At first we would like to thank Creative for offering us a sample of their Halo Portable Bluetooth Speaker for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About Creative:

 

“Creative is the worldwide leader in digital entertainment products. Founded in Singapore in 1981, Creative started with the vision that multimedia would revolutionize the way people interact with their PCs.

 

Famous for its Sound Blaster sound cards and for launching the multimedia revolution, Creative is now driving digital entertainment with cutting-edge audio solutions, premium wireless speakers, high performance earphone products and portable media devices. The company's innovative hardware, proprietary technology, applications and services enable consumers to experience high-quality digital entertainment - anytime, anywhere.

 

Since launching the phenomenally successful Sound Blaster sound cards and setting the de-facto standard for PC audio in 1989, Creative has been able to leverage on its leading-edge audio technology, a huge user base of 400 million, and strong brand name to expand into the exciting lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment (PDE) market.

 

Creative is now well recognized as a global leader for product innovation in the audio and PDE segments, offering consumers a complete, high quality digital entertainment experience through Creative's hardware, software applications and services. Finding the perfect balance between form and function, Creative strives for every product to be a sensory feast for the eyes and ears.

 

Today, Creative is spearheading new product categories with its groundbreaking Sound BlasterAxx audio enhancement devices and solutions, highly-acclaimed Creative D5xm Signature Series of modular Bluetooth wireless speakers, Aurvana premium headsets, Sound Blaster wireless gaming headsets, and cross-platform Sound Blaster Recon3D for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC or Mac.

 

These products and solutions are marketed to consumers and system integrators through a worldwide distribution network that includes traditional marketing channels, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the Internet.

 

Moving forward, Creative's mission is to expand its leadership role in the lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment market, using groundbreaking technology and leading-edge designs for not just the technically-savvy consumers, but for everyone who enjoys entertainment. With strong focus on user-friendly interface, multiple features and cool industrial designs, the Creative brand is synonymous with lifestyle Personal Digital Entertainment.

 

Creative's global corporate headquarters is located in Singapore, in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region. It has regional business units in the US (Milpitas, California), Europe (Dublin, Ireland) and Asia (Singapore).

 

Creative is a public listed company on the main board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since June 1994.”

 

Product Features:

 

Infinite Tunnel Lightshow

 

The Creative Halo is a sight to behold, with its lightshow creating the optical illusion of a wondrous tunnel of light fading into darkness.

 

Unique Multi-Material Design

 

The Creative Halo's soft fabric, rubberized controls, firm plastic, and reflective mirrored surface combine with the lightshow to create a product that is equal parts futuristic and minimalist.

 

Comes in 16.8 Million Colors

 

With 16.8 million colors to choose from, the Halo's lights can pulse along with your music, provide a calming glow, spin, blink, or simply shine the way you want it to. Choose from 12 mesmerizing halo effect patterns that can be activated by pushing a button or through the Xpectra Lightshow Control App!

 

Full Lighting Control

 

The downloadable Creative Xpectra Lightshow app (for iOS devices and Android devices) lets you manage your lightshow settings.

 

Surprisingly Big Bass

 

The Creative Halo features 2 full-range drivers mounted into a large reflex chamber. It also has a hidden passive woofer for additional bass enhancement.

 

Wireless Audio Enjoyment via Bluetooth

 

The Creative Halo connects to phones and other smart devices wirelessly via Bluetooth. It also has a standard 3.5mm AUX-in port for wired connectivity.

 

Lightweight and Carry-Friendly

 

The Creative Halo is lightweight at roughly half a kilogram (that's just over 1lb), and comes with a soft and comfortable strap for easy portability.

 

Long Battery Life

 

The Creative Halo boasts a whopping 8 hours of battery life, so your music goes on and on and on.

