Last week, one of our employees ordered the new FugooXL Bluetooth Speaker for their home entertatinment. Ordering this $200 speaker wasn’t a light decision (most purchases above $20 are), but after the copious amounts of reviews that touted its performance he found it hard to resist.
One of the key factors of his decision making process was the its Waterproof & Dustproof ratings, especially with their outdoor lifestyle needing to be uninterrupted. It can handle mud, snow, water, and (reasonable) drops with ease while still looking stylish. That in addition to boasting true 360-degree sound and a 35 hour battery life, and we were sold.
Upon recieving the device in the mail, we immediately noticed the great graphics and imagery that was complimented by quick and concise information. The surface of the box was softer to the touch and had a nice sheen to it, that didn’t get lost even in strong lighting. The structure felt very sound and solid, keeping everything in place on it’s interior.
When opening, I noticed the nice details of it’s inner box, a repeatitive pattern that mimics what we’d see later on the speaker itself. It’s sheen was even lower that the exterior, adding a nice visual compliment to the imagery. Even after opening, the finish stayed fairly consistent and scratch free.
This is definitely by and away one of the most stylish and well executed bluetooth speakers that we’ve ever seen. It stands simply, with some nice color breaks and surface changes that aren’t neccessarily striking but just seem to be right. Even the little detail of the “Fugoo” label on the edge of the rattan-like mesh was a nice detail to add to it’s visual feel.
And it didn’t stop there, it felt like the more and more that we dug into the details, there was just more and more to find what we liked.
One of the key styling features is the ability to also exchange the speaker mesh for different environments (or just if yours gets dirty). I can’t see using this feature very often, but even the way that it’s taken care of seems very well thought out. The tolerences of the mesh to the speaker are very tight, snugly clinging to the body of the speaker, and are affixed by two screws on its base.
Even “naked”, the speaker has a nice presence to it. But, it’s definitely a different one altogether… It’s sleek exterior instead reveals what feel more industrial, more ready to be rough and tumble than elegant in it’s form.
The deeper and deeper we dove into the speaker, the more cool details I found. From the molded through buttons on the exterior of the speaker mesh to the way the bracing connects on the ends, everything seemed considered and poured over. I’m still actively looking for all the paritng lines on the speaker mesh interior…
Even the was the speakers point up slightly is purposeful, aiming better at the listener. This thing is built like a tank, Fugoo defintiely did their homework on material choice and conscious engineering for durability.
In short, pretty damn good… It’s a solid projector, for everything from modern techno and rap to classic rock and folk music. Now, I’ll preface for those audiophiles out there that it still will not be your best audio experience (a properly tuned loudspeaker with aluminum/carbon fiber cones will still out perform easy), but it’s definitely far better than the swath of Beats Pills and JBL speakers that seem to be everywhere these days.
It did struggle a bit on Heavy Metal and Post-Hardcore though, I’ll note. Some of the secondary guitars would flood the speaker and drown the trill of the drums. And in certain heavy bass situations (Hip-Hop, specifically) the driver wouldn’t pull back to prevent tonal reverb through the casing and not immediately punch the lyrics right afterward. But again, this is nit-picking, it’s a wonderful sounding box…
No… For a couple of reasons: First and Foremost being that I DIDN’T buy it, I’ll let it’s owner in the company do that. The second is that’s unrealistic, so I decided to go a more common route. I had to work on our garden, everything from getting in the dirt and de-weeding to watering the plants.
Even giving it a couple quick sprays, there wasn’t even a hesitation in the sounds, even bringing it down into the dirt. It was a welcome change to just gardening in quiet or having to drag out a plug-in speaker.
Oh yeah, without a problem. We left it on all evening, even after using it for 3 hours the previous night and the next morning we used it to get ready. Additionally, even after that, we used it to boost up the charge of one of our cell phones we forgot to plu in (another nice feature). Even bringing it back into the office it had a significant charge to still use.
I would highly reccomend this speaker. If you are willing to spend the high-entry, it’s more than worth the money. It sounds great, pairs easily, goes anywhere and just lasts. The only thing I would say is that for me, it’s a bit large; I’d want soemthing a bit tinier (hence why I bought a Cambridge SoundWorks Ooontz Angle 3 after this).
But the details in the design, it’s solid construction, and amazing sound are what sold us, and definitely exemplify our Form Follows Reality philosphy of purposeful design.