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- SoundPulse® Technology.
- Up to 20 Hours of Playtime.
- IPX7 Waterproof.
- TrueWireless Stereo Pairing.
- Built-in Microphone.
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Model: Tronsmart Trip
Price: MSRP Approx £20
Website: Tronsmart
Review Reference: RC081
Manufacturer Specification:
1 x Speaker
1 x User Manual
1 x Warranty Card
1 x USB-C charge cable
1 x AUX jack cable
Video Intro
Preamble
Welcome to the ReganCipher review of the Tronsmart Trip 10w Bluetooth Speaker. This is my third speaker review from Tronsmart - it has been out a while, I just forgot to publish the review! So no excuses for not having had sufficient testing time.
Tronsmart are now fully established as a mid range technology vendor at a very competitive price point, with their focus almost solely on audio products - mostly speakers and headphones. Founder Eric Cheng, a self-confessed geek, founded the company with his first paycheck (where was he working?!), building a lab to disassemble audio products with the aim to recreate them in his own vision at a cost-efficient price point. After bringing in ear-chewing trophy-winning footballer Luis Suarez as an ambassador, the company have gone from strength to strength, building a close relationship with Qualcomm, and bringing two of their chips to market first with the Apollo Bold and Apollo Air. For speakers, the range is now almost as extensive as their earbuds, ranging from 7, 10 and 15w mini speakers through to the 60w Force Pro and Mega Pro.
The Trip is one of a number of Tronsmart products making use of the Actions Semi ATS chipsets. Actions are an intelligent audio SoC vendor who have taken advantage of Qualcomm's supply issues in 2019 to forge relationships with vendors such as Tronsmart, offering comparable performance at a much lower cost, and this has benefited both the speaker and earbud markets by virtue of increased competition. Where enhanced codec support is less of an issue, ATS chips become very attractive, and it is interesting to see Tronsmart capitalising on this with use in a number of their recent budget releases.
You can see the full range of Tronsmart speakers here
Review
The Trip is Tronsmart's affordable, portable speaker you can pop in your bag and take out and about without any fuss, dramatically improving the sound you get from your phone speakers. We know the market for such portable speakers is there - you don't have to look too closely to see the comparisons with the JBL Go3 - but Tronsmart have aimed to take a good idea and improve on some of the pain points of JBL's customers, adding a microphone, the ability to 'daisy chain' the speakers to achieve stereo sound, improved water resistance (IPX7 vs IP67), double the output (10w vs 4.2w), quadruple the battery life (up to 20 hours vs up to 5) and in only a slightly larger package.
The Trip is very nicely designed, with a mesh material, rubberised feet and soft plastic/rubberised edges protecting the inputs and preserving the excellent IPX7 water resistance, meaning you could take the speaker in the pool for up to 30 minutes if you so desired.
The unit is around 17cm at it's longest, 8cm tall and just under 4cm in depth. This is certainly larger than the JBL unit, but it's still just about small enough to fit in a very loose jacket pocket - it weight less than 100g more (approx. 300g) so it is more than portable for most, will certainly fit in your bag, and the fabric loop at the edge adds a dimension of portability for hooking onto things, both in action and in transit.
Like the JBL unit, it has similar, large hardened tactile buttons and easy to understand and intuitively control symbols. At the top you have a power button, followed by Bluetooth, and then play/pause in between volume up and down. Double tapping the power hails voice assistant, and holding the volume buttons down for a couple of seconds will turn them into track forward/backward buttons. Call functions are similarly brought into play with the play button - pressing once will pick up a call, holding down will reject. Holding the power and Bluetooth buttons will clear the memory.
I mentioned earlier the stereo mode by connecting a pair of Trip speakers together - this can be done by turning both speakers on, then double tapping the Bluetooth button to tell them to pair. I didn't test this unfortunately, but I have seen it in action and it is a really nice feature to have and does make a difference.
Unlike some of Tronsmart's previous releases, you can't pair up to 100 of these, although I'd say that's probably a blessing! There is also no app support, but again, this is a pointless feature I'd rather be stripped out anyway.
