Truth 1 – Bluetooth speakers can be good or bad. Truth 2 – Bad Bluetooth speakers aren’t worth the plastic they’re made of; Good ones are precious and should be cherished. Truth 3 – The Braven Stryde 360 is a good Bluetooth speaker.
Stryde 360 Features
No matter where it stands, the Stryde 360 fires sound in all directions. Its active drivers fire out of robust grills on both sides of the device and passive drivers shoot bass out of each end. The buttons on top are large and easy to press. A 2500mAh internal, rechargeable battery can provide up to 12 hours of playtime.
The casing of the Stryde 360 is IPX67 waterproof, meaning you can (accidentally, please) submerge the speaker in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. Ports – Micro USB for charging, 1/8″ audio aux-in, and 5v USB for charging your phone – are covered by a tight-fitting, rubber flap. A microphone allows you to take calls over the speaker and use your phone’s voice assistant – Siri or Google.
An added bonus – Braven designed the Stryde 360 with the same diameter as a standard bike water bottle, so you can take your speaker with you on your bike, secured in any standard bottle cage. It also fits perfectly into the side pocket on your backpack and your standard cupholders, including (hint, hint) those on your favorite pool floaty.
Review: Braven Stryde 360
How does the Stryde 360 sound?
In a word, it sounds nice. Don’t expect the bass to rattle your ribcage, but the Stryde 360 punches above its weight class. The sound stays clear when you turn the volume up – no crunchiness. We’re not talking audiophile quality here. Just solid, decent sound at all volume levels.
Easy to use?
100% yes. Controls are simple and intuitive. You have four, main buttons and they tell you what they do. Plus for louder, minus for quieter, “play” triangle to play and pause, power symbol for on/off. There’s a small Bluetooth button in the middle for pairing, which goes off without a hitch. A double tap on the Bluetooth button calls up Siri, so you can control your phone without exposing it to whatever wet, dirty thing you’re up to.
Is it missing anything?
Maybe a loop to allow clipping the speaker to something. really, though, because it’s water bottle-sized, this isn’t much of an issue. You have plenty of ways to stash the Stryde 360 without a loop. You also can’t wirelessly pair up two Stryde 360s and run them together. I don’t think that’s much of an issue; it requires you having two Strydes or a friend who owns one too.
Should you buy one?
Yeah, probably, if you need a Bluetooth speaker. The better sounding speakers out there are more expensive. The equivalent speakers have smaller batteries. Braven struck a good balance of price and features with the Stryde 360 that make it easy to recommend.
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