Aside from being a smartphone, tablet, and AIoT manufacturer, Huawei also offers smart speakers in its arsenal. Its most recent release was the Huawei Sound Joy, a heavily-lauded speaker that suits very well in the Huawei ecosystem. It's also more affordable than the previous offering but promises a distinct design and performance among its peers.
Huawei Sound Joy Review
Design
The Huawei Sound Joy is co-engineered with Devialet, a French audio technology company that produces speakers and amplifiers. The smart speaker is made up of high quality materials designed in a unique weaved pattern; it looks rugged but still preserves the classy appeal. We have the black colorway which we love.
There's a strap included on one end of the device allowing users to hook the speaker to your backpacks or attach it to your bikes.
The Sound Joy is cylindrical in form, with one end having circular LED lights that react to music and state of the device (volume, battery levels, and more). The actual body of the device is a home to the dimpled buttons - power, microphone (voice assistant), play/pause, Bluetooth, Menu - and the USB-C port.
These buttons are bigger than the usual and very clickable. On the other side, you can find oversized volume buttons and the Huawei branding opposite the Huawei share icon.
Performance
The Huawei Sound Joy is literally a joy to have. Its sound quality is very immersive and diverse at the same time. For sure, it sounded better than most of the speakers in this price range; but if you're an audiophile, you can not be impressed with this quality. Having said that, if you're an average listener, you'll be instantly impressed how the 20-watt speaker sounds inside the carbon-fiber diaphragm.
The overall quality is very balanced with punchy bass, dominant mid, and really defined lows. The highs are also placed very well due to its high treble 10-watt tweeter. Moreover, the soundstage is wide enough to differentiate varied frequency ranges.
The Sound Joy supports both AAC and SBC codec for high quality wireless sound transmission thru its Bluetooth v5.2. The connectivity did not fail even once in my testing; and I have not noticed any latency issues. Furthermore, the speaker also supports Bluetooth calling.
You can place the speaker in an upright position or in a lying-down position. There are rubber studs along the body that supports the speaker when it's placed in a crosswise manner. Additionally, there's a G-sensor that detects the device's position and will blast the necessary speaker to give out the most optimized sound depending on how you place the device on a surface.
The Huawei Sound Joy comes with IP67 rating; thus, you can definitely blast some tunes by the pool or take it outdoor for camping. I really enjoyed this kind of portability offered by the Sound Joy.
Software and Battery Life
The Huawei Sound Joy works seamlessly with other Huawei devices; in fact, you can transfer music files by tapping into the Huawei Share icon. Huawei smartphones or tablets also have an intuitive discovery feature for the Sound Joy with matching sleek graphics just like what we've experienced in Apple devices. There's also a supporting app called the Huawei AI Life wherein you can control all your Huawei ecosystem of devices in one platform.
As for the battery life, you can squeeze up to 26 hours of music playback in the Huawei Sound Joy with its 8,800 mAh battery. In our charging test, a 10-minute charge could give us more than an hour of playback.
Verdict: Should You Buy The Huawei Sound Joy?
The Huawei Sound Joy is a very powerful speaker; actually it's one of the best-sounding speakers I've tested in this price range. Aside from the sound quality, it has many tricks that will make you fall in love with it - the circle LED lights that respond to tracks, easy-to-use design, and easy pairing to Huawei devices.
If you own multiple Huawei devices, I think buying the Sound Joy is a great decision; or even if you don't, the speaker is still a good standalone device that functions beyond your expectations.
Huawei Sound Joy Specs
- 73mm diameter, 202 mm height, 680-gram weight
- 1 of 20W 50 mm x 75 mm racetrack-shaped full-frequency speaker
- 1 of 10W 19 mm tweeter
- 2 of passive radiators
- Supports 5V 2A, 9V 2A, and 10V 4A charging
- 3 microphones (use the G-sensor to switch between 2 horizontal and vertical sound pickup microphones)
- NFC support
- Bluetooth v5.2
- Power key, Voice key, Play/Pause key, Bluetooth key, Stereo key, Volume + and - keys
- Indicators - Ring lights: Guides connection setup, status indications, music effects, etc.
- Power button indicator: power-on or power-off status
- Bluetooth button indicator: Bluetooth on or off
- Battery indicator: low battery warning and charging indication
- Stereo key indicator: Combining stereo or Disabling stereo
- Bluetooth playback: Supports AAC and SBC
- Bluetooth Calling Support
- Huawei AI Life support (HarmonyOS 2 or later, Android 5.1 or later, currently, the APP does not support iOS devices)
- Type-C power port
- 8800 mAh battery
- Obsidian Black, Spruce Green
- PhP 6,999 SRP
