Tech review: Big sound, small package

Jim Rossman, Tribune News Service on Jul 23, 2025

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My wife is a preschool music teacher, and a big part of her curriculum is playing music in class.

She used to carry a small boombox about the size of a cigar box to play music from CDs.

Today she carries all her music on her phone and plays it wirelessly through a speaker connected via Bluetooth.

As the wife of a tech reviewer, she is my main tester for Bluetooth speakers, and when I ask her to try out a new one, she is happy to oblige. For her, a speaker has to be easy to use, sound good and have a battery that lasts a long time. She also has to lug it around in her bag, so size and weight are also very important.

For the last six months or so she’s been quite happy carrying a speaker from Tribit called the StormBox 2, which is the size of a small water bottle at 2.68 inches around and just over 7 inches tall. It weighs just over 19 ounces.

This week I received a new speaker from Tribit called the StormBox Mini+ ($39.99, Tribit.com or Amazon) which looks similar to the StormBox but it measures 3.58 inches around and is 4.68 inches tall. It weighs just over 19 ounces.

So, the Mini+ is shorter, a bit larger around and weighs the same as the original StormBox. Will it win my wife’s approval?

Specs

We’ve discussed the size, which is small, but not too small. Speakers can only get so small before they start sounding tiny.

The Mini+ has two 48-millimeter full-range drivers and one passive radiator that deliver 12 watts of power and 360 degrees of stereo sound.

It features Bluetooth 5.4, which may not mean much, but it means the speaker can connect to a music source like a phone or computer up to 100 feet away.

It has a 2,600 milliamp-hour battery with a 12-hour run time. The built-in rechargeable battery can charge up from a USB-C port in just 2.5 hours. The charging port is behind a small rubber cover that also houses a 3.5mm aux-in port to connect the speaker to a wired source if your phone still has a headphone jack.

The Mini+ is IPX7 protected against water damage. It can be submerged in up to 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes.

The top of the Mini+ features color-changing LED lights that can either slowly cycle through colors or change with the music beat. You can also turn the lights off all together.

The Mini+ is available in three colors – black, blue or green.

The front of the speaker has three large buttons that allow you to adjust the volume up or down and a button in the middle that will play or pause music during playback or it will allow you to answer phone calls.

The back of the speaker also has three buttons – for power, Bluetooth pairing and setting the light mode.

The Mini+ also has a microphone, so when it is paired to your phone it will act as a speakerphone.

If you have two Mini+ speakers, you can pair them in Stereo mode for enhanced sound.

App control

The Tribit speakers have a companion app that works when your phone is paired to the speaker.

The app shows the current battery level and volume. You can also change light modes and most importantly, you can change the sound of the music with equalizer settings.

There are five preset settings, including classical, rock and jazz. You can also adjust the EQ sliders and set your own tone.

The Mini+ sounded pretty good out of the box, but I was able to tweak the EQ sliders to get the sound more to my liking.

Conclusion

The Mini+ was easy to set up. It paired quickly to my phone and reconnects automatically each time I turn it on.

The sound is plenty loud and the light show on top is nice, but I tended to just turn it off, since I don’t spend my time looking at the speaker.

The Mini+ is about the size of a coffee mug, and it fits nicely in my wife’s school bag. It is about the same weight as her old speaker and it sounds better, so thumbs up from both of us.