dr dre pill

Dr Dre Pill Mini Speaker

As its name suggests, this tiny portable speaker designed by the brand Beats by Dr. Dre, is shaped like a giant capsule. NFC and Bluetooth, it can connect easily to all smartphones and all tablets. In theory, the battery ensures continuous operation for 7 hours. See if Pill really gives a smile. 

Reality

Without prescription, the Pill is a mini laptop speaker ready to set the mood wherever you go. It comes with a USB cable and AC adapter to charge the battery, an audio cable, a small carrying case and few details that make the difference.

Packaging is neat and original, the enclosure being packaged as a medicine. Weighing only 300 grams, it can be transported easily into a pocket. In addition, it is equipped with non-slip plastic strip, that allows to put it anywhere without fear of falling.

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Easy configuration or very easy!

Like any Bluetooth device, pairing with a smartphone or tablet is easy. Just press and hold the red logo, then search the enclosure in the settings of the smartphone.

One can use a faster method, if we have an NFC compatible device. You just approach the smartphone from the Pill for automatic configuration. As a bonus, playing the last played audio track on Google Play Music will start automatically, too.

A good sound for such a small package

Despite its small size, the speaker is surprisingly powerful. However, the sound issued lacking some bass. The treble and midrange are at the party. On tracks where the bass are put forward, such as rap or jazz, this is not fatal. But some rock bands will miss fishing and have a sound somewhat cold, metallic.

When observing the curve of the steps we have taken, this translates into low manifested from about 230 Hz only! The low mids are also slightly low (500 to 1500 Hz). Then, as we have heard, the rest of the curve is more consistent, to over 20 kHz.

dr dre input

A poorly placed microphone

At the rear of the enclosure, there is a micro USB port for recharging the battery, the on / off switch, an auxiliary input and rarer audio output. Since it would be more convenient to connect headphones directly to the smartphone or tablet, this output can be used to connect the Pill to a stereo system, for example, or any audio kit more powerful. The speaker then made Beats Bluetooth adapter office.

With a microphone under the Beats logo, the Pill can act as a handsfree kit. Thus if one receives a call on his smartphone, a tone is played on the speaker. Pressing the Beats logo allows answering and hear caller on speaker. What we think is that it would surely have been better to place the microphone above the logo, not underneath, so more easily capture the voice of the user.

Finally, the autonomy of the Pill is quite small compared to some models like the Jabra Solemate, the Logitech Mobile BoomBox or the Sony SRS-BTM8.

The verdict

This small enclosure is good enough. It’s even in our top 3! For 200€ speakers, we recommand a special dosage: 1 hour in the morning, one hour for lunch and one hour at night.

dr dre special