Tribit is a relatively small company that's known for making audio products. Earbuds, headphones, portable speakers, you name it.
Their newest addition to the lineup is the Tribit StormBox Micro, a compact Bluetooth speaker that touts waterproofing and a rugged design. At only $50 MSRP, they're promising a lot from not a ton of cash.
But is it worth it? Let's find out.
Sturdy design
The Tribit StormBox Micro tries to maintain a low-profile but still rugged design that you don't have to worry about tearing up. The bottom half has a rubberized finish to prevent slipping and sliding while adding grip, but the top uses a mesh cloth that's typical for water resistant speakers and gadgets.
Picking it up shows that the speaker is surprisingly dense. It's not necessarily heavy, but it does feel like Tribit's got a lot crammed into this speaker, for better or worse. It's still light and small enough to fit in a pocket or bag without causing issue, though.
Along the top of the speaker sits the function button, plus a volume up and down button. The power and Bluetooth button are on the front side of the speaker, and along the bottom you'll see a detachable grip so you can attach the speaker to something else for better listening angles.
Lastly, there's a USB-C port on the right side. Very glad this thing isn't still using a microUSB charging port despite its price.
Booming sound
Picking this up should probably hint at it sounding better than average. Typically these dense speakers get their weight from better components, while a featherweight speaker usually sounds terrible because it's got no punch or dynamics.
The Tribit StormBox Micro holds up, too. For its size, it sounds huge. There's a ton of low end punch with bass lines still maintaining their clarity, and the rest of the sound profile rounding out a very defined but full tone.
The high end stays crisp without getting into brittle or harsh territory, and the midrange fills out the speaker without getting in the way.
Whether you're using this for music, movies, or podcasts, the speaker rarely struggles. There's tons of punch, vocals and dialog comes in clear, and it's small enough to position anywhere no matter where you are.
Putting a pair of these in stereo would likely fix the only problem I have with the speaker, which is its relatively small soundstage. In a large setting or outside, just sitting this down to fire upwards can make the speaker sound small, even for its size. Getting it high up and attached to something, or even standing it up on a table to fire into a room instead of upwards helps a bit, but I imagine a second speaker would entirely solve the problem and would probably give you one of the best sub-$100 setups around.
The little things
Something that often gets overlooked with speakers (especially cheap speakers) is the level of polish of the devices or firmware. Generally when you're talking about something below $50, it doesn't matter. I'd say it doesn't matter with the StormBox Micro, either, but that didn't stop Tribit from actually doing a good job.
Think about how many speakers or headphones you've used that use that same generic sampled beep to let you know when it's turned on or connected to a device. Or how about the annoying voice lines to tell you that your device is connected when a single tone would be fine? That's where Tribit nailed this.
Instead of the same beep you've heard a million times or an unnecessarily long voice line, they're using some very pleasant chimes and tones to alert you to everything. Couple this with the use of USB-C in this price range, plus some very small, eco-friendly packaging, and the whole package just feels like a lot of care when into the device that sometimes you don't even see from speakers twice as expensive.
Worth it?
Unless you're willing to spend a sizable chunk of money on an Echo Studio or Sonos Move speaker, it's hard to recommend anything else over the StormBox Micro anywhere close to this price range. Just using it for a couple songs makes it immediately apparent why it's such a favorite across the internet.
While the MSRP is $50, it does tend to dip below that occasionally, making it an absolute steal. The battery life is solid (around 8 hours) and it supports newer standards like USB-C and Bluetooth 5.0, and it's totally waterproof so you can toss it in your beach bag and not have to worry about it.
The only complaint I really have is dealing with its smaller soundstage, but that's something that even expensive speakers can struggle with. Tribit knocked this one out of the park.
Plus you can get it in a really sleek looking orange finish. If you need a new speaker, or you're trying to do some holiday shopping early, buy this one and don't look back.
Tribit StormBox Micro Speaker | $49 | Amazon
