We review the Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker, a Star Wars themed Bluetooth blaster that can float with the aid of powerful magnets.
So, we’ve reviewed quite a variety of Bluetooth speakers in our time, as you’ll see if you head over to our best wireless speakers round-up. From rugged, water-resistant blasters to posh, premium speakers, we’ve tested them all. Yet the floating Death Star speaker from Plox is undoubtedly one of the more unique, and memorable, devices that we’ve every played music through.
Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker Review: Design and setup
The Death Star speaker is exactly what you’d expect, in terms of general design. This spherical device is a miniature replica of the iconic Star Wars weapon, complete with some of the finer detailing including that circular indentation and various striations.
However, unlike the actual Death Star, you’ll find some speaker grilles spread around the circumference of the Plox gadget. These can blast music in a 360-degree formation.
That’s not even the cool part, though. As you can probably gather from the name, the Death Star Levitating Speaker can actually float and twirl while it plays your favourite tunes. This cool hovering ability is provided courtesy of the powered base and a couple of magnets, and it works really well.
Admittedly, the Death Star doesn’t exactly hover a massive distance above the base. Roughly half a centimetre of air space is what you’ll get between the surface of the dock and the speaker itself, although that still means you can freely spin the Death Star while it’s playing music.
Setup is pretty simple, too. Plug the speaker into your computer using the bundled USB cable (or the mains if you have a USB adapter) and it will fully charge in one or two hours. A full charge is indicated by the LED, which helpfully glows green when the battery is all juiced up.
With that done, simply plug the base station into the mains and carefully balance the Death Star so the magnets repel. This may take a few attempts as there’s a very narrow sweet spot, so a bit of perseverance is required. Once you’ve got the thing floating however, it’ll stay securely in the air unless poked hard.
Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker Review: Audio quality and performance
Once you get the Death Star spinning in the air, you can connect it to your smartphone or other music device via Bluetooth in just a few seconds. Simply push the power button on the speaker and it’ll pop up in your device’s BT menu, ready to pair. Nice and easy.
So, what about the audio output? Well, the Plox floating Death Star isn’t the most powerful mini speaker that we’ve tested in recent times. It’s quite compact and a fair bit of that body must be taken up with the magnets to help it levitate. As a result, you get a 5-watt output that’s fine for filling a small study, and not much more.
In other words, this device will be fine for pumping out music as it’s sat beside you on your desk, but we wouldn’t use it for a party. Not unless it’s simply there to attract attention.
Heavy rock music suffers from a little distortion on top volume, while softer music from the pop and classical genres is reproduced cleanly. Again, there are better speakers out there when it comes to audio quality, although those devices aren’t Star Wars themed and they sure don’t hover in the air.
You can enjoy around five hours of charge before the Death Star needs to be plugged into the mains, via the bundled microUSB cable. Not a shabby effort considering the small stature of the speaker.
Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker unboxing, setup and review video
Check out our full unboxing, setup and review video below, where you’ll see the floating Death Star speaker in action.
Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker Review: Verdict
You can pick up the Plox Death Star Levitating Speaker right now for £129, here in the UK. That’s more pricey than many mini Bluetooth blasters, as you might expect given the unique design.
Of course, what you’re paying for here is the novelty value of a floating, spinning Death Star that can sit on your desk. In that regard it’s certainly a success, even if it doesn’t hover too far above the base. As a speaker it’s perfectly fine also, as a personal device. If you’re after something for a party instead, we’d recommend heading to our best speakers round-up and choosing something with a bit more power.
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