BenQ TreVolo review

Unique portable Bluetooth speaker does enough to impress

BenQ TreVolo review

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The TreVolo is a genuinely innovative new entry into the over-crowded portable speaker space. What's more, since its main innovation (the use of fold-back electrostatic speaker wings) turns out to be more than just an aesthetic gimmick, the TreVolo has a genuine chance of turning its pioneering spirit into some decent sales figures.

The electrostatic speakers help to deliver an exceptionally clear, detailed sound ideally suited to classical, jazz and even certain types of pop and rock music. It's less comfortable with dense rock and dance music, but if its talents match your tastes, it's well worth seeking out.

We liked

The TreVolo looks cool and cute in equal measure, standing out on shop shelves and making a great talking point for dinner parties. Its sound is excellent with relatively light or sparse music too, it supports high-resolution audio files, and its design and battery life make it surprisingly portable for such a good-sounding system.

We disliked

It's not quite as much of a musical all-rounder as some other speakers in its category, with dense and/or deep music sounding a bit muddy. It's also not cheap in the context of the general Bluetooth speaker market (though actually, nor is it expensive by the standards of electrostatic speaker technology), and sometimes its audio processing feels overbearing.

John Archer
AV Technology Contributor

John has been writing about home entertainment technology for more than two decades - an especially impressive feat considering he still claims to only be 35 years old (yeah, right). In that time he’s reviewed hundreds if not thousands of TVs, projectors and speakers, and spent frankly far too long sitting by himself in a dark room.