Inateck BP2001 Bluetooth stereo speaker [Review]

With smartphones and tablets increasingly becoming the focus of our entertainment a decent portable speaker is becoming an essential accessory if you don’t want to be tied to headphones or want to share your music with others.

Inatek's latest offering has a pair of 5W speakers mounted in a stylish, compact (around 9.5 inches long by 2.5 inches high) black and silver enclosure. It has a nice weighty feel and there's a slot in the top into which you can sit a smartphone or tablet -- a pop-out strut at the back prevents the unit from becoming top heavy and tipping over as well as keeping a comfortable viewing angle -- so you can use it to watch videos. A built-in microphone means you can make hands-free calls too. However, it isn't an actual dock so it won't charge your phone or tablet.

Of course you don't have to sit your device on the speaker, the BP2001 can also connect via Bluetooth from across the room and there's a standard 3.5mm input jack so you can attach it to just about anything with an audio out. It comes with a USB charging cable and an audio cable, though both of these are quite short.

There's a large button on the front that allows you to pause playback and accept calls. On the black ring around this are LED icons showing the state of charge and the current input source. There's no volume control on the speaker itself so you need to handle that from the playback device. The BP2001 will switch itself off after five minutes without a connection in order to preserve battery life. The battery itself is 800mAh and should give you around six to seven hours of playback.

So, what does it sound like? The answer is surprisingly good for such a small unit, it has a rich tone and decent bass and there's little distortion even if you crank the volume up.

There are a few minor niggles, the shiny black finish shows off every fingerprint and the cables are silly short, but at $29.99 on Amazon (£28.99 in the UK) the BP2001 represents good value for a speaker that is capable of producing a sound that's enough to fill a decent sized room.

More information on the BP2001 is available on the Inateck website.