Cute little robot spaceman that sounds really good
While at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas I had an opportunity to sit down and check out the Xoopar Boy Stereo. My time with it was limited but I had enough time to know I wanted to review this cute little device. For an adult, it looks like a toy you might see in your child’s room. Then you turn it on and you’re hit with a powerful sound that you would normally get from larger Bluetooth speakers.
Based off of looks, I might have passed this little guy up but after hearing it and seeing it, I gave him a second chance. The Xoopar Boy Stereo has a unique look. It’s shaped like a spaceman and sits about 4-5 inches tall. The Xoopar Boy Stereo speaker is actually the mid-range speaker in this product line. There is also a Xoopar Boy Mini and a Xoopar Grand Boy speaker.
So besides being cute and having a pretty good sound what else does it have going for it? The Xoopar Boy Stereo speaker has an LED built inside that that works as nice mood lighting. The light has several different modes — steady on, breathing pulse, or off. I rather enjoy the steady on option because it is bright enough to act as a small desk lamp. If you happen to have more than one Xoopar Boy Stereos, you can pair them together for a more enhanced experience. This is a really great feature when you are entertaining, using speakers outdoors, or just in a large area.
The controls for the speaker are on the back. In addition to the play/pause and the volume/track buttons, you will also find the light mode button, an Auxilary port, a Micro USB port for charging, and a TF (Micro SD) card slot. The Micro SD card option is great for when you want to play music without being connected to a smartphone or other Bluetooth device.
The Xoopar Boy Stereo speaker also acts as a speakerphone when connected to your smartphone. It has a microphone built-in so you can receive calls through it rather than having to disconnect and pick up your phone separately.
One other really cute feature of the speaker is that his arms move up and down. They don’t really serve a purpose other than being cute but I thought it was a nice touch. The feet have silicone that goes all the way around each foot. It’s a soft rubber to keep your little music man from sliding around or from the bass of the music moving him off your desk over time.
The speaker is inside the head of the Xoopar Boy as you can probably tell from the looks of it. The face mask also has the look of a speaker grill but I have not noticed sound coming from it. I do however think it’s where the mic is located. When I have made calls from it I was told that it sounds good but sometimes sounds like I might be on speakerphone. So it’s picking up enough of the ambient sound in the room like a speakerphone would so you won’t be able to fool someone into thinking you are talking to them directly via the phone and not a speaker. On my side, while talking I was able to hear the other person on the call very clearly and it was plenty loud. Sometimes because I’m hard of hearing and should be wearing hearing aids, I tend to have to have my volume up pretty high to hear someone on the phone. I even take the phone while on speaker phone and place it to my ear to hear some people. With the Xoopar Boy, I was able to let it sit at my desk and I could hear just fine while on calls.
I have lots of interesting things in my office from Tetris lights to the Deathstar from Star Wars glowing on a side table. So the Xoopar Boy Stereo would fit in nicely here but because my daughter fell in love with it based off of how cute it is, I will be giving it to her after this review.
When you see this little device sitting on a store shelf don’t walk by thinking it’s some cheap speaker because for it’s size and it’s amazing eight-hour battery, it rocks. The Xoopar Boy comes in five different colors — Orange, Black, Gray, Pink, and Green. If you are looking for a cool gift for your music-loving friend or family member, I think they will enjoy the Xoopar Boy.
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