The iFrogz Coda Wireless Speaker is an average Bluetooth speaker that lacks waterproofing but is nonetheless very portable.
After the excellent LKER Bluetooth speaker we reviewed back at Christmas, the Coda Wireless speaker is up against some serious competition. We’ve heard plenty of ultra-portable Bluetooth speakers with abysmal sound quality and while the Coda isn’t on that level, it’s not going to challenge the best either.
Taking it out of the box, packaging is exceptionally minimal. There’s a clear plastic insert with a manual and USB cable, plus the speaker itself. The design of the speaker is solid enough but doesn’t give the allure of premium quality like we experienced with the LKER. Waterproofing would’ve given it a distinct edge here but alas, there’s none to be found. It’s wrapped in a matte rubber finish which makes it easy to hold, with the speaker driver shielded by a vertical piece of plastic. This also doubles up as a little handle, though we’re not sure if that was the intended design.
Pairing to the speaker was very easy and it was picked up by my handset quickly. The distance is pretty impressive, reaching to the end of our office and back before the signal suffers any noticeable dropouts. Audio controls are located on the bottom of the speaker, which allow you to play, pause and track skip. Quite why they’ve included them on the bottom is a bit of a mystery, since you can’t use them when the speaker is placed on a surface.
Sound quality on the Coda Wireless speaker is about what you’d expect from something of this size. It struggles heavily with bass and has a sound which is very tinny. Distortion is evident at louder volumes. I found that the mid-range was quite muddy, clouding a lot of the detail present in some material.
Battery life is quoted at four hours, we found during our testing that it lasted slightly above this at 50% volume. This is a satisfactory result but well behind the leaders.
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