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Bose SoundDock Portable Video

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Bose SoundDock Portable
Created: 10/09/2007
Video description: The Bose SoundDock Portable is a really good iPod speaker system, but it should cost less.

Bose SoundDock Portable Video Transcript

[ Music ] ^M00:00:01

>> Hi, I'm David Carnoy executive editor for CNET.com. I'm here to tell you about the Bose Sound dock Portable. Now, Bose had one of the early iPod speaker systems with the Sound dock. And basically, what it's done here is just convert the Sound dock into a portable device. There's a built in battery on the back. It's a lithium ion battery. There's also a hideaway port on the front for your iPod. And the other significant addition is audio inputs. The original Sound dock did not have audio inputs. So with this one, you can actually take any audio device and connect it to the portable Sound dock. On the surface, this actually looks a lot like the original Sound dock, maybe a little bit smaller. There is a handle on top it truly is designed to be portable and carried around with you. The battery gets around three hours of battery life. That isn't great but Bose says if you keep the volume down a little bit you will get more battery life. And we found that to be the case with our tests. Like most iPod speaker systems, this one also comes with the remote. We actually like the remote. It's simple to use. It has a nice rubberized finish on it. You can't, you won't be able to see it in the video, but I can feel it. As with the original Sound dock we were pretty impressed with the sound quality of the Sound dock Portable. It isn't fantastic. But, it's certainly better than a lot of iPod speaker systems out there. And for a portable speaker it's actually very good. Really the two biggest down sides to the product are it doesn't have a built in Am Fm radio. A lot of iPod speaker systems have that at this point. It would be nice to have an AM FM radio, say if you're on the beach or something like that. Also, it's pretty darn expensive. The lithium ion battery is removable and you can get additional batteries. They are expensive. If you want to have portable power for several hours then you may want to buy an extra battery. Well, we wish it cost less. The Sound dock Portable is all in all a really good portable iPod speaker system. I'm David Carnoy and this is the Bose Sound dock Portable. ^M00:01:54 [ Music ]

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Bose SoundDock Portable (black) Review

The good: Relatively compact and portable iPod speaker with a detachable replaceable lithium-ion rechargeable battery that powers the speaker and iPod; includes auxiliary input and remote control; 30-day risk-free trial.

The bad: Expensive; no bass/treble controls; no clock or AM/FM radio; only three hours of battery life at full volume.

The bottom line: The Bose SoundDock Portable is a really good iPod speaker, but it should cost less than $400.

Read full review

Bose SoundDock Portable (black) Specs

Manufacturer: Bose Corp.
Part number: 43085

Product Specifications
  • Product Specifications

Read full specs