Edifier MP100 Review Portable Travel Speaker | Take your tunes on the road

Last Updated on June 14, 2020 by Christine Kaaloa

Outdoor Travel Speaker, Edifier MP100 Travel Speaker
Outdoor Travel Speaker: Edifier MP100 Review of Portable Travel Speaker

 

As part of my 2018 GRRR goals, I’ll be doing more gear reviews of things I’m using, been given to test drive or am test driving myself for travel. Firstly, it allows me to unleash my gadget freak  (I’ve absolutely been withholding from you) and secondly, as I’m juggling many social platforms for GRRRLTRAVELER, I’m always looking for ways to facilitate ease and organization in both, my travel and blogger life.

While I admire the backpacker’s travel hack of putting your cellphone in a glass cup to make on-the-go travel speakers, I still prefer an actual portable speaker that’s perfect for travel. Enter the Edifier MP100 wireless bluetooth speaker.

Reasons to have a travel speaker like the Edifier MP100

I got an Edifier MP100 bluetooth speaker for testing and while I wasn’t looking to have one for my travels, getting one made me feel quite differently.  There’s a few good uses I can think of it for.

Take your music on the road

You can take your Edifier anywhere – the beach, your hostel or hotel stay, camping, driving. I like to take it hiking with Tinker (fitness and spending time away from my laptop is my new 2018 goal)! While I certainly don’t envision myself being that obnoxious person playing tunes on an Indian train or in a shared dorm of a hostel,  it’s nice to have a mini boom box to groove to music in your hotel room or amongst friends.

Conference Call Speaker

I can use it or business conference calls as a speaker phone! I actually just used it yesterday, when I was on hold with tech support. While my iPhone has a speaker phone capability, the sound quality is limited and sounds harsh, as if the speaker is too little for the sound. The Edifier doesn’t have that problem. The sound is smooth. 

Hands Free Driving

If I’m playing my Edifier while driving and a call comes in, I can take it through its speaker as a speaker phone, which is pretty trippy.  Basically, anything I play on my iPhone (i.e. YouTube, Pandora…), it will come out on speaker.  So I wouldn’t take that call if you want that call to be private. I’d turn off the Edifier before answering your phone.

Outdoor Travel Speaker, Edifier MP100 Travel Speaker, edifier travel speaker review
Outdoor Travel Speaker: Edifier MP100 Travel Speaker

Special Features of the Edifier MP100

The Edifier MP 100 touts itself as being “able to withstand anything you throw at it” and is designed for the outdoor and travel lifestyle. So lets see what features make it special and not:

Bluetooth Wireless Speaker

The speaker is surprisingly easy to use and powerful. The moment I connected my iPhone with bluetooth and turned on my music- boom- it was like listening to my iPhone on a boom box. The audio quality was decent and didn’t sound rinky-dinky or tinny. There was a decent base level sound.  The sound is clear and radiates from its perimeter. It is strong but don’t expect it to replace stereo speakers in a room. But it does the job fairly well.

The connection doesn’t stop at mobile phones but anything with a Bluetooth 4.0 connection, like a laptop, iPad, etc… I can play my YouTube videos from my laptop while taking the speaker into the next room to listen to the audio. Essentially, you can take it to the bathroom with you you. Your wireless connection is as strong as your bluetooth connection.

MicroSD functionality

The second way you can play your music is by loading your music on a MicroSD card and insert It into the speaker. I am not a MicroSD music loading person, so this is something I haven’t tested.  

Simple Controls

The navigation is simple. I like simple. There are three buttons – power on/off. It makes a sound to let you know when you’ve been successful. There are two control volumes.  There’s a tiny blue light indicator to let you know when your battery is on and it turns yellow/orange when battery is low.

Mobility & Portability

Okay, size and weight…  This speaker is a winner because I like things small, portable and light. The Edifier speaker fits in the palm of my hand. It’s like a large smooth stone. If I’m really picky, it’s just a tad large for me, but at 12 ounces, it’s still fairly light for a rugged speaker.

There’s an aluminum ring which allows you to hang it on something like a backpack, belt buckle or even a tree branch. It’s actually really ideal for those long trekking tours I take.

Battery Life

The battery life is a whopping 20 hours! Seriously.  I’m not even sure my‘iPhone has that kind of battery life for continued play. But the Edifier MP100 does.

Durable & Weatherproof

The Edifier MP100 has an IP rating of 54. I had to Google what this meant but basically,  this ensures the speaker is shielded from foreign bodies like dust and is water resistant (or ‘splash proof’). This does not mean the speaker is waterproof however. Whenever folks read weather-resistent, they think of waterproof. No- huge different. Submerging this speaker underwater would be very, very bad. I’m not sure I’d leave it out during monsoon season (I literally killed my favorite water resistent external solar battery by SteriPEN that way!), but it shouldn’t be affected by a little splash or light rain.

Where to buy it

The Edifier MP100 can be bought at Amazon for approximately $24 USD, which is affordable.

Conclusion

This is ideal for those who really love their music, want the quality of boom box sound and the ability to have it hold up in rugged, outdoorsy travel situations.

 travel speaker review, edifier mp100 review
Edifier MP100 Review

 

What did you think of this Edifier MP100 review? Do you take your music with you when you travel?

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Disclaimer: I received this product as complimentary and there are affiliate links. While I do not review all things I am given, it was my choice to review it as I believe this is a good travel product.

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