Pat PilcherSync 20 REVIEW - Making meetings sound better
Summary
Sync 20 REVIEW – Making meetings sound better
$169.55
Novel but 100 per cent useful, this portable speaker is designed to make meetings sound better. PAT PILCHER is stoked.
Working from home is the new normal, and goddammit, it isn’t likely to change for some time. And spending prodigious amounts of time glued to the phone looks like part of the deal too.
If keeping kids and pets under control while balancing a phone on your shoulder or chin during that crucial meeting sounds stressful, relax. The good people at Poly have your back. They’ve just launched the Sync 20 meeting speaker, which can handle meetings and play music. It’s also portable and sports a healthy battery life and a well-thought-through design.
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Its curved rectangular shape makes it easy to slip into a laptop bag. A logical control layout also makes it intuitive to use. There are call, volume, and mute buttons, plus a customisable ‘Rocket’ button that is configurable using a downloadable app.
Additionally, there’s a light strip that runs the length of the Sync, and uses colour coding for different tasks. It’ll flash blue when the Bluetooth is pairing, solid white when it is paired. It flashes green for incoming calls, solid green when a call is in progress, and solid red when muted. This is handy for those who forget that the speakerphone is unmuted and mutter that the boss is a dickhead during the meeting. According to the marketing bumpf, it’s also Zoom and Teams certified.
Equally handy, it sports both wireless (Bluetooth 5.1) and wired connectivity. The integrated cable is a USB beastie, and Poly has bundled a Bluetooth USB adapter for non-Bluetooth equipped PCs. The USB cable cleverly hides away by wrapping around the recessed base underneath the speaker.
The Sync also comes with a handy carry pouch, which helps protect it from the innards of your laptop bag.
Speaking of throwing it in a Laptop bag, the Sync is designed with portability in mind. It measures just 34mm x 95 mm x 182 mm and weighs just 360g. Because it uses USB, there’s no extra power brick to carry. Last (but by no means least), the Sync 20 is IP64 rated, which means it can handle dust and the odd splash of water. It’s super portable and throwing it into your laptop bag is no hardship at all.
From a full charge, the 3200mAh battery delivered just under 20 hours of use. Because it’s a USB beastie, it can be charged via a laptop or a spare phone power brick. Another neat trick is that it can also act as a portable smartphone charger.
Getting the Sync 20 connected to my laptop via USB and my smartphone via Bluetooth was intuitive and dead easy. The audio output for music was surprisingly good. While you will get better results with a dedicated speaker setup, few speakers are as portable or as versatile as the Sync. Music playback sounded much better than I was expecting. Instead of a shrill distorted mess, bass and lower mids were present, which helped round out the audio. Meeting Audio also sounded several hundred times better than the distorted mess that is my smartphone’s speakerphone function. For Skype, Teams and Zoom, Audio sounded fantastic, being both crisp and clear. The Sync 20 uses a three-mic array. It has a pickup range of two metres. There’s noise and echo reduction too.
If you’re wanting better meeting audio clarity, the Sync 20 is a well-executed and versatile solution. Thanks to its sheer handiness and a well thought out design, it earns a 10/10.
