It is hard to believe, but a month has flown by since the arrival of a pair of Fugoo Style-S speakers for review. During the month, a lot happened with these handsome little noisemakers, and, quite surprisingly, not all of it was good. This is the first time since being introduced to Fugoo back in 2014 that there has been any issue at all with any of its speakers and I have reviewed them all. Let’s start off with the manufacturer’s claims.
- Outdoor loud
- Pair two speakers
- Water-, dust-, mud-, snow-proof
- Shock-proof
- Speakerphone
Every single one of these claims is true. The Style-S is a seriously loud speaker. When paired with another Style-S, the combination is kind of incredible. Everything comes out loud and clear with the high, mid, and low tones optimized by the Fugoo Digital Signal Processor so the sound, no matter what is being listened to, is just right irrespective of volume.
The Fugoo Style-S, like all the Fugoo before it, claims to be just about everything-proof, and just like those previous models, the claim is 100% true. As wrong as it sounds to take a perfectly good and not entirely inexpensive Bluetooth speaker and drop it into a five gallon bucket of water, the Style-S can handle it. In fact, unlike previous models, the Style-S floats, so if it does decide to go for a swim at the next pool party, retrieval is about as easy as could be.
Over the years, the fact that a wireless speaker could double as a speakerphone really wasn’t that impressive. The sound was often not great with voices crackling and booming in both directions. After a while, it grew tiresome complaining about the speakerphone feature, so any mention of the feature simply disappeared from my articles. Thanks to the noise-canceling, omnidirectional microphone, however, the speakerphone on the Style-S is great. No complaints on either end. Thanks, Fugoo.
As mentioned above, the Style-S is a seriously loud speaker. Twenty watts of power is capable of pushing 93db of loudness out through the two full range drivers and two passive radiators. It’s difficult to convey, without sounding hyperbolic, but whatever Fugoo does to shape the sound coming out of the speakers, they’re doing it right because the sound is somewhere between impressive and outstanding. Simply stated, the Style-S is a pound and half powerhouse.
Though this has never happened in three years of reviewing Fugoo products, there is one thing to complain about. The Style-S doesn’t always recognize having been paired to a device previously. With pretty much every Bluetooth device out there, once initially paired to something, both devices get put onto a digital pairing registry inside of the respective devices so each subsequent pairing is quick and easy. This doesn’t always happen with the Style-S. Thinking this had something to do with the Samsung Galaxy S7 it was being paired with, an iPhone 7+ & 6+ was paired up with the Style-S with exactly the same results. This was both annoying and surprising, but mostly surprising, because things like this simply do not happen with Fugoo products. Unsurprisingly, Fugoo is on it. According to a company representative, “Fugoo is aware of this issue and will provide a firmware update to resolve this condition. They plan to have this firmware update available asap.” Additionally, this is not a serious issue. All you have to do is choose the Style-S from the Bluetooth queue and pair the device with the speaker. Depending on the device being connected to the Style-S, this adds two to four extra clicks to the pairing process.
So, the Style-S has so much going for it that the little pairing hiccup can be all but overlooked. With Fugoo products, firmware updates are quick, painless, and easy to do and, like it or not, are a part of modern living. For more information about Fugoo and its now extensive collection of tough. handsome, and great sounding speakers click here.
**Full disclosure: These speakers were provided at no cost for editorial consideration, to think otherwise would be unsound.
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