Philips DS3480/98

Still a great iPhone Dock Portable Bluetooth Speaker in 2022 – Just bought this Philips Portable Bluetooth Speaker with iPhone dock in 2022 (second hand of course) for just $10 and its amazing. Who needs all those other overpriced cylindrical waterproof portable Bluetooth speakers? Plenty of cheap and nasty ones around too that you wouldn't touch. But this Philips one does everything today's Bluetooth speakers do in 2022 and much more! What sets this Philips Bluetooth / iPhone Speaker apart is the following: 1. Great sound for such a small speaker with lovely clear highs and mids. The lows come up good as well too due to the dynamic bass boost. You can always use the equalizer in your phone to adjust the sound but I find it's best with EQ off. 2. Nice attractive compact size that's not heavy and well made so it won’t break easily. 3. Even though its close to 10 years old now the battery still runs for the specified 5 hours on Bluetooth at mid volume. How good is that? Though battery charging is slow by 2022 standards. This slow (trickle) charging is probably why the battery is still in such great condition. And obviously Philips used a high quality rechargeable battery with good overcharge protection. 4. Plug in the charger and it runs on mains as well. The speaker dock battery charges in the background whilst you are playing music through it. If your iPhone (5/6/7/8/X) is attached to the lightning connector/dock then your iPhone charges at the same time. So you can play music from your iPhone for as long as you like! And it will be charged when you remove it. Plus there is a USB charging port at the back in case you are using an android phone with Bluetooth. Or alternatively you can connect via the 3.5mm stereo port if your device doesn't have Bluetooth 5. Unlike most iPhone dock speakers made in 2013 this one has a native lightning port that was introduced with the iPhone 5 and is hence compatible will all subsequent iPhones (5/6/7/8/X/11/12/13) as the iPhone lightning port hasn't changed at all. I'm using an iPhone 8 with it and it works perfectly (music play and charging) 6. The Bluetooth is still compatible with all smartphones so it can be used with both Android phones and iPhones. And the volume control on the dock syncs with your phone's Bluetooth volume. So you can control the volume either from the dock or from your phone. The only negatives I have are as follows: a) A built-in radio would have been nice given most phones don't have one built in. b) Some sort of bass, treble and loudness control could have been included. Though as mentioned your phone's equalizer partially makes up for this. c) The promoted Philips ClockStudio app that is supposed to be downloaded onto your iPhone and used with this device hasn't been updated since 2014 so its no longer available. No big deal though as the app was rather useless in reality and this Philips Bluetooth speaker works just fine without it.