The days of simple and boring Bluetooth speakers are over. GravaStar entered the building with a line of sci-fi themed speakers. Today we’re going to take a look at the GravaStar Venus, the entry-level speaker from the creative minds at GravaStar.
The GravaStar Venus is a relatively small Bluetooth speaker, standing about four inches tall and weighing just over a pound. It features a futuristic spaceship-like design and packs into a 10W 1.75-inch speaker.
As a sci-fi fan, I love the design of this speaker. You can hang your own GravaStar Venus from the company’s website from $89.95.
I’ve been listening to music through the GravaStar Venus for just over a week now and was quite impressed with the sound from the speaker. So let’s see what Venus is.
Unboxing and design
Unboxing the GravaStar Venus was as pleasant as you would expect from a high-end tech product like this. The speaker comes in a high quality magnetic folding cardboard box.
Inside, the Venus greets you like futuristic technology from a highly advanced civilization. It looks like some sort of cross between a Borg space station from star trek and an exotic ship from No Man’s Sky. Immediately, I loved the design of the GravaStar Venus.
For science fiction fans, you won’t be disappointed with the design of the Venus. It features rubberized landing feet to stand on and spaceship thrusters that protrude from the back.
Every curve and crease of the enclosure feels almost alien, truly bringing home that sci-fi feel. There’s a circular LED that offers six different RGB color settings to set the mood while you mess around.
Venus’ design is more subtle than the upgrade Mars Pro speaker GravaStar offers, but it’s still fantastic. Everything about the design of the enclosure is a win for its sci-fi theme in my book.
What kind of features and performance can you expect?
For starters, connecting the speakerphone was as easy as any other Bluetooth connection. Just turn on the speaker and press the pairing button, and the speaker will easily connect to your phone or other media player.
There’s even a notification that looks like a spaceship that lights up to let you know when the speaker is powered on. Once you hear “Bluetooth connected” you are good to go.
As for battery life, the GravaStar Venus is rated for up to 10 hours of playback, and that estimate doesn’t seem too far off.
I usually got around 7-8 hours of battery life on a single charge, but that was when playing at near full volume outdoors. And it fully charged in less than two hours.
If I had to have a complaint, it would be the positioning of the USB-C charging port. It’s located at the bottom of the speaker’s body, so you have to slip a cord underneath to charge.
The speaker comes with an angled USB-C cord that slides nicely underneath, so that’s not a big deal. But it would be nice to be able to use that pile of USB-C cords that keeps growing with every new gadget I get.
And what about the sound of the Gravastar Venus?
But in the end, design doesn’t really matter if your speaker can’t perform. Fortunately, the GravaStar Venus works exceptionally well.
The speaker is surprisingly loud for its size. Sitting just a few inches tall, it’s definitely a loud unassuming option. Turning the volume all the way up gives you plenty of sound to listen to the speaker, even outdoors. And bringing it inside with the maximum volume will surprise you quickly.
The GravaStar Venus delivers solid, clear bass even at lower volumes. And turning up the volume doesn’t kill the sound quality, even in more distorted rock and roll type songs.
You can also link two GravaStar Venus together for better stereo sound, although I haven’t had a chance to try this.
Overall, I was very pleased with the sound quality of the GravaStar Venus. All kinds of different music sounds great with this speaker, whether you’re listening indoors at lower volumes or outdoors with the volume cranked up.
Should you buy the GravaStar Venus?
And now for the most important question: should you buy the GravaStar Venus. You’ll pay around $90 for a relatively small speaker, so you want to make sure you’re getting what you pay for.
When I was first approached about reviewing this speaker, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the company had discounted the quality of the speaker in favor of the unique design. But to my delight, that is certainly not the case.
The sound quality and performance of the GravaStar Venus is on par with similar options. JBL offers a similarly sized speaker for a little less, but it only has a 5W speaker, so the GravaStar probably sounds a lot better. And a similar size option of Bose will charge you an extra $30.
And none of these compatible options even come close to the design of the GravaStar Venus. GravaStar has really won big with its sci-fi spaceship design on this speaker. It really looks cool anywhere and will be a great accessory to add just about anywhere.
If you are interested in the GravaStar Venus, head over to the GravaStar website to see the options. The speaker is available in several different colors and designs from $89.95. But if you keep your eyes peeled, it seems to go on sale quite often with a decent discount.
Do you have any thoughts on this? Let us know below in the comments or forward the discussion to our Twitter or Facebook.
Editors recommendations:
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