Bottomline: Let down by poor connectivity and short battery life

Manufacturer: Parrot

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The Parrot Party is a compact Bluetooth speaker designed for use when out and about.

It can be used to play music wirelessly from any Bluetooth-enabled device such as a mobile phone, a PC or a Bluetooth-enabled MP3 player (such as the Samsung YP-P2).

It also has a line input so it can be connected to any standard audio device. The unit contains its own rechargeable battery so it doesn't have be constantly wired to the mains.

The problem with streaming music over Bluetooth is that there is some loss of quality, and the Parrot device is no exception to the rule.

Sound quality would be acceptable for occasional use, but we found it wasn’t capable of playing very loudly, which could be a problem.

Unfortunately, during testing we also found that the Bluetooth connection to our device kept dropping out every so often and we had to reconnect it.

Battery life was also unremarkable – Parrot claims over four hours but we only managed a couple of hours of continuous use. However, the unit is small enough to be packed away in a suitcase, and a carry-case, audio cable and software for your computer are all included.

Despite the comprehensive package, there’s little to recommend this product over a wired competitor with better sound.