Smart and Portable
Product Review: Pure StreamR Speaker
47° 22′ 43” N
08° 32′ 11” E
Recently, I got the chance to test a new tech product. In this blog post, I would like to provide you a short product review about a speaker with smart features, launched by Pure: The StreamR
For those, who do not know Pure yet: Pure is a British consumer electronics company and known to be the world’s leading digital radio brand, with a wide range of award-winning audio products for the home and on the move.
Just recently, they have launched a new speaker with smart features. The Pure StreamR, the little brother of DiscovR. It features Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, which should help you conducting many daily tasks by voice.
So let’s have a closer look at their latest addition :
Unboxing
The Design
Like other speakers with smart features, the Pure StreamR is like a tower. The design team at Pure has done a great job – aiming to create a curved cube shape that looks super stylish – and it is practical, because you can easily carry it since it’s a bluetooth speaker. There are two versions, one in black and the one I am testing in gray.
Really cool is the circular pop-up design: it is the central part of the speaker that holds the speaker grille. So you can simply tap on the top and then the main part elevates out of the body. After it has fully elevated, it reveals a digital display to show the radio stations, songs, current time etc. If you’re fed up with music, you simply push the main section back into the shell – then the device automatically turns off.
So far, I have used the speaker only at home, taking it in between bedroom, kitchen and bathrooms, but it is also a fully portable unit. The battery life is pretty impressive – since I started using the device, I have never recharged it again – and it has been a few weeks already. Actually, I do not know how many hours the battery lasts but it’s definitely extremely long.
Features & Control
The top plate of the StreamR has several capacitive touch-sensitive control buttons: 2 buttons for volume control +-, one for switching between stations and one for switching the source. On each corner, there are 4 presets, for which you can choose your favorite DAB+ /FM radio stations. In the middle, there is the Alexa action button to activate your digital assistant. For the Alexa experience, scroll a bit down 😉
In order to indicate the mode that you currently use, the multi-coloured LED array around the top’s perimeter lights up in different colors. Sometimes a bit too colorful 🙂
“Hey Alexa, where are you?”
Alexa is meant to be working with the new Pure speakers – but we can’t use it (or her?) properly here in Switzerland. That’s a pity! For a reason that I really don’t understand, Amazon decided to not make the Amazon Alexa App available in the Swiss App Store. There are many Amazon Products available now in Swiss stores like Digitec & co., but their voice recognition system still does not work. So let’s hope, Amazon enters the Swiss Market soon.
Hypothetically assuming Alexa would work in Switzerland: You could use it with the hold-to-speak voice control button that I mentioned above. This means, you need to press on the Pure logo for Alexa to hear your tasks – or you can use is with the Pure Home App.
My verdict
The new Pure StreamR could be the perfect buy for you, if you like good design, good sound quality and if you listen to radio daily like me. My favorite radio channels like SRF3 or Radio Energy Züri are available with one tap only. And if you don’t feel like listening to radio, you can easily connect your phone with bluetooth. One of the downsides is definitely the fact that Alexa is not supported (yet) in Switzerland. I have been using voice assistants on my phone for quite some time and I just love it. As soon as Alexa is being suported in Switzerland, it will be a huge upgrade to the Pure StreamR
