In June, 2023, I reviewed the BlueAnt X6 Bluetooth Party Speaker and damn it is hard to go back and read my own writing. At the time, my school also purchased a more powerful, 450 Watt outdoor speaker, I won’t mention the brand for reasons that will soon become clear. In just over a year, that second, mystery, speaker suffered a catastrophic fault. The battery cracked and leaked acid through the internal components, cooking it from the inside. When I tried to return it to the company, again unlisted but through gritted teeth, I was told that the warranty was only for one year and that I was foolish to expect a speaker battery to last longer than that.
My BlueAnt X6 speaker however, looks and behaves exactly as well as it did on the day I first tested it. I may have slightly oversold its volume because I didn’t think to test it outside, but it is otherwise a perfectly functioning and wonderful speaker that we often use at my school. I say all of this to warn you that I am now a fan of BlueAnt speakers, which, it should be said, offer a 2 year factory warranty right out of the box. It also emphasises the fact that BlueAnt products are generally more durably designed than their competitors. And finally, to bemoan the state of an industry which expects you to pay $500 for tech that will only last for a year!
When the editors at DRN told me that I would be reviewing the BlueAnt X5i Bluetooth Party Speaker I was so excited. I have such high expectations for BlueAnt products and wanted to see if the X5i speaker could reach the lofty standards of its big brother, the X6.
First Impressions
BlueAnt is an Australian based company and all products are 100% Australian designed and owned. Perhaps this is why sustainability is clearly a major feature of their brand and packaging. There was one small piece of single use plastic to protect the screen and a few pieces of sticky tape around the box. Otherwise all packaging was recyclable – tissue paper and cardboard. There were also clever uses of limited packaging, such as wedges that prevent the speaker from moving, doubling as cases for the microphones and cables.
The X5i weighs 4.8kgs and has a really well shaped handle that makes it easy to carry around. It has a slot for a tablet or phone, two niches which act as microphone stands, and an LCD screen which displays the mode and a few other bits of relevant information. The buttons and interface are mostly the same as those on the X6 speaker which made it easy for me to orient myself with its functions. However, there are a few noteworthy differences.
Firstly, the X5i has soft squishy buttons instead of the hard plastic buttons of 2023’s X6. The light effect and Bass Boost buttons are larger and elevated. The X5i includes echo adjustment buttons to simplify the functionality of the volume dial which controlled the echo effects in last year’s X6 model. While I was fine with those features in the X6, I can see how these changes have improved the overall experience of this model and made it even more intuitive.
One thing I don’t particularly like are the covers they have placed over every input point – their AC input and the AUX and USB inputs. The covers are thick, difficult to remove and awkward to keep around. I appreciate that they provide some dust protection and would absolutely expect these features on a device with some level of waterproofing. Perhaps they are there to protect from accidental minor spills as this is a ‘party speaker’. Realistically they are probably there to hide the unsightly features of the device. However, to me they seem like a complete waste of space and detract from the form of the speaker when they are in use.
Set Up
As with the X6, set up was quick and easy. My phone and computer both found the device almost as soon as I turned it on and connected very quickly. I decided to test the bluetooth range and was able to walk out of my front door and past my neighbours house before the connection cut out. The connection was perfect right up until it was gone.
The microphones do not come pre-charged and you only receive one charging cable to share between both of them. They have a USB-C input and charge directly from the wall, so I did have a few spare chargers for them, but it would have been nice for BlueAnt to spring for an extra cable. The microphones also can’t be used while they are charging so it was a while before I could test the microphone functions. This annoyed me but was not a major issue.
In Use
The speaker is really good. A substantial improvement on my X6 from 2023, even without Bass Boost-ing. I don’t know if it’s fair to compare a heavily used one year old speaker to a freshly minted one but I did and the X6 was found lacking. The X6 is twice the weight, twice the size, with a larger woofer and tweeter and yet the X5i was louder at every volume level, especially when placed on grass outside.
The BlueAnt X5i speakers are designed to use the acoustics of the room to boost their sound. They have a fun picture in the manual to demonstrate how to position the speaker on the floor in the room to increase the volume and optimise bass quality. I was really happy with the quality of the sound everywhere I put the speaker but could definitely hear that improvement when I followed their instructions.
I did my usual speaker tests and was particularly happy with the low frequency sound. At around 40 Hz on less than half volume there was a slight boost to the sound that made my walls shake. I wasn’t game to test the volume inside at any higher levels but am relatively confident that this speaker could wreck both my house and my hearing. High treble sounds are fine and there wasn’t any noticeable rattling or mechanical noises. I couldn’t really hear directionality in the speaker when playing from the left or the right speakers. Perhaps that becomes a thing when you’re in Duo Mode.
The microphones are a big step up from the X6 microphones of 2023. The X6 microphones had to be connected by cable to the speaker. Where the X5i comes with two wireless microphones and an inbuilt, rechargeable battery. Again, BlueAnt has simplified the functionality of the speaker’s central volume knob by adding volume buttons to each of the microphones.
As with the X6 the microphones are simple dynamic mics, more karaoke mics as opposed to professional grade. They are automatically set to a very low volume when you first turn them on, which initially made me think that they didn’t work. You do have to turn them up and adjust the echo to make them sound better. It is also essential that you use Bass Boost mode, as opposed to standard mode, when using the microphones as the sound is much more crisp and pleasant to listen to. In standard mode, the sound is murky and strangely delayed. I also noticed a major delay between the microphone and speaker when I first turned them on but that reduced over time.
I got my 2 year old son to test the microphones for durability. He licked them like lollipops, intermittently screamed and whispered lyrics from his favourite Wiggles songs then threw them to the ground. I was able to remove the head to wipe out the worst of the slobber and have them back to perfect condition very quickly afterwards. Ultimately, I felt quite confident that they could survive the worst in their role as party microphones.
Finally, there are a few great features worth mentioning in this and any review. It has a pretty good battery life with 30 hours at 50% volume, which is all I could stand listening to. There are 7 different light sequences, which is quite a bit fewer than the X6 but still plenty. The lights surround the main woofer as well as both the sides of the grill and change in time with the music. Those lights are a feature that I really like in both speakers and made it hugely popular with my students. The X5i USB slot is also connected to a powerbank and is somehow able to both charge the microphones or a phone while serving as an auxiliary input. The X5i also features a headphone jack auxiliary input but no SD card input to match the X6.
Gripes
Aside from the input covers and the single charging cable, I don’t have many gripes.
I was a bit disappointed that, despite the fact that they’re both BlueAnt speakers, I was not able to activate Duo Mode and connect both my X6 and X5i as they are not ‘identical’ speakers. I have tested other speaker brands that have ‘party’ functionality enabling pairing between a large number of bluetooth speakers and this seemed like a major flaw. It is probably a good thing that the X5i doesn’t come with a guitar input but I would have liked that to have been an improved feature of this speaker.
Finally, the speaker is so light and easy to carry but the microphones realistically have to be carried separately. There are small holes to hold the microphones when the speaker is stationary but they can’t be trusted to stay there if you carry the speaker around. I would have liked clips or deeper holes to hold the microphones so that it could all be carried at the same time.
Conclusion
I didn’t think anything could cheapen my love for the X6 speaker but the X5i feels like a genuine improvement to me. It feels louder, despite having a lower wattage, and the few differences in functionality are major improvements in my book. I can’t wait to start annoying my neighbours with Christmas Karaoke.
The BlueAnt X5i has a RRP of AUD$479, and is available direct from the BlueAnt website and in select Telstra and Optus stores.
DRN would like to thank BlueAnt for providing the review unit.
