Motorola Motorokr EQ7

No Gimmickry

Electrical stores are awash with little speaker systems that you can use to play music from an iPod or other device out loud.

There are so many on the market that manufacturers have to scratch their heads to come up with something that makes theirs stand out. What they need is a USP – and in the case of the Motorola Motorokr EQ7 the USP is... JBL.

Hi-fi aficionados will know that those initials stand for James Bullough Lansing, co-founder of a company that became part of Altec Lansing and founder of the JBL speaker company. JBL went on to establish a formidable reputation in the world of speakers, serving home and professional markets.

You might think that the use of the JBL name on a little unit like this is some sort of gimmick, but in fact the EQ7 sounds considerably better than anything so small and with such tiny speakers has any right to. The sound is clear, bright and attractive.

The design is unusual. The EQ7 is flat and squarish with rounded corners. The four little speakers point upwards, and though this is unorthodox it works well. The effect is as if the sound is jumping up at you.

There is Bluetooth on board and you can pair the unit with your mobile phone or other compatible music device and play tunes wirelessly, but why bother? It sounds just great with an old-fashioned audio cable and an iPod or other player.

The makers of some much larger iPod speaker set-ups describe their offerings as "portable" even though you would risk a double hernia if you tried to carry them very far. But the EQ7, which you can run off the mains or from batteries, is so small and light that it genuinely can be easily carried from room to room, into the garden or wherever.

The EQ7 is the sort of inconspicuous little item that you would probably walk past without noticing in the electronics store, but its sound quality and sheer convenience make it worth seeking out. My only reservation is the price, which seems a bit steep for a device such as this.

Because Motorola is a mobile phone producer it can't resist including a facility to let you make and receive hands-free calls over the EQ7, but I'm not sure who this would appeal to. For me hands-free only really makes sense when you're driving, and this is not designed as an in-car unit. If this feature were stripped out, perhaps along with Bluetooth, Motorola could launch a cheaper model – and if they did, I for one would buy it.

Price: Dh699


Verbatim

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