| ✔️ Great Bass | ✘ No Travel case included |
| ✔️ Loud enough for outdoor use | ✘ Low waterproof rating |
| ✔️ Easy to use controls | ✘ Size could be an issue for light packers |
| ✔️ Discrete LED notification | ✘ |
| ✔️ Second speaker pairing | ✘ |
{Tech} for Travel Says….
Hands-On Review: The two 52mm 10W driver power units make the Urbanista Brisbane Wireless speaker loud without distortion and has a 10 hour battery life to keep them going.If only it came with a travel case to protect it!
Urbanista Brisbane Wireless Speaker
Urbanista is a relatively young company, but already has a wide range of audio options for travellers.
Each of its products is named after a different city around the world and range from wired to true wireless devices.
Brisbane is the current flagship Bluetooth portable speaker for Urbanista and was announced during #IFA2019 and had a press preview in London during October which I enjoyed attending.
Features
Despite being at the larger end of what most would consider being portable, the Urbanista Brisbane Wireless Speaker will easily fit in most backpacks or carry-ons.
It has a very understated design, simple controls and sounds fantastic!
Big Sound
Inside the Brisbane, are 2 x 52mm 10W drivers which do a great job of delivering an immersive sound, even when outdoors.
During the review, I was using the speaker for either rock music or podcasts and it handled both extremes well.
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If you’re into heavy bass type dance music you may find the Brisbane slightly lacking here, but for most users, playback is overall, very adaptive.
Configuration & Controls
Pairing any device with the Urbanista Brisbane Wireless speaker was seamless thanks to the Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. To the top is a discreet 4 button control panel.
The buttons sit almost flush with the speaker housing, felt good to the touch and provided enough feedback to ensure you knew it had been pushed.
Some of these slimline buttons don’t give enough of that, but the Brisbane does!
For the best part, I used my smartphone and tablet to control the speaker and there was only a minimal lag between my devices.
Modern Styling
Instead of a loud and ‘look at me’ design, the styling is modern yet understated and lets its sound draw your attention.
The Brisbane is wrapped in either a Midnight Black or White Mist mesh fabric and finished at each end with matching plates. On the base are two rubber feet for stability.
Under the mesh fabric at the top is a single LED to notify you of pairing and connectivity status but you have to use your Bluetooth setting bar on your attached device to be aware of the battery level.
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Urbanista quote up to 10 hours of playback and for the review of the Brisbane Wireless Speaker I took it with me on a trip to Scotland. I found a nice open valley where I could let the Brisbane really open up.
At the top end, this is a loud speaker, even for outside, but as expected the battery performance did drop slightly with prolonged periods of high volume play.
But only down to around 8 hours!
Performance
Under general use, 10 hours is easily achievable. There is an internal microphone for hands-free calling but I found the Brisbane to loud for this even on a low volume setting.
One of the very few issues I did find with the Urbanista Brisbane was its water-resistant rating. At IPX5 it can handle the odd splash of rain but that’s all.
At the rear is the port dock which has a Micro USB slot for charging and a 3.5mm audio jack.
Should you need more volume, pairing two Brisbane units together was easy to do although I only tried this at the launch and not during the review.
Specifications
Overall, the Brisbane speaker is great to travel with but Urbanista doesn’t include a protective case! This is not ideal as you will want to keep it looking good and so far I’ve not found anything suitable to use with it.
Even a soft fabric pouch would be better than nothing.
- Dimensions – 21.5 x 10 x 5.3cm
- Weight – 703g
- Colour Options – Midnight Black | White Mist
- Ports – Micro USB | 3.5mm Audio
- 8,000mAh Internal Battery
- Up to 10 Hours Playback
- 3 Hour Charge Time
- 90 Day Stand-By time
- Driver Unit: 52mm
- Driver Power: 2 x 10W
- Frequency Response – 80-20000 KHz
- Bluetooth 5.0 Connectivity
- IPX5 Water-Resistant Rating
- Dual Speaker Connection
How Much Does the Urbanista Brisbane Wireless Speaker Cost?
The Brisbane Wireless Speaker is £99/ direct from Urbanista.
Prime members can shop their local Amazon store for the same price and benefit from Prime shipping options.
Final Thoughts…
As a portable speaker, Brisbane does have some short-comings. The lack of a travel case and a low waterproof rating are not ideal. But this shouldn’t take away from what is an outstanding portable speaker.
With such a big sound, modern design and dual pairing the Urbanista Brisbane speaker is a worthy travel companion.