On the side you see a rubberised door housing the inputs - you only have a USB for charging the device, and a 3.5mm jack for audio players or (sadly) older phones. I didn't notice any benefit to using the cable - Bluetooth worked well with the device, with really quite impressive range (advertised up to 18m, and in-keeping with my own findings). There is no SD slot, I presume to ensure immersion integrity, but that isn't really a problem for me. It may be for you, so bear it in mind.
Sound is surprisingly rather good on the Trip. It was much louder than I imagined, and unlike many speakers of this size did not suffer especially from distortion on higher volumes due to the SoundPULSE technology Tronsmart include on pretty much all of their speakers. Tronsmart have gone for clarity with elevated upper mids bringing out vocals - bass is much more 'neutral tuned' to avoid bloat and bleed, and I have to say it's really quite pleasant to listen with, balancing out punch with longevity. The trebles can become tiresome, maybe even a bit screechy if you're listening to lots of female vocals, but the average listener probably won't notice.
Battery life is superb - I got very close to 20 hours on the first listen, and even when testing calls and distortion levels (i.e. higher volumes) I still got over 15 hours. This is truly 'best in class', beating offerings from JBL, Tribit and Soundcore, and makes the Trip a really convenient travel companion for hanging out with friends at the beach, or terrorising their neighbours in the garden.
The Trip sells at just under £20 on Amazon UK - link to Amazon - coming in at just over 30% cheaper than the inferior JBL product and less than half the price of the Tribit Stormbox - I'd have no hesitations recommending the Trip over those products. If red doesn't take your fancy, the Trip is also available in black, sage green, aqua blue, mustard orange and camo.
Tronsmart Review Inventory:
Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro
Tronsmart Bang
Tronsmart Studio
Tronsmart Apollo Air
Tronsmart Battle
Tronsmart Onyx Apex
Tronsmart Apollo Q10
Tronsmart Onyx Free
Tronsmart Apollo Bold
About Tronsmart:
Tronsmart are now fully established as a mid to premium range earbud vendor, with their focus almost solely on audio products - mostly speakers and headphones. Founder Eric Cheng, a self-confessed geek, founded the company with his first paycheck (where was he working?!), building a lab to disassemble audio products with the aim to recreate them in his own vision at a cost-efficient price point.
After bringing in ear-chewing trophy-winning footballer Luis Suarez as an ambassador, the company have gone from strength to strength, building a close relationship with Qualcomm, and bringing two of their chips to market first with the Apollo Bold, and then the Apollo Air, which uses the Qualcomm QCC3046.
For speakers, the range is now almost as extensive as their earbuds, ranging from 7, 10 and 15w mini speakers through to the 60w Force Pro and Mega Pro.
Tronsmart remain one of my favourite mid-tier vendors, outrunning their budget competitors by releasing flagship products alongside the run-of-the-mill releases, and demonstrating transparency and commitment to quality and innovation with every release.
Instagram: regancipher
YouTube: regancipher
Squiglink: regancipher
Socials: Biolink
Model: Tronsmart Trip
Price: MSRP Approx £20
Website: Tronsmart
Review Reference: RC081
Manufacturer Specification:
- Brand: Tronsmart
- Model: Trip
- Power: 10w RMS
- Frequency response: 20hz-20KHZ
- Drivers: Dual Drivers
- Chipset: Actions Semi ATS2853
- Bluetooth Version: 5.3 A2DP/AVRCP/HFP/HSP
- Codec Support: SBC
- Mic: Yes
- Input: Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack
- Features: SoundPulse ®, Voice Assistant
- App Support: No
- Dimensions: 170 x 81 x 41mm
- Weight: 328g
- Battery Life: Up to 20 hours
- Charge Time: Up to 3 hours
- Input: 5v 800ma
- Charge Type: USB-C
- Water Resistance: IPX6
1 x Speaker
1 x User Manual
1 x Warranty Card
1 x USB-C charge cable
1 x AUX jack cable
Video Intro
Preamble
Welcome to the ReganCipher review of the Tronsmart Trip 10w Bluetooth Speaker. This is my third speaker review from Tronsmart - it has been out a while, I just forgot to publish the review! So no excuses for not having had sufficient testing time.
