The Comiso C17 Outperforms Its Price Point With Clear Sound, Sufficient Volume, And Comprehensive Controls
This tiny speaker is around the same size as a golf ball, meaning it’s easy to take anywhere. Place it in your pocket, leave it in your car for emergencies or buy it for your kids, who will love the style and practicality of it. It excels in its audio performance for its size and has a waterproof design. You’ll also appreciate the fact that it’s not going to leave a dent in your wallet, with a retail price of just $13.99.
However, speakers this size don’t come without trade-offs. I’ve been testing the C17 for a few days now and here’s everything you need to know about where it shines and where the limitations lie.
Key Takeaways
- Tiny, lightweight design that can be taken anywhere.
- Comprehensive on-speaker controls that adjust volume and skip tracks.
- Surprisingly loud for a speaker of its size.
- Audio quality is relatively good, especially at higher volume levels.
What I Like:
- Ultra-compact design that can be taken anywhere.
- Waterproof design.
- Great on-speaker controls.
- More volume than one would expect.
- Supports multi-speaker pairing.
What I Don’t Like:
- Not much bass.
- No mobile app support.
- The speaker faces down when hanging from the carry loop.
Design: As Small As a Golfball
- One of the smallest Bluetooth speakers on the market.
- The glitter exterior will be appreciated by younger audiences, especially.
The Comiso C17 is one of the smallest Bluetooth speakers on the market, standing just 1.8” tall and 1.6” wide. It’s available in two color options, a light blue or a dark midnight blue with a glitter effect.
The base of the speaker has a small area of opaque plastic which has some subtle blue LED lights behind it. While these lights aren’t easily visible in daylight, at night the subtle glow adds a gentle aura around the base of the speaker.
The base also has 3 raised rubber stands which prevent the speaker from moving around when music is being played.
Durability: Suitable For Use Indoors And Outdoors, With IPX7 Waterproofing
- Waterproof design for outdoor use in any weather.
Although the shell of the speaker is completely plastic, the quality feels decent and the glossy surface prevents a lot of issues with the speaker getting scratched during use. I knocked it around a bit during testing and didn’t notice any problems. But I’d still caution against dropping it on hard surfaces from high up.
It comes with an IPX7 waterproof rating, meaning the C17 can be used in the rain, around the pool, or even placed on the side of the bath without feeling like you’re going to damage the speaker. This is especially useful if you’re buying this speaker for a kid, as you know somehow, some way there’s going to be an incident involving water.
Portability: Compact, Lightweight Design With Optional Carry Loop
- Small enough to fit into one’s pocket.
- Can be attached to bags, belts, and more using the carry loop.
Because this speaker’s so small, discussing portability isn’t going to take long. Out of all the speakers I test here at OuterAudio, this is by far the most portable. The Ewa A106 Pro is a similar speaker, which you may also be considering, but it’s significantly heavier than the Comiso C17.
I like the inclusion of the removable carry loop. With a speaker this light, the loop becomes really useful – it can latch onto belt loops, the handlebars of bikes, or even the neck of a shower head. There are endless possibilities for how you could use this speaker.
I do, however, feel like the carry loop position is less than ideal. When I hung the speaker from my backpack, because the loop is at the bottom of the speaker, the speaker would face downward, reducing the amount of clarity.
Multispeaker Pairing: Use TWS To Pair More Than One C17 Together
- Supports TWS pairing for improved soundstage and coverage.
Believe it or not, this tiny speaker can even be wirelessly paired together with another Comiso C17 to produce stereo sound. It does this by assigning all left-channel audio to one speaker and all right-channel audio to the other. This improves the immersion and increases the total coverage area.
So in essence, for under $30, you can have a solid stereo Bluetooth setup for casual listening around your desk, or place them on either side of the bath to take your relaxation time to the next level.
Bluetooth: Stable Wireless Connections And Easy Pairing
- Supports Bluetooth 5.3
- Easy to connect and stable connections, even at range.
The pairing process was a breeze and I found it held a connection well. When testing I moved my phone up to 10 meters away from the speaker without encountering any connection drops. I even moved behind a solid brick wall and the speaker still held its connection.
This is in part because this speaker supports modern Bluetooth technology, using Bluetooth 5.3.
With that said, there is a bit of latency when watching videos, which while not ideal – is also not outside of the ordinary for a speaker of this size. It’s not going to come across like a badly dubbed Chinese movie, but if you pay attention, you can notice some slight sync issues.
Sound Quality: Clear Sound, But Limited Bass
- Suitable for all kinds of music genres.
- Lacks bass, but has great clarity, particularly in vocals.
I was honestly thoroughly impressed by the sound quality. These small speakers often suffer from significant distortion, especially when the volume is pushed high – but that’s not the case with the Comiso C17.
It achieves a clear, detailed sound, even at high volume. Sure, there isn’t that much deep bass – but that’s an inherent limitation of the size of the speaker. If you’re looking for a thumping bass you’re not going to find it in this style of speaker.
I was especially impressed by the clarity of the vocals, which can often sound too far back in the mix. The vocals are up-front and clear.
It’s versatile too, and I didn’t notice one particular genre performing better than the other.
Volume: Over 80 Decibels Of Output
- Can fill a small room with sound.
- Retains most of its clarity, even at high volume.
This speaker gets a lot louder than you’d expect. It can easily fill a bathroom with sound and is significantly louder than any phone speaker I’ve ever used. This is important, cause for many buying these small speakers, the goal is often about improving their built-in phone audio.
I ran a decibel test to see how much volume it produces, and it reached a peak of 80.2 decibels.
Given how this speaker is intended to be used, I think the output is great and highly suitable for casual solo listening and small groups of friends.
Just keep in mind that you’ll need to put the volume up on the speaker itself, as well as on your phone to reach its full potential.
Voice Calls: Good Microphone Quality
Another cool feature of this speaker is its ability to handle voice calls, and do so with reasonable clarity. Often, the microphones on these small speakers struggle with retaining detail – but you can hear in the audio recording below that the microphone quality is really reasonable.
Battery: Between 7 and 8 Hours Of Playtime, Or 5 Hours At Higher Volume
- 700mAh battery capacity with fast charging and impressive battery life.
So, what kind of battery life can you expect from this speaker?
Comiso suggests between 7 to 8 hours of playtime, and this is close to what I experienced when testing it. I found that playing at 75% volume I was able to get just under 5 hours, but at a more modest volume of 40 to 50%, it lasted 6.5 hours. This is about standard for the 700mAh battery capacity.
Charging is done via a USB-C cable, which comes included in the box and it doesn’t take long to fully charge the speaker again.
Conclusion
Overall, this is the best speaker of its size that I’ve tested. The on-speaker controls are more comprehensive than I’m used to, and although it’s not particularly fancy and still a mostly plastic speaker, it achieves most of what I want to see in this type of release.
I think that if you’re someone who wants a speaker for next to your bedside, to take with you out on hikes, or to gift your child, niece or nephew – you’ve got a solid choice here. There’s not much you can buy at $13.99 these days, but it seems you can buy a pretty solid little Bluetooth speaker.
