Best Bluetooth Speaker under 2000 Rs / 30$ : PORTRONICS SOUND DRUM 10W (Water Resistant)

Modes and Connectivity Options

Portronics Sound Drum is a 10 watt Bluetooth Speaker that looks good and sounds good. First of all, this speaker has 4 modes- Bluetooth mode, FM Radio Mode, Aux Mode and USB mode. The Bluetooth version is 4.2. To turn on the speaker, just press the top circular button for 3 seconds and it will turn on. By default, it should enter Bluetooth mode and the blue light will start blinking, which indicates that it is waiting for a Bluetooth device to be paired. You can simply pair your phone or another Bluetooth audio source with it and start playing audio. Just open Bluetooth settings in your phone and “Sound Drum” will be listed. If you don’t see it in the list, just refresh and it should be there. After pairing, the blue light will be constant. To increase the volume of your phone or any other audio device that is connected, press and hold the plus button, and the minus button to decrease the volume. To change the mode to FM Radio mode, simply press the same circular button once. The volume level of the phone sometimes goes down to 0% when the device gets paired with the phone. Then after a few seconds, it automatically goes back to the normal volume level and then works just fine. However, it may be an issue with my phone or Bluetooth version incompatibility. So, not exactly sure about that and surely it is not a deal breaker. When you turn on the device, it will resume the same mode which was activated when it was turned on the last time. So, if it was in FM Radio mode before turning off, it will start with FM Radio mode when you turn it on again.

Below this rubber flap, there is a LED light at the top which is also visible when the flap is closed. Then there is a full sized USB port and that means you can use a pen drive or even a card reader to play music. Below that, there is an auxiliary port or Aux port and in Aux mode, you need to plug-in an 3.5mm Aux cable from your audio source (laptop, smartphone etc.) to the speaker and it will automatically enter the Aux mode. In aux mode, it has independent volume control and it will not change the volume of the connected device directly.

The most Important Aspect : Sound Quality!

The Portronics Sound Drum has dual 5 watt speakers. The sound output was good and the loudness of the sound is really surprisingly high for it’s size. It is really loud and while editing it’s unboxing / review video for YouTube, I had to get the volumes down in a few places in this video where this speaker was playing music. It has a dedicated bass radiator too and again it sounds surprisingly good for the price. The bass radiator is upwards firing. The sound is like 360 degree sound though it is not confirmed but it seems that way. It has an inbuilt microphone. That means, you can use it to take calls with it’s really loud speakers.

How does it look?

It looks good with it’s textured body, it is kind of braided and made with special synthetic fibers which also makes it water resistant! No specific water resistance rating was provided in the specifications mentioned in the Portronics website but it is mentioned there that this device is protected against water splashing and light rain. The rubber flap protects the ports from liquid spilling. I was really amazed to witness it’s water resistance capabilities. I am really impressed!

Battery Life

It has a 1800mAh battery inbuilt. Portronics claims that it has a playback time of 6 hours. As per my testing, if you use it with 50% to 60% volume most of the time, you will get close to 6 hours of playback time. You can charge it with a regular smartphone charger or power bank or even from the USB port of your laptop or desktop with any Micro-USB cable or the supplied one. The led will be red while charging and when the charging is complete, the led will turn off automatically.