Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 7 review: Portable sound

Featuring a unique-looking design that stands out, the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 7 is a speaker that will fit in most home decors. It has pretty good quality sound, Bluetooth support, and eight hours of battery life. It's good if you're looking for something really basic, but the S$399 asking price may be a bit too much.

Quick specs

Woofer: 1 x 120mm, tweeter: 2 x 25mm
Bluetooth 4.2
3,250mAh battery for up to 8 hours playback

Unlike the transparent dome of the Harman Kardon Aura Studio 3, the Onyx Studio 7 has its own flair with a metal ring around it. It gives the speaker a very nice space-ish feel, much like the rings around Saturn. The ring also serves as a handle for carrying around. Located at the top are the buttons for control, and a tiny LED indicator light. There's no volume indicator though, and the volume control step-ups are very small. You'll have to press a lot of times to adjust it. If you're playing from say, a phone, you'll be able to adjust volume a lot faster.

Audio quality, as with most Harman Kardon products, is good. You'll get a great balance between the mids and the highs with the volume at mid levels with the speaker. Bass is really strong, too. However, if you choose to play at the highest volume, the bass becomes too weak. Instead, the highs feels like it's going to be blown out. If you leave it below that though, you get very rich and well-rounded sound.

Connectivity-wise, the Onyx Studio 7 only comes with Bluetooth. However, pairing is really quick and easy. Just hit the Bluetooth button on the speaker and it goes right into pairing mode. There's no Wi-Fi, which is a shame, since you can't use Google Cast. It also doesn't support codecs like AAC or AptX for better quality. You also can't adjust the EQ. However, with up to eight hours of battery life, you can easily bring this out for a picnic. Just hope it doesn't rain though, as it's not water resistant.

Retailing at S$399, the Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 7 is a portable Bluetooth speaker that looks and sounds good. While it doesn't have a lot of functions, maybe it doesn't need it. Get it from Shopee, Lazada, or Amazon SG, where it's going for just S$297.

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Note: Review unit provided by JBL.

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