Worth It: Huge Sound From A Speaker That Fits In Your Hand

Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn’t get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that’s how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our daily recommendation of random things that we’ve actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we’d actually tell our friends about. And now we’re telling you.

Earlier this year, I found myself in a Trump-owned Atlantic City hotel room with several friends and a bottle of whipped cream-flavored vodka. The stage was set for an evening of nibbling on hors d’oeuvres and engaging in erudite conversation, but there was one problem: Pandora’s Ke$ha station wasn’t playing loudly enough on my iPhone’s speakers to provide an appropriate soundtrack for our boozy revelry.

Vowing that I would never be unable to blare terrible pop music again, I started researching portable speakers online and found a life-changing device: The X-Mini II Capsule Speaker. The speaker is a about the size and weight of a squashed golf ball, but the sound is unbelievable. It gets extremely loud, and you can boost the bass by twisting the ball and pulling it apart like an accordian. It connects to an iPhone or any other device with a headphone jack via a three inch cord that tucks into a groove in the speaker when you’re not using it. This seems like the kind of device that would eat up a lot of batteries, but the X-Mini II is rechargable. The battery lasts for 11 hours, and when it’s spent you just plug it into the wall or your computer with a mini USB plug to charge.

If you don’t throw many hotel room dance parties you may think you don’t have a use for a tiny speaker, but you’d be wrong. It doesn’t take much to drown out the iPhone’s speaker, but now I can keep blaring music when I’m cooking, sitting outside while a neighbor uses a leaf blower, or driving a car with a busted stereo. I listen to a lot of podcasts, which often have bad sound quality, but I can still hear the hosts yapping even when I’m in the shower. I’m usually playing something whenever I’m puttering about the house, and I’m amazed by the number of ways I’ve found to annoy people in my general vicinity!

Some reviewers say their speaker burned out quickly, but I’ve been using mine almost daily for nine months and it still sounds great. Even if it dies tomorrow, it only costs around $20, so I’ve definitely gotten my money’s worth. The X-Mini II comes in black, red, white, green, blue, pink, silver, or Hello Kitty. It’s just a well-designed, fun to use device, plus for you Star Wars fans, there’s the added bonus of feeling like you’re playing music out of a thermal detonator.

X-Mini II Capsule Speaker (Black), $20.99, Amazon.

Image via Worth It only features things we paid for ourselves and actually like. Don’t send us stuff.