Tronsmart are now fully established as a mid range technology vendor at a very competitive price point, with their focus almost solely on audio products - mostly speakers and headphones. Founder Eric Cheng, a self-confessed geek, founded the company with his first paycheck (where was he working?!), building a lab to disassemble audio products with the aim to recreate them in his own vision at a cost-efficient price point. After bringing in ear-chewing trophy-winning footballer Luis Suarez as an ambassador, the company have gone from strength to strength, building a close relationship with Qualcomm, and bringing two of their chips to market first with the Apollo Bold and Apollo Air. For speakers, the range is now almost as extensive as their earbuds, ranging from 7, 10 and 15w mini speakers through to the 60w Force Pro and Mega Pro.
The Trip is one of a number of Tronsmart products making use of the Actions Semi ATS chipsets. Actions are an intelligent audio SoC vendor who have taken advantage of Qualcomm's supply issues in 2019 to forge relationships with vendors such as Tronsmart, offering comparable performance at a much lower cost, and this has benefited both the speaker and earbud markets by virtue of increased competition. Where enhanced codec support is less of an issue, ATS chips become very attractive, and it is interesting to see Tronsmart capitalising on this with use in a number of their recent budget releases.
You can see the full range of Tronsmart speakers here
Review
The Trip is Tronsmart's affordable, portable speaker you can pop in your bag and take out and about without any fuss, dramatically improving the sound you get from your phone speakers. We know the market for such portable speakers is there - you don't have to look too closely to see the comparisons with the JBL Go3 - but Tronsmart have aimed to take a good idea and improve on some of the pain points of JBL's customers, adding a microphone, the ability to 'daisy chain' the speakers to achieve stereo sound, improved water resistance (IPX7 vs IP67), double the output (10w vs 4.2w), quadruple the battery life (up to 20 hours vs up to 5) and in only a slightly larger package.
The Trip is very nicely designed, with a mesh material, rubberised feet and soft plastic/rubberised edges protecting the inputs and preserving the excellent IPX7 water resistance, meaning you could take the speaker in the pool for up to 30 minutes if you so desired.
The unit is around 17cm at it's longest, 8cm tall and just under 4cm in depth. This is certainly larger than the JBL unit, but it's still just about small enough to fit in a very loose jacket pocket - it weight less than 100g more (approx. 300g) so it is more than portable for most, will certainly fit in your bag, and the fabric loop at the edge adds a dimension of portability for hooking onto things, both in action and in transit.
Like the JBL unit, it has similar, large hardened tactile buttons and easy to understand and intuitively control symbols. At the top you have a power button, followed by Bluetooth, and then play/pause in between volume up and down. Double tapping the power hails voice assistant, and holding the volume buttons down for a couple of seconds will turn them into track forward/backward buttons. Call functions are similarly brought into play with the play button - pressing once will pick up a call, holding down will reject. Holding the power and Bluetooth buttons will clear the memory.
I mentioned earlier the stereo mode by connecting a pair of Trip speakers together - this can be done by turning both speakers on, then double tapping the Bluetooth button to tell them to pair. I didn't test this unfortunately, but I have seen it in action and it is a really nice feature to have and does make a difference.
Unlike some of Tronsmart's previous releases, you can't pair up to 100 of these, although I'd say that's probably a blessing! There is also no app support, but again, this is a pointless feature I'd rather be stripped out anyway.
On the side you see a rubberised door housing the inputs - you only have a USB for charging the device, and a 3.5mm jack for audio players or (sadly) older phones. I didn't notice any benefit to using the cable - Bluetooth worked well with the device, with really quite impressive range (advertised up to 18m, and in-keeping with my own findings). There is no SD slot, I presume to ensure immersion integrity, but that isn't really a problem for me. It may be for you, so bear it in mind.
Sound is surprisingly rather good on the Trip. It was much louder than I imagined, and unlike many speakers of this size did not suffer especially from distortion on higher volumes due to the SoundPULSE technology Tronsmart include on pretty much all of their speakers. Tronsmart have gone for clarity with elevated upper mids bringing out vocals - bass is much more 'neutral tuned' to avoid bloat and bleed, and I have to say it's really quite pleasant to listen with, balancing out punch with longevity. The trebles can become tiresome, maybe even a bit screechy if you're listening to lots of female vocals, but the average listener probably won't notice.
Battery life is superb - I got very close to 20 hours on the first listen, and even when testing calls and distortion levels (i.e. higher volumes) I still got over 15 hours. This is truly 'best in class', beating offerings from JBL, Tribit and Soundcore, and makes the Trip a really convenient travel companion for hanging out with friends at the beach, or terrorising their neighbours in the garden.
