If you are looking for a super solid portable and rugged speaker that gives you really good audio performance for such an affordable price, watch out for this little guy over here – the Edifier’s MP100 Plus. 

Now, don’t let this palm-sized speaker fool you, because this speaker can get quite loud, especially for such a small package. Want to know more? Well, let’s find out!

 

Unboxing

Starting from the unboxing, the packaging was very simple and straightforward, with the Edifier Logo at the top left, the MP100 Plus writing on the right side, and you can immediately see the speaker inside, then you’ll find some of the specs at the bottom part of the box.

Then towards the side bottom of the box, there is the color option that you have chosen.

Next, you will need to open the box from the bottom that firstly reveals the Warranty Card and a small multi language booklet. Then there is a small compartment that has the USB-C to USB-A cable and a velcro strap. Then finally, there is the speaker itself.

 

Design & Build

I have to say that this feels super solid because there’s no weird rattling when you shake it and overall, it instills confidence when you throw it from one hand to another.

At the front, you will see the speaker grill that is covered with the fabric material that Edifier claims is dustproof, so that was nice. It also feels quite good and contrasts nicely with the bright yellow rubberized logo at the front. 

The speaker does come with two color options, which is the Forest Green, which I have right here, which has that sort of rugged dark army green that you see over here, and also in Lake Green, which leans more towards teal.

Around the sides is actually a thick piece of rope strap that is held together by this simple plastic mechanism. This seems like you can slide up and down, but it won’t, so that would be great as this would be very solid and tight for you to hook it on a carabiner as well. 

Looking at the back, there are a few dedicated buttons. One for power, one for disconnecting the Bluetooth, and the other side, a volume up and down button.

Then there is a small flap to cover the USB-C port. Then there is a neon green ring that you see in the middle, which acts as the rubber feet for the speaker so it does not slide around easily when you place this on a surface.

The speaker has a diameter of 95mm, with a 49.8mm thickness, with a total length of 160mm. 

The overall speaker really reminded me of the Google Home Mini but with a slightly smaller form factor, in terms of the diameter and also a little bit thicker as well. 

In terms of weight, it is only about 200 grams, so definitely still light for you to carry it in front of your bag to listen to some music when you are on the go.

So Edifier has advertised this as an outdoor music listening device but for a city boy like me, I found it super useful to have some tunes running in the background while I’m doing some long walks, or even some small personal karaoke session when I’m having a nice steamy bath. *wink wink*

Now, this is because it is IPX7 rated, so you can even take this to the pool as a music companion where it can handle up to 30 minutes of diving underwater up to 1 meter and I wouldn’t even worry about chucking this in my gym bag because of how super sturdy it feels.

 

 

Sound Quality

Now, let’s talk about sound quality, since this is a speaker review. So the driver in this speaker is 43mm in size, which outputs 5W of power. Now, this essentially means nothing to the average joe, but let me tell you this – this speaker definitely wow-ed me. 

Now, sound is subjective, but if you are someone who appreciates vocals or essentially the mid-range side of audio, this is definitely a great device across a wide range of genres, as it was really pleasing to my ears, especially the way that the vocals are represented. 

It has a very forward and leans more toward a warmer sound signature. You get a sense of fullness and tenderness to the way the vocals come through. This is also apparent and also very true for male vocals, or even women with a real ummph in their voices, especially on ballads and pop as well.

Details and separation still come through very well in terms of the background instruments like your guitars, bass, or even drum tracks as well, because it is overall not drowned out but it sits a step behind, so that would be great because you can hear the vocals thoroughly as well. Highs do fall a little short but since this is a single driver unit without a separate tweeter, this could be expected so no real complaints over here.

Now, if you are such a heavy bass head, this may not be for you. But, the bass was very much present which was surprising for this kind of physical size but it feels on the hollower side. It was also pretty decent when listening to rock and metal tracks, definitely much better than many small speakers that I have heard before.

Then volume-wise, I would recommend listening between anywhere around 80%. At 80%, it is still easily loud enough to fill a small living area. Then at around 70%, it is best for me for personal listening. Any higher, you might get that sort of an audio screeching or audio distortion, depending on the exact music that you are listening to.

 

Connectivity

So the speaker is equipped with the latest Bluetooth 5.3, which is great because nowadays, you can even see some speakers which are still using Bluetooth 4.0.

The setup was super simple, you have to press and hold the ON button for the first time. And other than the sound confirmation, you will see the LED indicator under the strap that blinks blue.

Next, go to the Bluetooth pairing and connect it to your speaker. A few seconds later, you will hear a sound confirmation and it is connected. Yeap, it’s super simple!

Now, if you would like to change to the next track in your playlist, just press and hold the “+” button would do so and doing the same for the “-” button will repeat the track or go to the previous track.

Another thing worth mentioning is that, for those of you who are familiar with Edifier products, the fact that the Edifier Connect app is not available for this speaker is to be expected for a sort of a rugged portable speaker, where this was made for you to connect to your smartphone and just GO!

Another thing to note is that the speaker volume is not separated from your phone, so whenever you press the volume button on the speaker, it will also adjust it on your phone, which is great for someone who likes it simple, like me.

 

Battery

Then as for the battery, this small speaker has quite a sizable battery at 1500mAh. Now, this is rated by Edifier to last about 9 hours but based on my testing, I got so much more based on me listening to the speaker at half volume, which mind you is already pretty loud.

It got me an average of 11.5 hours of nonstop music streaming through Apple Music which was pretty damn good I have to say. But if you want to save more battery, you can lower the overall volume a bit more.

Another great news is that even while you are charging, you can still listen to audio on this, where it uses a USB-C charging as mentioned earlier.

 

 

Drawbacks

Even though this speaker is solid enough as it is, but there are some drawbacks worth mentioning. For one, the physical buttons are on the lower side, so it’s harder for you to see or press on the buttons, especially if you have it face up on a table, but over time you will get used to that.

Then the speaker also charges quite slowly, which is about a solid 3 hours for me to go from 0 to 100%. So if you are the kind of person who wants to take this outside to use it without any charger or power banks for more than 12 hours, although I’m not sure where you’re going to be outside for 12 hours… But in case you are, then that would not be the case when using this for a really long time.  Jokes aside, I hope that Edifier adds fast charging the next time. Maybe an MP100 Plus… Ultra Max?

And the fact that there is no bar indicator to know how much battery is left would also be a little drawback.

And also mentioned before, the Edifier Connected app is not supported, so there is no equalizer for you to tune the speaker’s sound signature if you want to. 

Finally, more color options for the speaker would also be great too, because if you’re not a fan of this color or even a teal-like color, you may not like the speaker. And if there is a white color version, which you all know how much I love that, that would be also really cool too.

 

Conclusion

Alright, in conclusion, let’s wrap this up. There are two sides to this – on one hand, the Edifier MP100 Plus is a solidly-built Bluetooth 5.3 speaker with great sound signature and price to match. If sound quality and portability are your main concerns, then yes, this speaker should be for you. 

But if charging speed is a real concern and not willing to let go of the small inconveniences like this, not knowing how much battery is left on a glance, and also the limited color choice, then this speaker may not be for you yet.

So how much does it cost then? Well, if you look at the Edifier’s website, it is listed at RM269 BUT if you look at Edifier’s own official Shopee or Lazada store, it is currently selling for only RM199, and depending on when exactly you are reading this , the price may vary at different times, so keep that in mind.