Closer Examination

The Tronsmart Bang is cylindrical. Tronsmart doesn't disclose the exact speaker driver configuration or size, nor is it possible to disassemble the speaker without destroying it in the process. Still, an exploded view of the speaker clearly shows that the Bang uses two woofers and two tweeters. There's also a passive radiator on each side to help with bass reproduction. The front of the box mentions a "360° Sound," which is somewhat deceptive as it could trick somebody into thinking there are speaker drivers on the back of the Bang too. That's not the case. You'll want to position yourself in front of the Bang to get the most out of it.


The carrying handle is integrated into the cylindrical body of the speaker, giving it a modern boombox vibe. The entire speaker body is covered in a fine cloth mesh. Overall build quality is excellent. I feel no difference in the ruggedness between the $250 JBL Xtreme 2 and $138 Tronsmart Bang, which is probably the biggest compliment I can give it. It feels like a solid, robust unit, one I was confident to take outside and use even in more demanding scenarios, such as on the beach or next to a pool. Splashing the Tronsmart Bang with water didn't negatively impact its performance.


Here's a direct size comparison between the Tronsmart Bang and JBL Xtreme 2. The Bang's cylindrical body isn't that much larger than the Xtreme's, but the carrying handle makes a noticeable difference in their overall proportions. Once again, I have to point out how well the handle is integrated with the speaker. It feels like it's an organic part of the speaker rather than something slapped on to more conveniently move the Bang around.


Although you can certainly use your phone to skip songs and adjust the volume of the Tronsmart Bang, the speaker is decked out with a complete set of controls on its body. There are a total of seven buttons to play or pause music, skip songs, adjust the volume, answer or reject incoming phone calls, activate the voice assistant, reset the speaker, and so on. I wish there were dedicated buttons to skip songs rather than holding the volume buttons to do so. The buttons themselves are completely rubberized to make them waterproof. They feel satisfyingly clicky and responsive as long as you press them in the dead center.


The first button is used to initiate pairing with a second Bang speaker, should you have one on hand. Tronsmart claims over 100 Bang speakers can be paired this way and made to play the same track. I only had a single unit at my disposal, so I couldn't test this. Next is the Mode button. It toggles between the four available inputs: Bluetooth, AUX, USB, and microSD. If you're using a USB drive or microSD card as your music source, you can only play the songs in the order they're arranged on the drive.


The Sound Pulse button activates or deactivates the Sound Pulse equalizer profile. The Tronsmart Bang offers a total of eight audio profiles, selectable within the Tronsmart mobile app, but the physical button on the speaker always switches you to the aforementioned Sound Pulse one. This profile is comparable to the "Loudness" feature found on various integrated amplifiers and AV receivers, meaning it boosts the lower and higher frequencies to make them sound more lively at lower volumes. It would be better if the button were renamed EQ and simply activated the last EQ profile chosen in the app. I, for one, preferred using the Deep Bass instead of the Smart Pulse profile, but Deep Bass can only be activated in the app. This issue is amplified by the speaker always reverting to the default sound profile after turning it on.


The ports are on the rear, behind a thick rubber seal. This is where you'll find a factory reset hole, USB Type-A port (for USB drives with music on them), USB-C charging port, 3.5-mm auxiliary input, and microSD card slot (up to 128 GB). USB and microSD playback is rudimentary; the speaker plays music files and folders in alphabetical order with no way to quickly navigate them other than to skip tracks.


The bottom of the speaker has two soft surface pads to prevent the speaker from damaging the surface you decide to rest it on.


Ah yes, the lighting effects. We can't have an outdoor speaker without those, can we? The Tronsmart Bang has a light strip on its front, and a rich circular backlight for both passive radiators on the sides. The Tronsmart mobile app lets you pick their color, or you can have them pulsate in the rhythm of the music playing from the speaker. I recorded a video to give you a better idea of what you can expect from this feature. I think it looks tacky and would never use it, but hey, that doesn't mean you won't like it.


The lighting effects can of course be turned off, which is what you'll want to do to make the battery last as long as possible.

Battery Life

On the far-left side of the control module, on top of the Tronsmart Bang, are four white LEDs, which are battery status indicators. Every LED corresponds to 25% of the total battery life. While the speaker is charging, these LEDs light up one after another. On a side note, this is also where the NFC chip is located, so this is the area you'll want to touch with your phone when using NFC to speed up the initial pairing process.

The Tronsmart Bang is equipped with a 10,800 mAh rechargeable battery. Battery life depends on two factors: your listening volume and whether you're using the lighting system or not. Tronsmart did their measurements with the volume set to 50% and kept the speaker running for 8 hours with the LEDs on and 15 hours with the LEDs off. My tests are entirely in line with these claims. In fact, when I had the speaker sitting on my table and used it to play local radio stations in the background via TuneIn Radio, I was able to stretch battery life to well above the 15-hour mark. I also tested battery life with the speaker playing as loud as possible and the LEDs turned off. In that scenario, it lasted for over 11 hours, which should be more than enough for most outdoor activities. Once the speaker has 10% battery left, it starts beeping every minute, which essentially means you have to plug it in because the beeping is far too annoying to tolerate until the battery is entirely depleted.

The Tronsmart Bang also works as a power bank. The USB Type-A port on its back isn't only an input; you can also use it to charge your mobile device, although not very quickly because output power is only 5 W (5 V/1 A). The user manual suggests that the speaker might have issues with music playback when being used as a power bank, but that wasn't the case during my testing.

The speaker is charged through the rear-facing USB-C port, which can accept up to 10 W of power (5 V/2 A). It takes almost five hours to charge the battery fully. Thankfully, you can continue using the speaker while it's being charged. Occasionally, the speaker produced a quiet buzzing noise while I was using and charging it simultaneously, but I couldn't reproduce this anomaly reliably, so I can't say if the speaker caused it or my generic power brick was to blame.