Toreto is an Indian firm that has been selling mobile accessories since 2013. Its range includes earphones, headphones and speakers, and the latest addition to its lineup is the Toreto Aqua, a waterproof Bluetooth speaker that is priced at around Rs. 3,000. Is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out.
Toreto Aqua design and features
The Toreto Aqua speaker ships in a box with clear plastic top that let you see its contents. You get the speaker itself, a Micro-USB cable, a small aux cable, and a user manual. The speaker is quite funky with gray being the dominant colour, and bright orange accents and buttons. The base is made in such a way that speakers point upwards at an angle when the unit is placed on a table, which helps direct audio towards your ears.
The speaker has a metallic grill on the front. The orange accents on the front and the hook at the back are made of plastic while the buttons and the rest of the body are rubberised. There’s a rubber flap at the back that keeps the Micro-USB port, the 3.5mm headphones socket and the microSD card slot waterproof. The Toreto Aqua weighs 340g which is spread across the unit well. Powering it is an 1800mAh battery.
Build quality is decent and the speaker is IPX7 rated. Toreto claims that it is resistant to water, shock, snow and dust. We did accidentally drop it a couple of times and it survived the impact without showing any signs of damage.
It has 1.5-inch drivers and has a rated output of 6W. There are four buttons on the top; two for volume control, a play/pause button, and a multifunction “M” button for power, toggling between modes and pairing Bluetooth devices. There is an LED between the four buttons that shows the state of the speaker, and a mic so you can make and receive voice calls when your phone is paired.
Toreto Aqua performance and battery life
Long-pressing the M button fires up the device, and the LED blinks rapidly waiting for a device to pair. To test the Toreto Aqua, we paired it with an Asus ZenFone AR (Review) and a OnePlus 5 (Review) with music streaming from Google Play Music and media from Amazon Prime Video and YouTube.
When we started testing this speaker, we were surprised at the volume it could put out. It could get really loud indoors, and we had to stick to a lower volume level. We found that the speaker’s volume couldn’t be controlled by a phone, and had to be adjusted independently.
We played MP3s as well as FLAC audio files, and it was quite hard to tell any difference between them. The overall audio quality of the Toreto Aqua is decent but it seems to go overboard with the highs. It is capable of producing some bass but the mids aren’t very clear. When playing songs with a good bass line at high volumes, the speaker would rock about on our table.
When listening to Levels by Avicii and Keep It Mello by Marshmello, we found the highs to be a little unpleasant at higher volumes in an enclosed room. When watching Le Mans on Amazon Prime Video the hybrid race cars did sound a little different though dialogue was clearly audible. Overall we found that this speaker performed better in open spaces than in closed rooms.
Playing audio files off a microSD card isn’t much of an issue. The Toreto Aqua can play MP3s but not FLAC files. The speaker plays a tone to notify you that a Bluetooth device has been paired or disconnected, and when switching between modes. This can be a little tricky as the cues are easy to miss.
Knowing the speaker is waterproof, we did dunk it in a swimming pool a couple of times. Once pulled out of the pool, it would continue playing songs without any trouble. The speaker would sound muffled with water in the drivers, but just had to bump the volume up to help the speaker push it out. We did check the rubber flap on the back and found that it can keep the ports dry even after multiple dips as long as you secure it properly.
The Toreto Aqua can keep playing music for over five hours, but needs over three hours to charge. It is also quite hard to gauge battery life. There is no obvious way to check how much time you have left before the battery will run out.
Verdict
The Toreto Aqua does a few things well but it could do with some improvements. It looks good and has its waterproofing sorted out, but its output needs to be a little warmer and the mids need a boost. For now, it is safe to say that this is a good speaker for outdoor use, but not the best performer indoors. If you are looking for a bathroom speaker this isn’t ideal, but if you want to blast your tunes on a trek or a swim, this might do just fine.
Price (MRP): 3,000
Pros
- Compact
- Shockproof and waterproof
- Loud output
Cons
- Charging takes a long time
- Mids suffer at higher volumes
Ratings (Out of 5)
- Design: 4
- Performance: 3
- Value for money: 3.5
- Overall: 3.5
- [Source”cnbc”]