The Trip sells at just under £20 on Amazon UK - link to Amazon - coming in at just over 30% cheaper than the inferior JBL product and less than half the price of the Tribit Stormbox - I'd have no hesitations recommending the Trip over those products. If red doesn't take your fancy, the Trip is also available in black, sage green, aqua blue, mustard orange and camo.
Tronsmart Review Inventory:
Tronsmart Onyx Ace Pro
Tronsmart Bang
Tronsmart Studio
Tronsmart Apollo Air
Tronsmart Battle
Tronsmart Onyx Apex
Tronsmart Apollo Q10
Tronsmart Onyx Free
Tronsmart Apollo Bold
About Tronsmart:
Tronsmart are now fully established as a mid to premium range earbud vendor, with their focus almost solely on audio products - mostly speakers and headphones. Founder Eric Cheng, a self-confessed geek, founded the company with his first paycheck (where was he working?!), building a lab to disassemble audio products with the aim to recreate them in his own vision at a cost-efficient price point.
After bringing in ear-chewing trophy-winning footballer Luis Suarez as an ambassador, the company have gone from strength to strength, building a close relationship with Qualcomm, and bringing two of their chips to market first with the Apollo Bold, and then the Apollo Air, which uses the Qualcomm QCC3046.
For speakers, the range is now almost as extensive as their earbuds, ranging from 7, 10 and 15w mini speakers through to the 60w Force Pro and Mega Pro.
Tronsmart remain one of my favourite mid-tier vendors, outrunning their budget competitors by releasing flagship products alongside the run-of-the-mill releases, and demonstrating transparency and commitment to quality and innovation with every release.
DISCLAIMER
I would like to thank Tronsmart for providing this review unit.
It can be gotten here: https://www.tronsmart.com/products/tronsmart-trip-waterproof-portable-speaker or https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003888564088.html
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Tronsmart Trip is a mighty mouse bluetooth speaker that packs a punch, and is well suited for bringing on trips as a daily beater (as its name suggests). Weighing in at a very affordable $22 USD, it has great BT connectivity, waterproofing, long battery life and more than decent sound for music, meetings and videos.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bluetooth: 5.3
Bluetooth codec: SBC
Frequency range: 20Hz-20KHz
Connection distance: 18m/59ft (Open Area)
Waterproof rating: IPX7
Dimensions: 169.5 x 81 x 40.7mm/6.67 x 3.19 x 1.6inch
Weight: 328g/11.57oz
Playtime: Up to 20 Hours (on a 50% volume)
Charging time: 3 Hours
Play modes: Bluetooth, Aux-in
Tested at $21.99 USD
ACCESSORIES
In addition to the speakers, these are provided:
1) 1 x Type-C Cable
2) 1 x Aux Cable
BUILD/UTILITY
The Tronsmart Trip comes in a rectangular shape, build is very good. The speakers are covered in a mesh-like material.
It weighs 328g and is of quite a small and unobtrusive profile, that is well suited to be brought along as a daily beater set for trips (as per its namesake).
There are 2 rubber feet at the bottom to give added grip. A reinforced fabric handle sticks out from one end of the fuselage for easy carrying about, or even to hang it somewhere. The other end of the fuselage has a hidden rubberized plug that reveals ports for charging and Aux cable.
The 3.5 mm Aux cable port allows the Trip to be used with standard DAPs, smartphones and PCs/laptops. There is no SD card support on this speaker, but one can't expect the moon for the low cost. The Trip is charged via a Type-C cable.
The top of the speakers has controls for bluetooth, play/pause and volume. There's also a power button down to turn on or off the Trip, just by holding it for a few seconds. The Trip will power off automatically after 10 minutes if it does not pair with any device through bluetooth. When the battery is low, the speaker will automatically power off as well.
The buttons work as advertised:
Tronsmart rates the Trip as having IPX7 waterproofing, which theoretically means that it can be submerged up to 1 meter in water for 30 minutes! Well I didn't dare to dump my Trip into a pool of water, but I've tried bringing it outdoors in a light rain and it survived well!
