Outdoor Technology Turtle Shell Bluetooth Speaker hands-on

Living in the great outdoors surely has its perks, like having the fresh air all around you, but it also means braving the elements. For the majority of gadgets, they wouldn't fare well against the adverse weather conditions that can arise. However, if you’re an audio fanatic, then you’ll appreciate everything that Outdoor Technology’s Turtle Shell Bluetooth Speaker has to offer – even more when it’s rock solid inside and out!

Flaunting an unconventional speaker design with its angled cutouts, jagged looks, and bright green color, it does its best to replicate the look of a turtle shell. At the same time, though, it’s solidly built to withstand some serious punishment, as it’s showing off its sturdiness with its dust proof, shock proof, and water resistant aspects. With the latter, it’s IP65 certified so that minor run-ins with splashes won’t stop it from delivering some fine tunes. Finally, the good folks over at Outdoor Technology decided to put in a bracket on its bottom side, so that it can be attached or strapped onto something – like a bike for example.

On the top, its cutout grooves hide away its two speakers – while around the bottom surface, there’s a passive bass radiator that aids to provide the Turtle Shell with 96 decibels of power! Interestingly, its power output is mentioned to be greater than the roar of a bear, which makes you wonder if it’ll do anything to stop it in its tracks in the event you see one. Looking around the bezel of the speaker, there’s a flap that hides away its microUSB and aux-in ports. Meanwhile, three physical buttons around another side provide us some useful media playback functions – such as pause/play, answer/reject, volume control, and fast forward/reverse.

Basing our assumptions on its size strictly, we’re astounded by its superb audio quality. In fact, it seems as though they’ve limited its highest volume output so that it doesn’t sound strained whatsoever. Throw in the pounding bass tones, the Turtle Shell delivers an outstanding amount of clarity with each beat and thump. On one hand, its $149.95 cost might appear bloated, but when you factor in its rock solid construction, wireless streaming of music via Bluetooth, and its pleasing audio quality, it really shows off its balanced worth.






source: Outdoor Technology