Retro-Inspired Speaker Design with Pixel Art Display

The Divoom Ditoo is a Bluetooth speaker with a retro-inspired computer design. The speaker features a 16×16 pixel grid on the front which can be customised to perform a variety of different functions or display custom artwork.

Video Review

Design

The most striking feature of the Ditoo is its design and appearance which looks like a vintage all-in-one computer. I’m a big fan of the design, I think it is fantastic and novel making it a fantastic gift or decoration for a workspace.

The speaker is available in a variety of different colour options, I’ve been testing out the white model for my review. It is made from a plastic construction which feels high quality, durable and well made.

The front of the speaker is home to the 16×16 pixel grid display that can show a variety of information and customisable designs. To control the speaker, there’s a set of backlit mechanical keys that are used to change the speaker mode, adjust brightness as well as track and volume controls. These are proper mechanical keyboard blue switches which provide a clicky feel and sound when pressed. There’s also a lever which is used to interface with certain speaker functions.

The right-hand side is home to the connectivity and I/O. If you don’t wish to use Bluetooth for music playback, you can load some music onto a microSD card, so the speaker has its own music library. The power button is also located on the right-hand side alongside the USB Type-C port which is used for charging up the speaker.

The actual speakers for the Ditoo are located within the top screen part of the device, a 10-watt speaker unit fires sound upwards out the top of the speaker and a passive subwoofer provides the low-end out of a gap on the rear side of the speaker.

Sound Quality

If you’re solely looking for a speaker that is a Bluetooth speaker and nothing else, there are probably better-sounding options out there for the money, but if you’re interested in the additional features that the Ditoo brings to the table, the Ditoo is still a good sounding option and manages to pack in a lot of sound for its small form factor.

The treble of the speaker sounds clean and provides good clarity for percussion instruments and vocals, this is emitted from the top of the device, the mid frequencies also sound fairly good. As for bass, the passive subwoofer does an excellent job at providing bass to songs. When listening to tracks such as “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk, the bass was easy to hear – loud and clear.

It truly is surprising how much of a kick this small speaker can put out, when I first tried the speaker, I was extremely impressed by how it sounded given its form factor.

Microphone Quality

Unfortunately, the microphone on the speaker is not good at all during my testing. My voice sounded incredibly quiet and almost inaudible.

Features

The Divoom Ditoo has a range of interesting features that make it great for day-to-day use or just to kill some time. The speaker can be used to play built-in minigames, set an alarm clock or as a sleep aid, these features can be customised and configured from within the Divoom app on your mobile device – which does require an account to use, which I can see as a downside.

 The app can also be used to create and download artwork to show on the speaker’s display, you can start from scratch or import an image from your camera roll. There are some very cool and neat animations and artwork within the app to personalise your speaker for you.

The speaker uses Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to your mobile device, this is great to see as this is the sort of speaker that you may be using for years to come, so having a speaker that is futureproofed for modern mobile devices is certainly a bonus.

Battery Life

The speaker is powered by a 3,000mAh battery, which will provide it with around 8 hours of power. This will vary depending on a range of variables such as your listening volume, display brightness and keyboard backlight. When it comes to charging up the speaker, it will take around 4 hours to be fully charged again.

Conclusion

The Divoom Ditoo is a fantastic little Bluetooth speaker with a fun and interesting design, which I love. The pixel display makes the speaker more than just a speaker, making it useful for keeping an eye on the time or for increasing your productivity.

There may be better value-for-money speakers out there, but the Ditoo offers a fun novelty factor that others can’t – and it would make an excellent gift as well.