It seems like the portable Bluetooth speaker is this year’s hot new item.  We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of these types of devices recently, and even reviewed quite a few of them here on Techaeris.  iLuv was generous enough to send over one of their Rollick Bluetooth speaker for us to play with.  Keep reading to see how this budget-friendly device stacks up.
The Rollick comes packaged in a fairly simple clear plastic box which is nice and easy to open.  Along with the pill-shaped Rollick speaker, the package also includes a short USB-microUSB cable and an instruction packet.  The Rollick does not come with a wall adapter, but honestly, who needs an extra adapter?  You’ve probably got 4 or 5 of them laying around, all of which will work nicely with the Rollick.  This simple exclusion helps keep the price nice and low.  The cord is also a bit too short – at around 2 feet – to get much use out of it.  Again, you’ve probably got plenty of cables that will more than suffice for charging the Rollick.
Once you’ve got the Rollick out of the box, setup is quick and easy.  If you’ve ever paired a Bluetooth device with your phone, tablet, or PC you’re well on your way to cranking out some tunes.  Simply set the Rollick and your device to pairing mode, and select the Rollick once it appears as an option on your phone.  Once it’s set up, you’ll be able to stream to the Rollick whenever you want.  The Rollick also provides an Aux-in port (cable not included) so you can hook it up to devices without Bluetooth as well.
How does the Rollick sound?  I’m glad you asked.  For a $50 device, the Rollick puts out a high quality sound.  It’s not quite as robust as some of the higher-end devices out there, but I doubt you’d believe the price if you simply listened to tunes coming out of the Rollick.  The highest volume setting will easily fill a decent sized (15’x25′-ish) room without distorting or sounding bad.  I appreciate that the volume stops before anything can get distorted.  Your music isn’t any good if the speaker is cracking and distorting.  The Rollick doesn’t have that problem even with loud/heavy music.  This speaker does suffer from some of the issues that plague other Bluetooth speakers, namely cutting out or dimming the music when other phone notifications come through, and of course cutting out if the distance from the source device is too great.  I was able to easily get around 15-20 feet away without any issues, and more often than not I’d simply leave my phone next to the Rollick which provided the best-possible playback.
I’ve been using the Rollick for a couple of weeks, with at least 10-12 hours of music playing through the speakers, and I honestly haven’t killed the battery yet.  It’s got pretty incredible stand-by time, and 10-12 hours of play time would be decent even if the device dropped dead right now (which it hasn’t, by the way).  As long as a few of the exclusions don’t turn you off (they really shouldn’t, do you really NEED another wall plug?  I think not), the iLuv Rollick is a solid Bluetooth speaker at a very attractive price.
Pick up your Rollick today for only $49.99 over at iLuv.com
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
