These days you really need a speaker in every room in the house, right? Keep the music going wherever you are. That’s what Tribit thinks, at least, and they’ve released a new bedroom-minded speaker for just that purpose.
We’re taking a look at the aptly named Tribit Home speaker, testing out how well it works as a speaker and as something to keep by your bed at night. Worth it? Let’s find out.
Traditional design
- Clever design
- Lack of tactile buttons
- Large display
While yes, it is called the Tribit Home, you can definitely tell Tribit designed this one to feel more at home in a bedroom or on an end table. It sports a tall, rounded design with a big, circular screen on the front for showing a clock. Trust me, it’ll blend in with all of your other standalone alarm clocks from the 2000’s.
But don’t think that means it’s not still a modern speaker. You’ve got a bright white LED strip that runs all along the sides and top of the speaker, and it’s finished in a Nest Mini-esque gray fabric material. The front houses the screen, which isn’t colored or anything fancy, but it will work like a very functional alarm clock. You’ve got the time front and center, plus a date right below that. It’ll also tell you whatever you’re playing, whether via a Bluetooth connection or if you’re using some of the built-in sounds or FM radio in the Home.
Touch-sensitive buttons are built into the silver ring around the clock display that lets you control volume, change inputs, adjust the clock, pause music, set alarms, etc. It’s pretty fully featured here, and the buttons work pretty well despite not having any real feedback. However, I will say that might be a concern if you’re using this primarily as a bedside clock; not having tactile buttons can be pretty tricky at 6 in the morning in a dark room.
The back of the clock is where you’ll plug in the power adapter, and it comes with an additional FM antenna to improve reception if you want to use it. The front left side houses a USB-A and USB-C port if you want to use this to replace your bedside phone charger, too.
Solid sound
- Good bedroom sound profile
- Not very bright
The Home speaker is relatively pretty large, especially compared to things like Lenovo’s Smart Clocks. That helps a lot in the sound quality department. Tribit’s speakers are already some of our favorites here at Talk Android, and the Home speaker doesn’t struggle in this department.
It’s surprisingly thumpy with a very pronounced punch in the low end, which really helps fill out your music from something that’s focused on sitting in a bedroom. The mids are also very pronounced, which makes a lot of sense for this kind of speaker; vocals cut through very well, and your podcasts will sound very clear. I’d imagine a lot of bedroom music listening will be on the softer side, or the aforementioned podcasts or audiobooks to wind down, and the speaker feels custom-built for that.
It’s not incredibly bright, however, with the highs rolled off compared to the low end and mids. It might struggle to fill a party room with sound with that sound profile, but at least won’t sound harsh in other situations.
- Not quite smart, not quite dumb
- Fun LED features
- Not very customizable
This device fits somewhere in between a smart device and something like a smart clock or smart display. It’s not a smart device, to be clear; it doesn’t run any form of Android or any software at all, really. It is still pretty loaded with features that you don’t commonly see in Bluetooth speakers, however.
You can set alarms on the speaker, plus set a snooze time for your music or built-in sounds. If you don’t want to listen to the radio or your phone, you can have it play white noise like wind, waves, or gentle piano music, if you’re the type that needs some background noise to fall asleep. If you do want to step things up, though, you can turn on that light strip into an RGB setting that syncs with your music. Fun? Sure, but you’re probably not sleeping with that on.
You can just set the light to white, though, which makes for a great night light or just something in the mornings when you’re not ready to turn all of the house lights on. It’s bright with no way to control it, unfortunately, so you can’t dim it to match a 2AM mood.
If you’re looking for other ways to play music, you can also pop an SD card in the speaker or listen to FM radio stations (remember those?) if there are any in range.
I don’t think there’s any way to take it off of 24-hour time, at least not that I can find. That’s really my only complaint as a non-military American, but hey, small gripes.
Worth it?
- Big sound without useless software
- Bulky
Tribit speakers and headphones have easily become some of my favorites on the market, so it’s cool to see them branch into something that’s a little smarter and more advanced than just another Bluetooth speaker.
I think the Home speaker does a lot right and makes sense for a lot of people, myself included. It’s a quick way to bring a standalone alarm clock back into the bedroom and put on some background music, and it’s still a little cheaper than some contemporary smart speakers for the same sound quality.
But I think it’s competing with some other devices, like a Nest Mini, that sounds good enough, don’t take up as much space, and cost a bit less. You’d lose the clock and alarm going with a Nest Mini, but I think Tribit is going to have a tough time making the case for people to go back to that instead of just using their smartphones, no matter how good the speaker sounds.
If you fit in the demographic for the Tribit Home, you’re going to love it. I’m just not sure how big that demographic is these days. Maybe for round 2, we can get a full smart device with Google Assistant?
Tribit Home Speaker | $89 | Tribit, Amazon