FUNCTION/CONNECTIVITY
I tested the Trip with multiple bluetooth devices (both android and apple based, laptops/PCs and even some DAPs like the Sony A55 and Shanling Q1), they recognized the Bang easily and quickly. Once connected, the volume can be controlled from the Trip itself, or via the upstream source (eg smartphone).
Bluetooth connectivity is excellent on the Trip. It can hit about 10 meters or so with thick walls, and around 20 meters without obstructions. I didn't have any drop outs even thru thick walls, though there were stutters with these thicker walls. I didn’t detect much latency with music via bluetooth or wired connection.
One bugbear, is that the Trip only supports SBC codec. Sadly, AAC, aptX, aptX HD and LDAC are not supported codecs.
Unlike its bigger brother, the Tronsmart Bang, the Trip is currently not supported by the Tronsmart app, so there are no customizable or EQ options available.
For battery life, the Trip is advertised to have an extremely respectable 20 Hours (at 50% volume). It is thereabouts during my testing, but as per most electronics, the battery life will be expected to progressively worsen with repeated charges. The Trip's charging time is about 3 hours which is slightly slow, but I'll close one eye on this considering the very affordable pricing.
The Trip supports various voice assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Google, and it has a mic to take calls! The Trip also has a True Wireless Stereo Pairing option to allow one to pair another Trip with it for a "surround sound" effect.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The Trip sports dual full-frequency driver units with dual passive radiators. The Trip can get deafeningly loud for indoor usage or in a small hall; perhaps for outdoor use, it doesn't have as much headroom as the bigger brother Tronsmart Bang, but the Trip is more than adequate for meetings and events in an enclosed space. I'm also glad to report the Trip doesn't distort even at very loud volumes, so the driver seems quite well implemented.
The Trip sounds like a mild V-shaped tuning, sporting boosted mid-bass and upper mids/lower treble, with a slight recession in the midrange. Bass is mid-bass focused with some sub-bass roll-off, bass speed and texturing is average. Upper mids are forward without being overly shouty. Treble has some occasional sibilance but brings good clarity and details. Imaging and instrument separation are decent enough for the price, they beat the Sony SRS XB01 in technicalities. Timbre is quite natural.
COMPARISONS
Against the Sony SRS XB01 (which costs $42 USD), the Trip beats it in technicalities (imaging, soundstage, micro-details, clarity, instrument separation). The Sony has a thicker note weight but is more muddy and veiled, though it is smoother and less sibilant.
The Sony also has noticeably worse latency and less stable bluetooth connectivity. The Sony is also rated at IPX5 waterproofing (inferior to the Trip) and has a markedly shorter battery life of just 6 hours.
This is one case where a more expensive price does not equate to better sound and utility; the Tronsmart Trip is majorly better than the Sony in almost every parameter.
CONCLUSIONS
For a very compact size, and at a very affordable 22 bucks, the Tronsmart Trip is a mighty mouse bluetooth speaker that packs a punch, with excellent price-to-performance ratio. It has great BT connectivity, waterproofing, long battery life and more than decent sound for music, meetings and videos.
Well there are slight compromises; the Trip suffers from slight sibilance, no app/customization support and no aptX, aptX HD, AAC, LDAC support. However, those are small nitpicks in the big scheme of things, considering the Trip costs the price of a restaurant meal! Indeed, I'd gladly skip a meal to get a Trip or two.
Living up to its namesake, the Trip is quite a nice sonic companion to bring on a road-trip or holiday, as a daily beater set, or even for use as a small speaker at home or in meetings.
I would like to thank Tronsmart for providing this review unit.
It can be gotten here: https://www.tronsmart.com/products/tronsmart-trip-waterproof-portable-speaker or https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003888564088.html
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Tronsmart Trip is a mighty mouse bluetooth speaker that packs a punch, and is well suited for bringing on trips as a daily beater (as its name suggests). Weighing in at a very affordable $22 USD, it has great BT connectivity, waterproofing, long battery life and more than decent sound for music, meetings and videos.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bluetooth: 5.3
Bluetooth codec: SBC
Frequency range: 20Hz-20KHz
Connection distance: 18m/59ft (Open Area)
Waterproof rating: IPX7
Dimensions: 169.5 x 81 x 40.7mm/6.67 x 3.19 x 1.6inch
Weight: 328g/11.57oz
Playtime: Up to 20 Hours (on a 50% volume)
Charging time: 3 Hours
Play modes: Bluetooth, Aux-in
Tested at $21.99 USD
ACCESSORIES
In addition to the speakers, these are provided:
1) 1 x Type-C Cable
2) 1 x Aux Cable
BUILD/UTILITY
The Tronsmart Trip comes in a rectangular shape, build is very good. The speakers are covered in a mesh-like material.
