Protronics Pure Sound Pro II Soundbar Speaker

I got this Portronics speaker (named Sound Bar) as a corporate gift.It was bit big to be used as portable speaker and didn't have any need for a speaker as such so I kept it aside for months. Only few days back I started using it more often and I find it a decent product. Hence this short review.

As I said earlier I had not unpacked this device for long. It was kept aside and during recent Chennai rains when water entered our house, I had left this sound bar in vertical position in a hidden corner and thus completely forgot to lift it up and keep it in safety. Only few hours later it stuck me and when I rescued it, a fair amount of water had already entered the box.

Because of water, I wasn't sure if this device will work at all. Portronics Pure Sound Pro II retails for about Rs 3000 so is not a cheap device to be thrown away easily. I let the package dry completely and decided to check if it works. To my surprise, the device did survive the water. Main speaker is working perfectly fine, but remote battery and a USB cable got rusted due to water. But apart from these 2, rest of the components were fine.

Portronics Pure Sound Pro II is a multi purpose speaker. What I liked about it are below:

• It has lithium ion batteries, so it can be charged using AC power and speaker can be used on battery when can't be connected, so some amount of portability is there, though it is not that convenient to carry this around.
• Supports USB, Aux-in, Blutooth, SD Card, FM and PC mode. (No WiFi).  Can be used as a standalone music system by inserting a SD card or USB, or can be connected to TV/laptop to play live audio
• Remote makes it a lot convenient
• FM mode is nice- no need to insert a jack or something like our mobile phones. Pure Sound Pro II  has an internal antenna and will play FM just like that.
• The packaging was very robust and safe.

What I didn't like or could have been better with Protronics Pure Sound Pro II
- aux-in cable that came i the box is too small. You will have to buy a longer cable unless you can keep the sound bar very close to source.
- We connected the Protronics Pure Sound Pro II to TV- the output was not louder than TV's built in speaker. So this speaker is ideal for laptop/tablets only and not for TV
- Some kind of pouch or cover for the device could have been nice to protect it from elements.
- There is no visual indication to tell in which mode the speaker is. You need to press the mode button several times as it reads out the current mode. But with remote any mode can be selected in one click.
-Doesn't look like they have any colour option other than black.
-No serviceable components inside. Lithium Ion battery will fail after about 2-3 years- then it can't be replaced I guess

Overall I find Protronics Pure Sound Pro II a nice music companion. Good brand and a well conceived device. However a powerbank from same brand didn't work very well for me.

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