 

 

Product Specifications:

 

 

 

Quite some time has passed till our last speaker review from Creative; recently, we have received one of their latest offerings, with a feature which is quite unique and also comes in a pretty compact chassis, easy to manipulate when on-the-go. The speaker carries the “Halo” name and is shipped inside a small transparent plastic enclosure; this way we are able to check out how the product does look like without unsealing the box (really handy in stores), but we can also check out some of its highlights:

 

 

 

 

 

Creative is eager to leave you experience the LED lighting system in advance, so they have placed a small button on the top area of the enclosure just for that!

 

 

 

The bottom area of the packaging does reveal the inside contents, the product serial number but also the manufacturing date:

 

 

 

After removing the top cover, we will get to see a similar arrangement with bundle as we have seen along with the MUVO series:

 

 

 

Speaking of the bundle, we are getting a black USB charging cable, one Quick Start Guide, a World-Wide Warranty leaflet, but also a secondary leaflet with Safety and Regulatory Information:

 

 

Inside the manual, Creative explains everything we need to know on the Halo such as operating modes, main console button functions, available interfaces, the way on how to check out the remaining battery power but also how to locate the iOS/Android application in order to customize the LED setup further:

 

 

The chassis of the Halo speaker is covered by fabric, which makes it easy to hold, without creating any wear or fingerprints; the middle area is covered by the same material, that hides two full-range drivers, mounted into a large reflex chamber. The reflective mirrored surface does create an interesting and catchy RGB lighting effect:

 

 

 

In the back side of the speaker we can spot a similar construction:

 

 

 

Here we do have the USB charging port, the charging LED for monitoring the status, but also an analog jack for connecting other sound sources to it:

 

 

 

The top button panel is covered by rubber and does come with the Power On/Off button, the LED indicator for Bluetooth and AUX-in (also signals low battery power when needed), the Volume +/- buttons, the Bluetooth pair/Playback/Pause/Take call button, but also the LED mode switcher button. If the LED button is actuated while the unit is off, it will enter a showcase mode which will show some of the LED lighting effects:

 

 

 

A loop for easy handling the speaker makes it a complete package:

 

 

 

On the bottom speaker area we will get to see a rubber foot, but can also spot the mounting point for a tripod and such:

 

 

 

After powering the Halo, we will be able to enjoy not only the audio output, but the mirror LED lighting effects, which do look really sick:

 

 

 

 

Besides the dedicated button on the main panel of the Halo, we can configure the lighting in more detail via the Creative Xpectra Lightshow application, which is available for both iOS and Android devices; its GUI is pretty straight-forward, since it opens right up with the list of lighting effects we can choose from:

 

 

 

Each mode comes with its own configuration options and some also have the ability to pulsate in the rhythm of the music:

 

Moonlight

Fireworks

HotWheels

Spectrum

Full Spectrum

Glow

 

Morph

Beat Meter

Wave

Full Wave

Mood

Aurora

 

From the application Settings menu, we can turn the default audio voice prompts on or off:

 

We have tried the Halo while connected to our Android smartphone, the iPad Air 2 tablet but also on PC via stereo cable; the sound quality is great in terms of highs and mids and we were quite surprised how loud this speaker can get without distortions. Creative has build this product with two separate full-range drivers and advertises “big bass” output; this is quite not the case when compared with Roar units which feature a dedicated subwoofer and also the stereo separation is a bit difficult to distinguish because the two mentioned drivers are quite close together.

 

Halo does feature a 2200mAh battery, which lasted us about 7.5 hours out of the eight advertised, so this is a great aspect when using the product while on-the-go. While having the speaker connected on Bluetooth (BT 4.2 is supported), we can also configure the RGB LED lighting system in more detail thanks to the dedicated Xpectra Lightshow application.

 

Lastly, we can mention that this model can be optionally used for taking phone calls, by using the middle button from the main control panel.

 

Given the features offered with this product and the awesome LED light show, we can say that the 60 Euro asking price is well deserved!

 

Creative Halo Portable Bluetooth Speaker is Recommended for:

 

 

We would like to thank again to Creative for making this review possible!