It weighs 328g and is of quite a small and unobtrusive profile, that is well suited to be brought along as a daily beater set for trips (as per its namesake).
There are 2 rubber feet at the bottom to give added grip. A reinforced fabric handle sticks out from one end of the fuselage for easy carrying about, or even to hang it somewhere. The other end of the fuselage has a hidden rubberized plug that reveals ports for charging and Aux cable.
The 3.5 mm Aux cable port allows the Trip to be used with standard DAPs, smartphones and PCs/laptops. There is no SD card support on this speaker, but one can't expect the moon for the low cost. The Trip is charged via a Type-C cable.
The top of the speakers has controls for bluetooth, play/pause and volume. There's also a power button down to turn on or off the Trip, just by holding it for a few seconds. The Trip will power off automatically after 10 minutes if it does not pair with any device through bluetooth. When the battery is low, the speaker will automatically power off as well.
The buttons work as advertised:
Tronsmart rates the Trip as having IPX7 waterproofing, which theoretically means that it can be submerged up to 1 meter in water for 30 minutes! Well I didn't dare to dump my Trip into a pool of water, but I've tried bringing it outdoors in a light rain and it survived well!
FUNCTION/CONNECTIVITY
I tested the Trip with multiple bluetooth devices (both android and apple based, laptops/PCs and even some DAPs like the Sony A55 and Shanling Q1), they recognized the Bang easily and quickly. Once connected, the volume can be controlled from the Trip itself, or via the upstream source (eg smartphone).
Bluetooth connectivity is excellent on the Trip. It can hit about 10 meters or so with thick walls, and around 20 meters without obstructions. I didn't have any drop outs even thru thick walls, though there were stutters with these thicker walls. I didn’t detect much latency with music via bluetooth or wired connection.
One bugbear, is that the Trip only supports SBC codec. Sadly, AAC, aptX, aptX HD and LDAC are not supported codecs.
Unlike its bigger brother, the Tronsmart Bang, the Trip is currently not supported by the Tronsmart app, so there are no customizable or EQ options available.
For battery life, the Trip is advertised to have an extremely respectable 20 Hours (at 50% volume). It is thereabouts during my testing, but as per most electronics, the battery life will be expected to progressively worsen with repeated charges. The Trip's charging time is about 3 hours which is slightly slow, but I'll close one eye on this considering the very affordable pricing.
The Trip supports various voice assistants such as Siri, Cortana and Google, and it has a mic to take calls! The Trip also has a True Wireless Stereo Pairing option to allow one to pair another Trip with it for a "surround sound" effect.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS
The Trip sports dual full-frequency driver units with dual passive radiators. The Trip can get deafeningly loud for indoor usage or in a small hall; perhaps for outdoor use, it doesn't have as much headroom as the bigger brother Tronsmart Bang, but the Trip is more than adequate for meetings and events in an enclosed space. I'm also glad to report the Trip doesn't distort even at very loud volumes, so the driver seems quite well implemented.
The Trip sounds like a mild V-shaped tuning, sporting boosted mid-bass and upper mids/lower treble, with a slight recession in the midrange. Bass is mid-bass focused with some sub-bass roll-off, bass speed and texturing is average. Upper mids are forward without being overly shouty. Treble has some occasional sibilance but brings good clarity and details. Imaging and instrument separation are decent enough for the price, they beat the Sony SRS XB01 in technicalities. Timbre is quite natural.
COMPARISONS
Against the Sony SRS XB01 (which costs $42 USD), the Trip beats it in technicalities (imaging, soundstage, micro-details, clarity, instrument separation). The Sony has a thicker note weight but is more muddy and veiled, though it is smoother and less sibilant.
The Sony also has noticeably worse latency and less stable bluetooth connectivity. The Sony is also rated at IPX5 waterproofing (inferior to the Trip) and has a markedly shorter battery life of just 6 hours.
