Acoosta Uno review: Pricey but worthy portable speakers with good song pool

This pair of portable speakers supports almost all common connectivity options, and has a good pool of built-in audio tracks; the mic-in function also has the option to record in USB

Home-grown audio products brand Acoosta recently launched the Acoosta Uno portable speakers, with a built-in collection of more than 14,000 songs from around 1,000 artists across genres. These premium speakers support several connectivity options, including Bluetooth for wireless, USB for plug-n-play, AUX for wired and FM Radio for spectrum-based audio broadcasts. It also has mic-in and live recording features, allowing you to sing along on Karaoke tracks and record your favourite songs or messages directly on to a USB storage device.
 
The Acoosta Uno has an arc-shaped boom box shaped design with stereo speakers, covered behind an aluminium mesh grille, and a small monochrome screen on the front. The speaker body has a brushed finish with leather accents and most of its controllers placed on top – volume-cum-selection dial, source selection key, favourite button, home/back key, built-in music access key, Bluetooth key and FM radio key – and connectivity and charging port on the back side.
 
These speakers come bundled with a small remote controller, which are convenient to use, especially while accessing built-in music files. The favourites button on the remote makes it easy to mark audio tracks from the pool of built-in library and helps you build a playlist of your favourite tracks, so that you can play them in a series without searching, skipping or manually fiddling around different pre-categorised playlists.
 
In terms of performance, the speakers are a delight to use. They have a good audio quality with deep bass, fine-tuned treble and vocal-heavy mid-range. They are loud and deliver a balanced output that does not distort even at top volume levels. However, the stereo effect is minimal, limiting the speakers’ casual portable utility other than that of a full-fledged entertainment device.

 
The device supports a dual mic-in feature, allowing you to sing on karaoke tracks along with your friend. The addition of a mic-in functionality for sing along on karaoke tracks with the option to adjust mic echo and volume completes the package. These mics also come handy while recording audio bytes or singing along audio sung on karaoke tracks in a USB. This way, it becomes convenient to share your work with like-minded people on social networks or otherwise.
 
Portable speakers, it is said, are as good as their on-battery time, and the Acoosta Uno stands true on the company’s claimed five hours of playback time. However, the battery charging times are long and these speakers take around an hour to charge from zero to 100 per cent.
 
Verdict
 
The Acoosta Uno wireless portable speakers are a complete package, with support for all basic connectivity options. The addition of the mic-in feature makes them suitable for those who like to sing along on karaoke tracks. The built-in pool of songs from Sony DADC cover tracks from most popular genres – classic, pop, international, ghazals, Bollywood, etc. However, the offline content is static and there is no way to update it. Priced at Rs 11,999, these speakers are aimed at the niche market of people with interest in music. For others, these might seem leaning more on the expensive side.