House of Marley Chant Mini Bluetooth speaker review: UK pricing and availability
House of Marley Chant Mini Bluetooth speaker review: Design and build quality
House of Marley puts a huge emphasis on the design and materials used in its product range, offering consumers a blend of technology and nature with the “socially responsible” materials it uses to craft its range of speakers and headphones. This is no different with the Chant Mini; featuring REWIND fabric covering (30 percent hemp, 30 percent organic cotton and 40 percent recycled plastic bottles), blended bio-plastic, recyclable aluminium and a bamboo trim ring, the speaker definitely has a unique style that the company has crafted over a number of years and iterations of the Chant and Chant Mini. Its small (14 x 10.8 x 10.8cm) bongo-esque design and curved shape makes it easy to carry around either in the hand or in a bag/rucksack, and weighing a fairly lightweight 399g, it’s something that can be left in a bag and forgotten about until required. It can also be transported using the provided carabineer clip, allowing users to clip it to the outside of a rucksack or even a pair of jeans for listening to music on-the-go. While we think the black Marley Chant Mini is stunning, there are other colour/material combinations available including covers made from hemp, denim and more, all for the same £39.99 price tag. Read next: Best cheap headphones
House of Marley Chant Mini Bluetooth speaker review: Features and connectivity
So, what does the Marley Chant Mini offer apart from a rather attractive design made from socially responsible products? Let’s start with the basics – the Chant Mini features Bluetooth 4.1 for wireless audio playback with a range of 10m, although this is likely to decrease if objects (like walls) are in the way. As well as Bluetooth connectivity, it also features an Aux-in port for those without Bluetooth connectivity. In terms of battery life, you get around 10 hours per charge, although we’ve found this to vary depending on the volume of the speaker. Of course, costing only £39.99, the Marley Chant Mini isn’t going to offer advanced features like the dual-speaker pairing capabilities of the Jam Double Down, or the gesture/touch enabled controls of the UE Boom, but what it does offer is a built-in mic. This allows the speaker to be used as a speakerphone, negating the need to disconnect the speaker when receiving a phone call while playing music. Read next: Best tech to take on holiday
House of Marley Chant Mini Bluetooth speaker review: Audio
While the Marley Chant Mini looks the part, it’s the audio quality that is the most important aspect of any Bluetooth speaker – features like doubling up, gesture control and more mean nothing if the speaker itself sounds bad. While we’re not expecting Bose-quality audio with a £40 speaker, it’s still a decent amount for somebody to slam down on a speaker, and the quality should reflect that – but did it? During our testing, we played a number of songs from a variety of genres – from Hip Hop to Opera – to see how the Marley Chant Mini performed. What we were surprised about was the amount of bass produced by the tiny speaker, as we could feel slight vibration through the floor when it was sat on a table. However, while the bass and mid tones were well rounded and deep, the highs let the speaker down, as the audio lacked the crispness with vocals that you find with well-balanced Bluetooth speakers. It’s pretty loud for a small speaker too, although it has to be said that as the volume of the speaker increase, the quality of audio decreases. This isn’t unique to the Marley Chant Mini though, as many budget Bluetooth speakers perform in the same way – they sound decent at mid-range, but distort and become quite harsh at high volume. Looking for something a little more high-end? Take a look at our best high-end Bluetooth speaker chart instead. Lewis Painter is a Senior Staff Writer at Tech Advisor. Our resident Apple expert, Lewis covers everything from iPhone to AirPods, plus a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops and gaming hardware. You’ll also find him on the Tech Advisor YouTube channel.
