I put this $40 waterproof Bluetooth speaker to the test in my shower and here's what happened

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

Growing up, there was nothing I loved more than my cheap, rubbish-sound-quality, gimmicky speaker. It would come with me and my friends everywhere and pretty much soundtracked my youth in real time. But technology has advanced since I was young, and the best cheap speakers now come with good sound quality and without the gimmicks.
The Tozo PE1 combines compact convenience with great sound quality, with help from the companion app. It's completely waterproof, making it great to take a shower with, and has multipoint connection to handle two of your devices at once.
The battery life drains pretty fast if you listen at full volume, and the sound is tinny at those volumes too. But I have to say, these aren't deal breakers for me.
You can find out more about how I got on in my full Tozo PE1 review.
The Tozo PE1 Bluetooth speaker is a real budget steal. It's available for purchase at Amazon U.S, but the price differs depending on which colour you get. You get the choice of black for $36, blue for $39, or red for $34. The speaker is available for £29 at Amazon U.K., where it's only available in black.
This super-cheap budget speaker performs very well. You'd pay $59 for its nearest competitor, the Tribit Stormbox Micro 2, , which is obviously still very cheap. But when the Tozo performs as well as it does, why spend $20 more?
The Tozo PE1 speaker is super compact and easy to transport. Measuring just 5.7 x 4.2 x 1.8 inches, it fits almost perfectly in the palm of my hand. Its small stature also means it only weighs 8.9 ounces, so wherever it comes with me I'm never weighed down by it. Comparatively, the Ultimate Ears Miniroll Bluetooth speaker is also palm-sized, but costs a lot more at $79.
I recently tested the Tribit Stormbox Lava, and while I love it, it's pretty big and can sometimes prove cumbersome. I prefer the tiny size and big noise of the Tozo PE1 — I can throw it in any bag, or clip it to the outside using the built-in flexible carabiner. On the carabiner, while it's rubber, there is metal inside, so it takes a good squeeze to get it to flex and is very secure.
While the Tozo PE1 hasn't been specifically tested for dust protection (so be wary not to get it sandy at the beach), it's completely waterproof. The waterproof rating of IPX8 means it can be submerged in water and still come out good as new. So, if you're anything like me, you can perform a mean shower cover of Carrie Underwood's 'Before He Cheats' to your shampoo bottles.
The speaker has a mesh front which gives a textured look, and you can actually see this vibrate from the power of the drivers at higher volumes. The 43.5mm dynamic drivers produce a huge sound despite the tiny size of the speaker. They are better at lower volumes, but for the price point, even the high volume performance is great; but more on that later.
There is a USB-C charging port on the bottom of the speaker, located next to the built-in microphone. There is a 20-inch charging cable included with the speaker too.
The controls on the Tozo PE1 speaker are all located on the right-hand side, making it really easy to change the song or alter the volume while holding it in one hand. The buttons are also dual-purpose to save space on the speaker. The power button also plays and pauses the music, while the volume buttons also control the song skips.
The only issue I have with these buttons is that they are indented, so you have to press quite hard to get them to respond. However, you can also control the music easily from your phone — especially handy if you're not right next to the speaker.
The Tozo PE1 speaker uses Bluetooth 5.4 to give a total range of 15 meters. I found this great for when I was moving around the garden but wanted to stay connected to keep playing my music. The signal stayed stable wherever I was in the garden, and then in between rooms when I was using it in the house.
There is also dual device connection, which is easy to use as the speaker is automatically discoverable without needing any button pushes. I connected to my laptop to play music and to my phone at the same time, so I was alerted to calls and notifications. The switch between the two was seamless with no delay.
There is a built-in microphone at the bottom of the speaker so you can even use it to take calls. I tested this by calling my brother. He isn't one to mince his words, so I know he was being honest when saying he could hear me clearly, albeit with a little crackling.
The speaker is compatible with the Tozo Signature Sound app, where I was able to alter EQ settings and use presets to get the most out of my music. And for a studio sound experience, Tozo says you can get two of the speakers and connect to them at the same time.
This is also a feature of the Tribit Stormbox Lava, although I don't recommend forking out close to $300 for two of those speakers. However, since the Tozo PE1 is very affordable, buying two is definitely something to consider. Unfortunately, Tozo only sent me one unit, so I haven't had the chance to test it out for myself.
When testing the sound quality of the Tozo PE1 speaker, what stood out to me was that it sounds so much better when hanging from the carabiner, although it does have contouring on its body to lie flat too.
I began testing with 'Guns for Hands' by Twenty One Pilots. This is a song that uses electronic beats, so it's a great way to pick out any trouble areas with tinniness. Given the price and size of the speaker, I was expecting this to be far worse than it was. The speaker sounded pretty good until it reached about 70% volume, and then the song started to become tinny. This is also because the song is high-pitched, so the sound of the electronic beat becomes pretty much unbearable.
I always like to test audio gear with some metal songs as it gives me a good idea of how the mids are performing. I went for 'Oh No' by Bring Me The Horizon, which (dare I say) is one of their more pop-y songs, so it felt like a fair test for a small speaker. I tried this with the Pop EQ preset and it balanced the vocals on the track really well, even at high volumes. The bass certainly carried the song here and sounded punchy, but the cymbals came across as very tinny.
I wanted to see what else I could do with the EQ settings in the app and turned to 'She's American' by The 1975. I decided to create a custom EQ from one of the existing presets. I used the Deep EQ preset and raised the lower frequencies and highest frequencies to get a crisper sound on the rhythm guitar. I love this song and this gave it a super full sound, so I played it a few times on repeat.
To test the Vocal EQ setting, I played 'The Last Man on Earth' by Wolf Alice. The vocals on the recording of this track are very raw, and accentuating this only made the experience better. There was still the tinny sound at high volumes, but this was by far my favorite song to listen to on the speaker, so slower, vocal-first songs are definitely the way to go.
While the PE1 wasn't the definition of great sound quality, it's important to remember that this is a sub-$40 speaker. Being peaky at high volumes can usually be expected with smaller Bluetooth speakers. The Ultimate Ears Miniroll has the same issue as the Toxo PE1 of getting tinny at higher volumes — it just comes with the territory.
The Tozo PE1 has a surprisingly good rated battery life of 32 hours, but when I listened to it at full volume, it drained much more quickly. Listening at moderate volumes, though, the speaker will last you around 15 hours based on my testing, and at low volumes you get closer to that 32 hour mark… but then isn't the point of a speaker to be loud?
The battery life is certainly oversold here. It will probably come as no surprise that if you're looking for something with a more realistic battery life, you will need to fork out a little extra cash — and lower your expectations. An arguably better speaker with similar battery life to the high volume settings is the Sonos Roam 2, but it is $179 so you're obviously leaving the realm of budget speakers here.
I've been very impressed by the Tozo PE1. Though it may be small, it has heart. Because of the small size there is inevitable tinniness at high volumes and the battery runs out pretty quick, but that's where my qualms end.
The speaker is great to use anywhere — even in the shower, since it's completely waterproof — while its compact size means it can come with me everywhere I go. The flexible carabiner is also awesome for hooking onto the outside of bags. My favorite feature is the Tozo Signature Sound app, as this gave me more freedom to play around with the speaker and get the sound I wanted.
If you're in the market for the cheapest speaker you can get your hands on that still has decent sound quality and a sleek yet convenient look, clip this to your bag.