It’s a neat idea, especially as the very smallest portable bluetooth speakers are notoriously thin in the bottom end. They can’t help this; there’s simply not the power in the driver, or breathing space in the casing, to produce those rumbling lows. That’s not to say there aren’t some fantastic small portable speakers out there, but in reality, the very best options tend to be the biggest.
So does the Sodapop work? On its own, the cylindrical speaker is just 3.8 inches long, 2.3 inches deep, and weighs 10.5 ounces. It’s tiny. There are two 4.5-watt stereo drivers, a 10-watt amplifier, and Bluetooth 5.0, plus a 3.5-mm AUX and a built-in mic for calls. It’s powered by a 1,600-mAh rechargeable battery, which should be good for up to 30 hours of playback.
The speaker also comes with, and is hidden snugly inside, its own plastic bottle. That’s right folks, the speaker designed to screw onto any standard soda bottle (specifically the global PCO 1881 standard) comes encased in its very own. It isn’t your typical drink receptacle however. It has matching color accents with the speaker for starters, and the base of the bottle features a small open bass port and diaphragm. It’s basically a screw on bass chamber—no drinks allowed. The bottom also unlocks, which creates space for the speaker to live. This makes for an excellent case, and it keeps the Sodapop compact on the go, but the company also supplies an additional soft case in the box, which seems wasteful.
It’s super cute, and the poppy colorways make it perfect for social media. But why ship it with a plastic bottle? The use of standard soda bottles was prominent in their hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, but maybe I was being naive in thinking that the Sodapop was all about giving waste plastic a second chance.