The Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 is a pint-sized speaker that can fit into your coat pocket or sling over your shoulder. It uses Bluetooth to connect to your device and can play music for hours.
The top surface is covered in a soft, durable fabric and houses the power button and volume controls. A multifunction button handles various commands, like skipping songs and activating voice assistants.
Features
The Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 has a lot to offer. It’s waterproof, easy to strap onto gear, and it sounds great for its size. It’s also a great party speaker thanks to its party and stereo modes. The bass response is also a little more impressive than that of many other tiny speakers.
The Stormbox Micro has a rechargeable battery that’s rated for eight hours of playback. However, the company recommends using it at 50% volume or less. That’s a good idea because if you play it at full blast, you’ll drain the battery quickly. The speaker pairs easily with smartphones and maintains a connection up to 100 feet away indoors. It also supports voice assistant technology like Siri and Google Assistant. The only thing missing is a built-in microphone for speakerphone calls.
Despite its small size, the Stormbox Micro delivers surprisingly loud music with a punch that rivals many larger and more expensive Bluetooth speakers. It’s also water-resistant and comes with an 18-month replacement warranty.
Unlike the original Stormbox Micro, the new model is not only waterproof but also dust-resistant. It has an IP67 rating which means it can be dropped in three feet of water for 30 minutes and is protected against dust. That’s a big advantage for outdoor enthusiasts, and it should help keep the speaker safe on hikes, bike rides, and beach vacations.
Sound
The Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is a small speaker that delivers a big sound. This little dynamo weighs less than a pound and produces audio that’s bigger than you expect, with clear trebles, well-balanced mids, and punchy bass lines. The speaker is also waterproof and dust-resistant, making it ideal for use on the go. While it can’t compete with pricier models that are twice its size, the StormBox Micro 2 is a good value for a portable speaker.
The Stormbox Micro 2 is a slight improvement over its predecessor, with much better tuning and balancing to deliver a more satisfying overall audio quality. It’s not quite as crisp and balanced as the likes of the JBL Clip 3 or Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2, but it still sounds far better than most budget speakers that can’t even reach half its size.
Its controls are simple and straightforward, with a single button for power, Bluetooth pairing, and playing music. A long press activates voice assistants while pressing the same button twice skips a song. The only real drawback is that it doesn’t support 5.0 Bluetooth, which would have made it compatible with more recent smartphones.
In addition to its great battery life, the Micro 2 is easy to use and packs a nice amount of sound for its price. It’s also a durable option, with an adjustable strap that lets you attach it to backpacks, poles, tree branches, or even your bike’s handlebars. You can even pair two of them together to create stereo sound.
Battery life
The spec sheet promises up to 12 hours of playback, a long runtime for an ultra-flat speaker. That’s even longer than Gen 1’s claimed eight hours of playback, which was already pretty impressive for such a small and affordable device. The Micro Stormbox can also play back phone calls and use voice assistant technology, like Siri by Apple or Google Assistant, via its single white circular button.
Unlike many speakers, the Micro Stormbox has buttons that are easily accessible when it’s closed, and doesn’t require a long press like other models. Its power and Bluetooth pairing buttons are on either side of the rounded bottom edge, looking from above. Both buttons are waterproof and dust-resistant, and they even float.
While the Stormbox Micro is not a full-blown portable stereo, it still manages to pump out rich and weighty bass compared to its size. It can fill a room with music, and the quality doesn’t suffer at high volumes. The nuances of LEMONADE by SOPHIE and They Call Us Thundercat’s famous bassline come through well, as do the vocals and guitar strums in songs like Legend Has It.
The speaker also has a USB-C port that can offer some juice to your phone, though using it will eat into its 12 hours of playtime. Another cool feature is the ability to pair two Micro Stormboxes, allowing them to play music in stereo and function as a hands-free speaker for making phone calls.
Design
The Tribit Stormbox Micro is a pint-sized speaker that can fit in your coat pocket or bag and sound better than anything on your smartphone. The latest version offers an improved app for fine-tuning your music and is IP67 waterproof, meaning it can be dropped in three feet of water for 30 minutes and also has dust protection.
It is also compatible with another Stormbox Micro to form a stereo pair, though the two speakers cannot be used in the same room. The latest version offers an upgraded speaker with 10W of power compared to 9W in the previous model and is louder and fuller in sound presentation. Its XBass technology also delivers powerful low-frequency support that makes it sound more like a bigger speaker.
A number of design tweaks have been made to the second generation, including new rubber keys that are easier to spot on the Gen 2 version (they contrast against the black fabric and also highlight as blue when Bluetooth is connected). The speaker can be powered on or off by simply pressing the buttons – no need for a long press like many other Bluetooth speakers require.
The new Stormbox Micro 2 has a price point that is hard to beat if you want an amazing, portable Bluetooth speaker with excellent battery life and great sound quality. Other options in this category include the Marshall Emberton Speaker, which offers up to 20 hours of playtime and doubles as a power bank.
