Review of the Philips SBA220 2x 2W XSL Acoustic Portable Speaker System
With MP3 players taking pride of place on every kid’s Christmas list this year, you should make sure you can join in their fun by getting these affordable Philips SBA220 neat and portable MP3 speakers. Design |
The attractive but generic design makes these SBA220 portable speakers compatible with any design of music player. They only come in one design, which is predominantly white, but also has black and metallic light blue areas too. The shape of the speakers is nice, and the tiny size makes them perfect for popping in your bag between work and home. Philips have brandished their logo on the front as well as adding the name of the device around the speaker. On top of each speaker an L and R have been printed, to indicate which side they should be on. On the right speaker you’ll find a power switch, a bass switch, and a volume wheel. There is also a power indication light. In between the speakers is a 40cm rubbery wire, which is just the optimum length in our opinion. You can hide the power cable behind in a hidey hole, which keeps things nice and neat. Once you’ve hidden that away, you can pop it into the included travel pouch. |
| Features |
| Philips has provided the SBA220 2 x 2 watt speakers with XSL acoustics and the most high tech materials to bring you double the power of a traditional speaker of the same size. How have they managed that? You may wonder – as we did, so we found out for you. Philips has used innovative high-tech materials, like titanium cone and neodymium magnet, to produce an awesomely powerful sound output. And the XSL Acoustics are produced by combining treble and mid range sound with bass. Philips’ SBA220 speakers feature dynamic bass boost to enhance any low tones, which are often caused due to the compression of MP3 files. We liked how you can control the amount of bass, as sometimes it is nice to have the option of not having as much. The 3.5mm plug means you can connect and listen to a huge range of devices, including MP3 players, HDD, CD, and DVD players. To power up the device you’ll need six triple ’a’ batteries, alternatively you can use the power lead provided. |
| Performance |
| Plugging our Creative Labs Zen Vision:M 30GB MP3 player into Philips’ SBA220 portable speakers, was a complete pleasure, providing us with a realistic and powerful sound performance. The dynamic bass was great, rejuvenating the MP3 files by giving them a bit of oomph. Even with the volume cranked right up, the SBA220 speakers didn’t falter. The clearly robust sound that the pair of speakers managed to provide was a complete pleasure to listen to. We got just under 6 hours out of our Duracell Plus batteries, but when they were finished it just cut out without warning. We would have liked an indicator to warn us that the batteries were running low, like on some devices the power light changes colour to warn you. |
| Overall Opinion |
| Apart from the batteries giving up the ghost without any warning, our whole experience with Philips’ SBA220 portable speakers was an all-round good one. The audio performance was superb, with impressive bass and clear dialogue, even at powerfully high volumes. |
| By Lisa Malyon |
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Dynamic Digital Bass 2 x 2 watt speakers XSL acoustics Attractive generic design | Lacks battery life indicator |
| Factor | Rating |
|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 3/5 |
| Durability | 3/5 |
| Style | 3/5 |
| Service & Support | 3/5 |
| Value for Money | 3/5 |
| Recommend | 1/5 |
| Overall | 4/5 |