The Frugal Networker

Jelly Box Portable Bluetooth Speaker
OrigAudio
$34.99

OrigAudio designs some of the coolest and most affordable music/sound-related thingies on the market today. If you don’t believe me, check out the website and go to Amazon and search for OrigAudio and see for yourself. Cute, fun, happy, clever are all words that come to mind when I see the brain drizzle from OrigAudio’s founders Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak. I’m assuming that Mike’s real last name isn’t really Szymczak. My guess is that he lost at Scrabble and is paying off some drunken bet that he made with Lucash, et al.

I digress.

This is a review for the Jelly Box portable Bluetooth speaker. They sent me a black one. Clever. I’ve heard of other colors, you know. Seriously, I’m not tricked by the thought of a Blue Raspberry, Dragonfruit, or even an <yuck> Grape Jelly Box.

Anyway, I’ve reviewed other portable Bluetooth speakers on frugalnetworker.com and this one stands well with the rest of them and at a decent price point. The Jelly Box has clear, bright sound, even at the highest levels where my teenaged children like to play it. I’m glad I was working in the yard the day my daughter decided to blast My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco tunes on it. Don’t get me wrong, I like those bands but at a non-earwax cleaning level, thank you. In fact, I took my daughter to a Panic! concert earlier this month and now I’m a super fan. No T-shirts or faux-hawk yet, but the year is still young and summer’s coming.

Jellybox Bluetooth Speaker features:

• Full stereo sound with Bluetooth functionality
• Bluetooth range up to 33 feet
• Built in microphone and one touch call answering for phone calls
• On-speaker play/pause and change song buttons
• Built in TF card slot to store your music in the speaker
• Mini USB charging slot (cord included)
• Speaker power: 3 watts
• S/N: ≥ 60dB
• Frequency response: 100HZ-20KHZ
• Battery life: 10 hours
• Size: 4 x 2 x 1.5 inches with a weight of 0.75 lbs
• Compatible with any device that has Bluetooth connectivity. Also included is a 3.5mm audio cord for devices that don’t have the option of Bluetooth.
• Available in 9 different flavors (colors).

Speaking of summer, the Jelly Box would serve you well by the pool, on the beach, on a picnic, while doing yardwork while your lazy teenagers sit and drink iced tea and watch you, on a road trip, or even just chilling in your room. You can adjust volume on the Jelly Box or on your phone. You can also skip or revert tracks, replay a track, and answer your phone using the Jelly Box’s built-in speaker.

Note: The only thing jelly-related about the Jelly Box is perhaps the jelly-related colors, although I can’t really speak to the whole color thing directly, but I think that’s probably what they were going for.

I really like the Jelly Box portable Bluetooth speaker. You can plug in a non-Bluetooth device into it as well. The unit also sports a TF (micro SD) card slot for storing your music. I don’t think you can play it from there, although I didn’t try, I think it’s just for convenient storage. If you get one in color, you could write your favorite artist’s name with a Sharpie on it. It would look something like the illustration to the right. This is only a theory and I have not had the opportunity to test it for myself, so YMMV.

Of course, being young entrepreneurial types, living in (you guessed it) California, they’ve got their liberal, offbeat, hipster causes that some people view as positive, as uplifting, and as what successful and happy people should do with their millions of ill-gotten gain. I only mention it in passing.

Why it’s frugal: The Jelly Box is a lot of things but frugal isn’t one of them. It’s cute. It’s fun. It’s well priced for the market. Why does something always have to be frugal to be purchase worthy? It doesn’t.

The Jelly Box connects to your Bluetooth enabled device easily and immediately. My iPhone 5 picked it right up and all I had to do was tap “Connect” on my iPhone to make the connection and listen to my Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington hits–HA! Kidding, I listen to Flyleaf, Mazzy Star, The Cure, Coldplay, Lisa Loeb, and Gotye. Yes, I know, I have varied tastes, shut up about it already.

What more can I say about the Jelly Box? It’s portable. It’s well-made. It works. I understand that it comes in a variety of awesome colors. It plays loud. It plays soft. It plays well with others. And I’m sure that Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington sound great on it too. So buy one for Grandpa, Grandma, and the whole gang. Anyone can afford $35. And if it keeps the likes of Lucash and what’s his name off the street, I’m good with that.

Rating: 9.372/10

Recommendation: Buy one in one of those cool colors and tell me what you think of it.