Nokia Mini Speakers MD-4 Review

Introduction:

Do you feel like taking the party to a place where there´s no electricity? Say, right onto the roof of grandma´s house? Unless you´ve got one of those huge gangsta-rap tape recorders from the mid 80s, well, you should probably have to trust you phone to do the trick, but we bet it can hardly provide sound that´s loud enough. Well, a number of manufactures have taken it to heart to come up with decent portable speakers to help you out of the tight spot. We are about to show you one of the most compact solutions on offer as of now, namely, the Nokia Mini Speakers MD-4 that you can literally carry around in your pocket.

What´s in the pack?

Design and functionality:

Now these speakers are compact indeed. They fold up conveniently and while they are they hardly take up more space than most cell phones while unfolded, they are 220 mm long.  In other words you can always find enough room to bring them along and place them anywhere, even if the table happens to be all covered in dishes, cups – you name it. Speakers are connected to a source of music (cell phone, player or any device) through a standard 3.5 mm jack. The good news is there are two adapters in the package that provide connectivity to Nokia phones featuring pop port or any other device with 2.5 mm jack. The audio cable is 75 cm long and we believe that should be more than enough in most cases.



The twelve holes for the speakers are on the front side and there´s a LED status indicator showing if the speakers are switched on/off. The batteries are plugged into two compartments in either “shoulder” of the speakers, each of them fitting like a glove under the covers. Unfortunately, we noticed some scratches had appeared onto the glossy parts after certain, not heavy use of the speakers that really marred the otherwise pretty nice overall look.

Nokia Mini Speakers MD-4 are turned on/off with a button on the backside and volume is controlled from the device you´re using as a music source only. This isn’t such a pain in the back, since the controlling device would be at no more than 75 cm away at most.



What we do like is that you only need to fold them up to cut off the music. This is done the following way – there´s a small protruding cog on one of the inner sides of the speakers that simply pushes the on/off button that´s located onto the other inner side. Simple and hassle-free! Moreover, there´re magnets lodged inside both “shoulders” that prevent you from spreading open the speakers accidentally.

Nokia Mini Speakers MD-4 have a simple look about them that may not appeal to anyone, but we definitely don´t think this is a problem, especially if the speakers measure up to their task, that is, to deliver loud, high quality sound.

Performance:

Unfortunately, during out tests we noticed a rather annoying issue, that also plagues other portable setups as well (say Parrot DS1120 or Altec Lansing Nobi). With certain phones when you pump up the volume above 80%, the speakers give off hardly bearable crackling sounds and music gets distorted as if you´re about to blow out the device. As far as you don´t try to listen to your music at full blast you won´t notice any sound issues and you´ll get a sound quality that is far superior to many of the built-in speakers, found in cell phones. Yet, the lack of punch here means they are far better at soft, background music than striking the right note (no pun intended) when it comes to bringing down the house at a party.

Power is supplied by four AAA batteries and according to Nokia, they should be able to provide around 30 hours of continuous playback. Sounds great, isn´t it? (The last 30-hour party we´ve been to, ended up with a colleague getting married).

Conclusion:

If you aren´t a choosey music buff and yet you´d like to have something that sounds way better than your phone, you simply must take a look at (or rather give an ear to) Nokia Mini Speakers MD-4. They are one of the most compact sets on the market and can be easily carried around in a pocket, since the set is no larger than a typical cell phone. Moreover, connecting the set to almost any phone is as easy as ABC, including older Nokia models featuring pop port. All told, the set is a fair replacement to many of the built-in speakers, found in cell phones, unless you´re up to knocking people dead as a sound effect whiz at Ibiza beach parties.