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If you’re looking to get a new Bluetooth speaker, considering the Huawei Sound Joy may not be a bad idea, as you’ll find out in this review. This is the company’s latest Bluetooth speaker, and a result of collaboration with Devialet. Devialet, as some of you may know, is a French audio tech company that produces speakers and amplifiers. Well, Devialet speakers are included in the Huawei Sound Joy, and the result is… spoiler alert… pretty great.
The name of this speaker doesn’t exactly scream “premium”, but this speaker does feel like it. The company did a great job with the design of this thing, and the sound output is also admirable. That being said, we’ll first talk about its design, and then move to other aspects of the device, including sound output.
The Huawei Sound Joy looks more premium than you may think based on its name
The Huawei Sound Joy has a really intentional design. It can fit in your bicycle’s bottle cage, so it’s about the width of a water bottle. You can easily put this thing in your backpack, or attach it to your backpack, as it comes with a lanyard. That lanyard is pre-applied, though you can remove it, if you want, with ease. The device comes in two color variants, Obsidian Black and Spruce Green, we’ve reviewed the latter. It can also be referred to as Olive Green, actually, based on its actual color.
There’s much to talk about when it comes to this design. The vast majority of the device is covered by a fabric-like material, while Devialet’s 2-way speaker system is visible at the top and the bottom of the device, more on that later. There’s also something called “The Glow Flow” included at the top. Those are essentially lights that will glow based on the music you’re listening to. That is a multi-color ring, which you’d never notice when it’s off. You can track the battery life based on the fullness of this right as well, which is an incredibly useful feature.
There are plenty of physical buttons here
There are also some buttons on this thing. On one side, you’ll notice huge plus and minus buttons, which you can use to control the volume. Next to that, below the lanyard, there are plenty more buttons, which are considerably smaller. You can easily feel them as they’re indented. Thanks to those five buttons, you can power on/off the speaker, control the Bluetooth connection, play/ pause music, and more. A Type-C USB port sits below all those buttons.
You’ll also notice a rather interesting wireless transfer sign on the front side of the speaker, above the company’s branding. This sign suggests that this speaker is NFC compatible. You can easily transfer your music to the device if you own an Android phone with Android 5.1 or above. It’s so easy to do. On top of all that, this speaker is water and dust resistant, thanks to its IP67 rating.
The speaker feels great in the hand, and it’s highly portable
The speaker feels great in the hand, and it does feel more premium than its name suggests. On the flip side, it seems to be meant to be used pretty much anywhere, so don’t be afraid to carry it around with you, and put it through its paces, that’s what it’s meant for.
The sound output is excellent, partially thanks to Devialet
As already mentioned, Huawei partnered up with Devialet for this speaker, and that partnership paid off, at least as far as the quality of this product goes. The device comes with a 2-way speaker system from Devialet, and we’re looking at Devailet’s SAM technology for aligning the signal and acoustic output pressure. These speakers can provide 79 dBA for you to enjoy. There is a full-frequency speaker built-in here, along with a tweeter. This thing can produce quite a bit of bass, actually.
There’s a 20W full-frequency speaker included here
So, the 20W full-frequency speaker is covered by the fabric material. It employs a specially engineered carbon-fibre diaphragm which helps bass frequencies as low as 50Hz to sound more fully. There is also a 10W Silk Dome tweeter included next to the speaker, and it offers frequencies up to 10kHz. Needless to say, this tweeter has been tuned by Devialet. And last, but not least, the dual ‘push-push’ passive radiator enhances low-frequency sensitivity and extension.
This is a lot of technical talk, and most of you are probably wondering if the sound is any good thanks to all this. Well, yes, it is. I’ve tried playing various types of music on this speaker, just to see the full range of its capabilities. You’ll be glad to know that the instruments never overpowered the vocals, the sound was sharp, the soundstage wide, and there’s also plenty of bass, but not too much. On top of that, the treble adds detail to the whole package. You will lose some bass if you tune the volume all the way up, though you probably won’t do that, as the speaker gets immensely loud at such levels, for a Bluetooth speaker, that is.
You can use it in both vertical & horizontal orientation
This speaker can be propped up either vertically or horizontally, and there is some difference in the sound output based on the orientation. For ideal listening, you should place it horizontally, so that you don’t cover one of its passive radiators. If you’re wondering if the microphones are here, yes they are, three of them. The speaker will know if it’s orientated vertically or horizontally, and so it’ll know which microphones to use to provide optical sound. If you’re worried about the speaker rolling while it’s in horizontal orientation… well, don’t be. Why? Well, Huawei is using wedges in order to prevent that, two of them, and they’re made out of rubber. They actually do a great job of propping the speaker and prevent it from rolling around.
Call quality is also quite great
Yes, you can use this speaker for making calls, and the sound quality is actually quite great, regardless of whether the speaker is in vertical or horizontal orientation. Those microphones are more than good enough for such use. Do note that Bluetooth 5.2 is supported by the speaker. I didn’t experience any issues with connectivity, it didn’t disconnect once.
There is a dedicated app, but it doesn’t offer an equalizer
There is an app for this speaker as well. Do note that it’s not created for this speaker alone, but for a range of Huawei devices. The app is called AI Life, though you’ll need to download the version from the Huawei AppGallery, not the Play Store. You’ll have to install the AppGallery first, from here. Following that, download AI Life from there in order to connect this speaker.
That being said, the app itself doesn’t offer that many options. The equalizer is not included, for example, and that’s one thing I expected to see in there. Nonetheless, you have some control over the animation of the light circle, and you can also program the speaker to shut down if you haven’t used it for a while, there are several options in that regard. There are several additional options, but that’s pretty much it. Huawei may add some extra functionality in the future, though.
The battery life is excellent, to say the least
What good is a Bluetooth speaker if its battery life is no good, right? Well, thankfully, this speaker offers great battery life. Huawei included an 8,800mAh battery inside this speaker, and it claims you can get 26 hours of continuous Bluetooth playback from it. Well, I didn’t really let it run for 26 hours straight, but the battery lasted for about a week and a half of heavy use for me, and I consider that to be pretty great. I never pushed the volume all the way up, because, quite frankly, the speaker ended up being too loud. It was usually between 30 and 60-percent, depending on what I was doing.
40W charging is also supported, for quick top-ups
I used it to listen to music at home, while I was walking outside, and I even used it at a small get-together at my friend’s place, just to test it. Nobody complained about the sound output, and people were even surprised it’s coming from that speaker. Now, when you need to recharge it, that’s not a problem, simply plug it in, and charge it up real fast. This speaker, believe it or not, supports 40W fast wired charging. It supports SCP 2.0 and PD 3.0 protocols.
The Huawei Sound Joy is worth the money
So, is the Huawei Sound Joy worth it? Well, if you’re looking for above-the-average Bluetooth speaker, that is water resistant, and looks very nice… then yes, it is. The sound quality is really great. In fact, if you’re willing to spend some extra cash, you can get two of these. You can combine them to achieve true stereo sound. One speaker is really good, as long as you manage your expectations, but having two would be excellent. The sound is clear, the soundstage is wide, and you’re even getting a decent amount of bass here. We really don’t have a major complaint when it comes to the sound output, nor the quality of this speaker in any other regard. Huawei did an excellent job with this one.