The Tribit StormBox Pro has just launched, bringing yet another quality speaker to Tribit’s lineup.
This time around they’re trying to deliver a bigger, more expansive sound compared to the smaller, portable speakers and earbuds that we’ve enjoyed here at Talk Android. Can they scale up that success to something in a bigger form factor like this?
Let’s find out.
Sturdy Design
The StormBox Pro, as the name implies, is designed to be a little more rugged. Can it survive an actual storm? I can’t answer that, but I can tell you it’s pretty durable anyway.
The speaker is housed in a taller cylindrical package, not unlike what you might see from Bose or Sony. At a glance, it’s honestly not tough to mistake it for a Google Home or Echo, either.
There’s a tough fabric finish that’s built to withstand some drops and spills, and Tribit says this box is IP67 rated, which means it can handle rain, pools, sand, or most other things that you’ll find outside. Take it to the pool or the beach and don’t worry about it
You’ll also get a handle on the speaker that coincidentally makes it easy to carry around. Underneath that handle, you’ll find some generously sized buttons for Bluetooth connectivity, volume control, and other things, like the XBass mode. We’ll talk about that later, though.
The bottom rear of the speaker houses the USB-C charging port, plus a standard USB-A port for using the speaker as a portable battery. Pretty handy extra feature to toss in there.
You can check out some of our other reviews to see that we’re pretty big fans of the Tribit sound here at Talk Android, and that’s generally just smaller speakers and earbuds. For a bigger speaker like this, we had high expectations.
Tribit FlyBuds 3 Earbuds review: Another solid contender
Tribit StormBox Micro speaker review: Buy this cheap Bluetooth speaker
Tribit QuietPlus 78 Bluetooth headphones review: Budget audio king
Booming Sound
There’s a lot to love in the StormBox Pro package. It’s a 360-degree speaker, which means no matter where you put it, people can hear it. No dead zones because half the people at the party are hanging out behind the speaker, and no worrying about perfectly positioning the speaker to sound good.
Even without the XBass setting turned on you’ll hear plenty of low end filling out your music without getting fuzzy or muddled, even at high volumes. The XBass mode turns that up to 11 and really pounds the low end. It’s better for party situations, because here you can hear some notes start to get muddied up from all of that bass response. Fortunately, it sounds fantastic without the extra bass, so the toggle is nice to have.
The mid-range is full for delivering even complex instrumental work, and the high end stays crisp and sharp so vocal melodies will slice through. It’s an extremely good party speaker that all but the most intense audiophiles will enjoy.
I will note that the soundstage was a bit disappointing here, despite its 360-degree audio. It won’t struggle to fill a room up with sound, but you’re not getting much separation and nuance in the audio because of that design. If you’re chasing that true stereo sound, however, you can pair two of these together.
Features and Battery Life
Tribit didn’t skimp on the feature set for the StormBox Pro. The speaker itself has some pretty fantastic battery life on its own, lasting for up to 24 hours on a single charge. But you can get creative and use the built-in power bank to charge your own phone up, too, and never worry about losing music in the middle of hanging out. If you did happen to forget to charge it, the USB-C charging port is universal and pretty quick to get you back in the action.
Everything else you’d expect from a nice speaker is here, too, including Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, aptX decoding, multi-point functionality for remembering multiple paired devices, and it all comes in at less than 3 pounds. Sure, that’s not light for a speaker, but the laundry list of features make it easy to overlook.
So should you make the investment?
Unless you’re looking for something extremely portable, then yes. At $119 you’re getting a pretty fantastic deal that’s going to more than hold its own against heavy hitters from big audio brands. Bose’s small speaker, for instance, typically runs around $129, and their 360-degree audio speaker costs more than double what Tribit asks for the StormBox Pro. You could get two of these and chase that stereo audio experience instead
The design is a little plain, but if you’re the type to always have music playing while you’re hanging out, and you frequent potentially electronic dangerous areas such as beaches or perhaps the bathroom, then this choice is going to be extremely hard to beat, and your wallet won’t hate you for this one, either.
Tribit StormBox Pro | $119 | Amazon
