the button power and the speaker cycles through the various light modes, one of them being the off position.
Full specs
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Jargon buster
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a method of wireless transmission that allows for the exchange of data between devices over short distances.IP rating
An abbreviation for ‘Ingress Protection Code’, which lets you know to what extent a device might be waterproof or dustproof.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
