Closer Examination

The 1MORE Portable BT Speaker is saucer-shaped and just compact enough to fit into a largeish hand. It's not heavy enough to pose a burden when carried around. At the same time, it's not cheapishly light, either. If you have experience with Bluetooth speakers, you'll know what I mean as many are so light you simply know they'll sound like crap even before turning them on. Overall, the 1MORE Portable BT Speaker feels exceptionally sturdy. It's entirely covered in what feels like a cloth material, which struck me as a nice touch of luxury. 1MORE points out that the whole speaker also has a "special nano coating" which makes it IPX4 certified. Just to clarify, the IPX4 certification doesn't mean a product is entirely waterproof. IPX4-rated products can withstand being sprayed with water from all directions for 5 minutes. In other words, the 1MORE Portable BT Speaker is splash-proof.


The bottom of the speaker has a rubberized ring. It does a great job of holding the speaker firmly in place even when placed on a slippery or uneven surface.


1MORE preinstalled a carrying string. If it bothers you for any reason, you can easily remove it (and reattach it if you change your mind).


A grand total of five buttons are on the side of the speaker. They've been given a host of functions and are used for every kind of interaction with the speaker. The first two buttons control the volume. When held for approximately two seconds, they switch to the next (+) or previous (-) song. The play/pause button does exactly that and is the only button with no additional functions. The microphone button mutes and unmutes the built-in microphone. According to the manual, it can also be used to activate voice dialing, but I was ultimately unable to get this feature to work. Finally, with the power button, you can turn the speaker on or off, initiate the pairing between two speakers (if you have two), as well as answer and end incoming phone calls. The buttons are somewhat mushy, and you'll definitely need to hold the speaker with your fingers to prevent it from moving when pressing them. Luckily, once you do press, they react instantly.


Next to the buttons is a small rubber door that seals the two built-in ports: a USB-C charging port and a 3.5-mm line input. The latter can be used for wired connectivity to the sound source, which might be useful if you want to play music from older digital audio players, laptops with no Bluetooth support, and similar devices.

Battery Life

1MORE equipped the Portable BT Speaker with a 2,600 mAh rechargeable battery. It can power the speaker for up to 12 hours, although this will highly depend on your preferred listening volume. If you're blasting the speaker as loud as it can go, you'll have to recharge its battery long before you get 12 hours of play time out of it. However, the volume range of the Portable BT Speaker is quite impressive—it can become almost uncomfortably loud, which is great for outdoor parties but unnecessary for everyday use. Meaning, while you do have plenty of volume at your disposal, you'll mostly use it within a reasonable range, at which point its battery will have no trouble lasting for 10 hours.

There are several ways to figure out how much battery life remains. Every time you turn the speaker on, a female voice will give you a general idea by saying "Battery high", "Battery medium" or "Battery low". When you hear "Power off", that's that—it's time to plug the speaker in. Of course, it can be charged and used at the same time. One additional way to check the battery status is through the Bluetooth settings of your smartphone. Here, you'll see a percentile value. If you're using two speakers in stereo mode, your smartphone will only report the battery life of one; it's assumed you'll charge them simultaneously.