TRONSMART T7 mini: Compact, Versatile and Affordable

Oi! Welcome to my another review article and this time it is very different from most items that I've always reviewed with. As you know that most of my content are usually revolves around IEMs on how I assess each product, it is unexpected that a respected company would contact me if I can do a review on their products and I take an opportunity to take it.

This company I'm taking about is Tronsmart. As we all know that Tronsmart is a reputable technology brand that offers high quality products at a very affordable price. I actually have a Tronsmart power bank which I can attest to its durability and longevity.

Tronsmart is a technology company from Shenzhen, the technology hub capital of Asia (probably in the world). It has a formidable R & D crew that creates and produces some innovative products especially on mobile accessories and wireless gadgets. I also saw some Tronsmart products wherever I go, from the commercial establishment to a mate's flat and the most prominent ones were wireless Bluetooth speakers.

What I have here is their latest product, Tronsmart T7 mini. Tronsmart T7 is a mini portable Bluetooth speaker, it has a stout cylindrical shape whose ergonomic design is to provide a better portability experience to bring it everywhere either for personal home use, business presentation, celebratory parties and camping outdoors. It has a build in LED lights that synchronise well to every beat and rhythm on a music track played.

Its structural design is a robust and compact one that I can wrap it with my whole hand to grasp it . It has a basic control panel at the top with the circular LED light at its edges. Tronsmart seems to be thinking about a more logical approach on designing this product to make it more easy to use.

Tronsmart T7 mini is also rated to have an IPX7 rating that it can take water splashes, rain showers and submersion due to its water protection to its components with water-repellant to hydrophobic coating. With a good waterproofing rating, you can indeed take anywhere even to the outdoors like beaches and other bodies of water.

Regarding its battery life. Tronsmart T7 mini seems to have a decent power consumption up to 16-18 hours when the LED light is turned off and 8 hours with LED light activated. LED lights also serve as a power indicator if it needs to be charged when the battery power is almost depleted.

When it comes to wireless playback, Tronsmart T7 mini has Bluetooth 5.2 version but it can only support basic lossy bluetooth codec such as SBC and AAC. (Sorry for the audio blokes who wants a "hi-res" codec like APTX-HD and LDAC) Despite those limitations, T7 mini offers another option, an analog audio source as it has a 3.5mm jack which will please people who wants a better sound quality. I almost forgot to mention that this device supports a majority of popular voice assistance softwares in the market like Siri from Apple, Cortana from Microsoft, Alexa from Amazon and Google Assistant from Android and other Google related products.

As for its loudness and connection capability, T7 mini seems to deliver a loud output that's enough to filled a small room and due to a newer bluetooth version its has lower latency which gives a clearer connection and lesser interface unless you go to another room with the device source like your mobile phone which causes a spotty connection.

Another notable thing on Tronsmart T7 mini is it has a micro SD slot that it can play directly from micro SD card audio file format which is convenient to some people rather than to connect their phones.

The unboxing experience on Tronsmart T7 mini is decent and it includes pretty basic accessories.

Here the contents inside of packaging box of Tronsmart T7 mini:

Tronsmart T7 MINI speaker
3.5mm to 3.5mm "male" cable
USB type-C cable
Some paperwork like an instruction manual and warranty card.

As for tonality-wise, Tronsmart T7 mini has a U-shaped sound signature as it has an elevated bass and treble and a fairly neutral and slightly notch midrange that will be more versatile to be played in most music genres.

LOWS/BASS:

It has an impact and punchy bass, I can even qualify it as authoritative as it really has a decent depth reach as I can feel that sub bass that has an ample rumble and grumble whenever a synthesizer and drum machines were present on most synth-pop tracks.

Mid bass has that texture that gives a well bodied sound on bass guitars, bass kicks and bass-baritones.

I also noticed on some bass bleed that is discernible in some tracks that I play, probably due to a single transducer set-up but it is still acceptable.

MIDRANGE:

Since I classify T7 MINI's overall tonality as a U-shaped. It has a slight recession on its mids that vocals and instruments are a bit behind on overall frequency spectrum but it still remains to have a very balanced and decent clarity with it.

Vocals seems to have an equal texture on both male and female. Males vocals has an ample guttural and power with its voice and female ones has a tad gruff and sometimes a more mellow on lower vocal type while a more bright and some instances of being a bit shrilly on upper vocal types like soprano.

On instruments, It retains sound more natural and accurate from a crisp and bright sound on guitars, a more warmer and rich sounding of a piano, a metallic and bright sound of a violin and lastly, a penetrating and hard sound on snare strikes.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

Treble on this one is a bit underwhelming in my liking. For sure that casual listener would certainly won't mind this fussy observation of mine when it comes to being fastidious on this matter.

Upper mids and lower treble or presence treble seems hoisted as it has that clarity and sheen but at expense of occasional sibilance and sometimes a tad strident.

As for brilliance, it has sufficient sparkle but lacking of airiness that gives a cymbals' sound lack of shimmering extension.

SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING & OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

Due to a mono transducer set-up. I don't expect too much of a technical aspect on the T7 mini. For sure that it has enough headroom to fill a small room to have a well-proportion sound field in a sense of spatiality but imaging, layering and separation is a bit sub par as it is a bit veiled and a disorder of positioning on instruments and singers on its respective location . Then, some jumbled on mixing and arrangement of each frequency profile in a perceived sonic canvass that will cause a congested and muffled mix.

Tonal colour seems to be accurate especially on strings and percussion instruments. Coherency is also excellent that it has a good cohesive sound.

As I concluded my review on the Tronsmart T7 mini, this is actually my first review on wireless Bluetooth speakers so pardon my assessment on this one due to my inexperience with this kind of product if you find it lacking and less informative.

For sure that T7 mini is marketed for casual listeners and not for a more audio enthusiast like me that really delves more into high fidelity audio stuff. But when its comes to basic functionality and portability, Tronsmart really delivers a high quality product that will give its customer a more enjoyable music experience at a very affordable price with flexible functionality in either wireless or a more traditional analogue sound that you can bring it everywhere you like.

Tronsmart T7 mini cost around $34/£28 and it is now available to all e-commerce sites.

SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: TRONSMART T7 MINI

DIMENSIONS: 4.02 x 4.25 INCHES

WEIGHT: 500g

BATTERY LIFE: up to 18 HRS (LED OFF)/ 8 HRS (LED ON)

DRIVER UNIT(S): (1) FULL-RANGE DYNAMIC DRIVER

IP RATING: IPX7

CONNECTIVITY: BLUETOOTH 5.3 , 3.5MM JACK, MICRO-SD SLOT.

BLUETOOTH RANGE: up to 18M

OUTPUT POWER: 15W

MICROPHONE: YES

FREQUENCY RANGE: 20Hz - 20KHz

AUDIO CODEC: SBC

PROS:

Compact and portable that will be easy to carry.
Attractive LED lights for added visual presentation.
Less latency on bluetooth connectivity
U-shape sound signature that will be more versatile to almost known genres of music.
Loud with decent clarity
Water-proof that you can bring outdoors, from camping to beach party.
3.5mm port for analogue connectivity
Very affordable.

CONS:

Limited bluetooth codec as it doesn't have either APTX or LDAC support for better sound quality
Lack of treble air.
Technicalities are its inherent weakness.

P.S.

I am not affiliated to TRONSMART nor receive any monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to thank Ella Beck from TRONSMART for providing this review unit, I truly appreciate her generosity towards me and other reviewers.

Here are some links if you are interested in this product:

Official Site: https://bit.ly/3JUa0Xj

Aliexpress: https://bit.ly/3oBizwc