This is one case where a more expensive price does not equate to better sound and utility; the Tronsmart Trip is majorly better than the Sony in almost every parameter.
CONCLUSIONS
For a very compact size, and at a very affordable 22 bucks, the Tronsmart Trip is a mighty mouse bluetooth speaker that packs a punch, with excellent price-to-performance ratio. It has great BT connectivity, waterproofing, long battery life and more than decent sound for music, meetings and videos.
Well there are slight compromises; the Trip suffers from slight sibilance, no app/customization support and no aptX, aptX HD, AAC, LDAC support. However, those are small nitpicks in the big scheme of things, considering the Trip costs the price of a restaurant meal! Indeed, I'd gladly skip a meal to get a Trip or two.
Living up to its namesake, the Trip is quite a nice sonic companion to bring on a road-trip or holiday, as a daily beater set, or even for use as a small speaker at home or in meetings.
Tronsmart Trip Waterproof Portable Speaker
Tronsmart Trip is a new affordable Bluetooth speaker designed as a very portable, on-the-go-sized speaker that can still deliver on sound quality. The Trip is really meant as a throw it in your bag on the way out speaker solution and does well fulfilling that role.
Specs from Tronsmart
| Model | Trip |
| Color | Black, Blue, Grey, Red |
| Audio Codecs | SBC |
| Bluetooth Version | 5.3 |
| Bluetooth Range | 18m/59ft (Open Area) |
| Input Power | 5V/800mA via Type-C port |
| Output Power | 10W RMS |
| Microphone | Built-in |
| IP Rating | IPX7 |
| Play Time | Up to 20 Hours (on a 50% volume) |
| Charging Time | 3 Hours |
| Frequency Range | 20Hz-20KHz |
| Playing Modes | Bluetooth, Aux-in |
| Other Features | Stereo Pairing, Vibrant Color Options |
| Product Dimension | 169.5 x 81 x 40.7mm/6.67 x 3.19 x 1.6inch |
| Product Weight | 328g/11.57oz |
| Package Dimension | 182 x 99 x 48mm/7.17 x 3.89 x 1.89inch |
| Package Weight | 450g/0.99lbs |
| Package Contents | 1 x Tronsmart Trip Portable Outdoor Speaker, 1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable, 1 x Type-C Charging Cable, 1 x Warranty Card, 1 x User Manual |
Size Compared to Banana
Controls
All of the controls are located on the top of the Trip as large raised buttons for ease of use and visibility.
Inputs
Along with Bluetooth SBC codec, there is also an Aux next to the USB-C port for charging.
Pocket or Carry-able
The Trip is quite small and fits easily in man-sized pockets but there is also a carry loop if that does not work for you.
Sound
For those who are not familiar Soundpulse, this is a set of capabilities Tronsmart implements to increase sound quality in their speaker products. The gist of the problem is the small enclosure which is prone to more distortion and not enough stereo separation. Soundpulse mainly addresses those two issues and what is most noticeable is the front projection of sound, more focused than your typical bluetooth speaker at this price. It definitely has that room-filling sound for such a tiny speaker. Also part of Soundpulse is the combination of two full-range speakers paired with dual passive radiators. Again one of those features not easily found in other speakers at this price is no surprise for anyone who follows Tronsmart's portfolio of audio products. As I also have the Tronsmart Bang, which is a level or three above the Trip in price and sound quality, but the Trip and its front projection of music without much distortion does feel like it shares some DNA with the big brother Bang. What is missing from the big brother, the app support and EQ settings. What is not missing from the Bang, the ability to pair another Trip for true wireless stereo. OK, the Bang can pair with 100 units, but two paired for stereo is more than appropriate for this price. The Trip is more of a balanced signature, not bass-heavy, tuned well within the bounds of the dual drivers to prevent unnecessary distortion and work well with most popular music genres.
Waterproof
I did not test it but Trip is IPX7 waterproof. That is "IPX7: Can be submerged up to 1 meter in water for 30 minutes"
Conclusion
Tronsmart Trip is another in their line of quality outdoor speakers, this time aimed at those looking for the ultimate in portability while still bringing the sound quality. In that context, I think Trip is not only appropriately named but delivers on the promise of delivering quality tunes on your next trip or just stepping out for a good time in the yard.
