Bluetooth speakers and headphones are becoming more common as more devices abandon traditional 3.5 mm headphone jacks. While I have a few pairs of Bluetooth headphones, getting a dedicated Bluetooth speaker has never been on my radar. Well, we do have a Bluetooth equipped sound bar I suppose. When I was approached by Divoom to check out their Ditoo, a retro inspired Bluetooth speaker, I was curious. I mean this thing looks like a classic 80’s PC complete with mechanical keys and a pixel art display; how could I say no! To my surprise, the Ditoo has turned out to be more than just a gimmick.
What’s In The Box
The Ditoo comes packaged like a gift bag and it was pretty cool to see when it arrived at the house. The front and back display an image of the Ditoo with its pixel art display in use. The sides of the bag outline a number of key features and specs as well as provide a download link to the Divoom app. Inside the outer bag is a hard case that contains the Ditoo, viewable through the front window. There is some insight into Divoom’s philosophy written here as well, though it can be hard to make out. The back of the case also repeats the specs found on the outer bag while adding a short description of the Ditoo. Inside the case is the Ditoo, user’s manual, USB cable, and a selection of stickers.
Aesthetics And Build Quality
The Ditoo is a really cool looking device with it’s old school computer look. You have the base of the device which would be the PC tower and integrated keyboard on an old school system. 6 mechanical keyboard keys, complete with what feels like a Blue switch, reside here, that allow for menu navigation and other functions of the Ditoo.
Just to the right of the keys is a lever that is used to select menu items. I would have preferred a 7th mechanical key over this lever but it gets the job done. On the right of the base is where you will find the USB C charging port and the power switch. There is also a Micro SD card slot here for you to load up your music collection without the need of using Bluetooth.
Next is the monitor part of the Ditoo and man this thing is cool! The display itself is a 16x16 series of LED’s inside a beveled frame. It looks great when lit and is easily my favorite part of the Ditoo as a whole. On the top of the display is the 10 watt 360 degree speaker which is about 2 inches long diagonally.
The entirety of the Ditoo comes with a glossy black finish, which looks good, though it does attract fingerprints like nobody’s business. The Ditoo also has a good weight to it and feels very solid in the hands. Despite being a bit top heavy, the base does a great job of preventing accidental topples.
Usage
My past month with the Divoom Ditoo has been a fun one as I explored all of the device's features. For this being marketed as a Bluetooth speaker there is a surprising amount of functionality that can be had here. But let’s go ahead and start with its capabilities as a speaker. For this being an $95 product, and some of that price coming from the display and overall aesthetic, the sound quality is pretty good. It won’t blow any audiophiles away but for us casual music listeners it does a good job. The volume is also well suited for medium and small sized rooms at 50% volume. The Ditoo can get very loud at full volume, but from my month of testing it is best to stick to half volume, otherwise you will start peaking the speaker in unpleasant ways. Again it is loud enough at 50% to fill most rooms. Be sure to check out the video for an audio demo of music playing.
Thanks to the display a number of animations or equalizers can be displayed while you listen to music or just have the device powered on. I am fond of these particular types of backgrounds from the early days of Windows Media Player and have missed them greatly in modern players. There are also just so many of them! If animations aren’t your thing, solid colors or even a clock that syncs to your phone can be brought up instead. If you are really creative, you can even make your own animations that can be displayed on the screen at any time through the use of the Divoom app, but more on that in a bit.
Inside the Ditoo’s menu are a number of additional features, so starting at the beginning are a collection of games. Within the sub menu are some classics like Tetris, Snake, Breakout, and even a take on Flappy Bird. A racing type game and a line deleting game were fun time wasters as well. An odd slot machine, magic 8 ball, and dice roller are also present. The next sub menu labeled with an art easel contains a number of scenes you can color in. This menu is a bit less exciting to me as the scenes are colored automatically so the whole thing seems like a waste of time.
Next up is the tools menu and there is some cool stuff in here! First up is a counter for you to keep track of 2 different tallies. It might seem useless at first but then I actually had to keep track of a few things and it proved quite useful. A stopwatch and 1 minute timer are next and these have proven useful for a couple of board game nights. Last up is a decibel meter. Yup, a decibel reader that will let you know how loud the ambient noises in your place are. I find this addition very out there but it has been fun to mess with. The PS4 Pro is a loud monster.
The last 2 sub menus are an alarm clock and music source selection with Bluetooth and Micro SD card options available. The Ditoo has one more hidden voice recorder function built into it that can be accessed by holding down the lever when outside of the menus. The recording quality isn’t the best but if you ever need to take a quick voice memo it works ok.
Ok, let’s get back to the Divoom app. While the Ditoo can be used completely without it, the full functionality of the device is much easier to use with it. Each of the on-board options can be easily selected, and for the games, your phone will even act as a wireless controller. There are a number of bonus functions that the app unlocks as well such as a sound machine or a way to give you notification from a number of apps on your phone like Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to the Ditoo’s built-in microphone it can even be used to do phone calls.
What is likely to be the biggest use for the app though is the pixel screen designer. A huge gallery is available to browse through that features animations and images from other Divoom users across the range of products they offer. Since the Ditoo is a 16x16 screen it is best to filter to that size before browsing, as the animations for bigger screens won’t display right on the smaller pixel display. If you want to share your own creations you can make and upload them to the gallery as well!
The animator is more intuitive than I thought it would be. I don’t know why I thought it would be hard, I just did. Each animation can have up to 60 different frames and the speed is user controlled for a fine tuned creation. The best part about using the designer is seeing your creations in real time on the Ditoo’s display so you can really see how it is coming along! Since I am not the most artistically creative, I am happy that there are some insanely good animations on the app I can add to my Ditoo.
I have really been enjoying the Ditoo in my studio as a way to keep track of time and to output some music while laying in bed. The sound machine has also been a pleasant addition that I did not expect to use as much as I have. I did disable most of the notification settings as it just wasn’t something I have personally used. As for the Ditoo’s battery life, it lasts for a good 9 hours or more depending on what is displayed or if music is being played. Charging only takes a couple of hours as well so the Ditoo can be back in cord free action quickly. A quick tap of the power button will let you see the battery indicator at any point if you are curious. I am still on the hunt for more animations to add to my device so I can have it make some fun cameos in future videos!
What It Could Have Done Better
Overall the Ditoo is a pretty cool device and looks great as a desk accessory. There are a few things I wish could be addressed about it though. The mechanical keys, while cool, have a backlight that is always on that gets reflected in the bottom of the display. I have yet to find a way to turn them off when not in use as I hardly use the physical keys anymore. Another issue I have encountered is the device has crashed on occasion as I have shifted through the visualizer settings while music is playing. A quick reset from this has also made it so my phone won’t reconnect, requiring a complete resync. A mild annoyance but since I don’t mess with visualizations constantly it’s not something I am concerned about. My last concern comes from using the Ditoo for its intended speaker purposes. When you raise the volume above 50% the peaking has me concerned that the device will blow itself out. While the speaker doesn’t get used for me as much as other aspects of the device do, it would still bum me out if it crapped out.
Verdict
The Divoom Ditoo is probably one of the coolest looking devices I have seen in a while! That being said it is most useful as a display piece instead of a speaker. While the sound quality out of the unit is pretty decent and the battery can last a long time, the design of the device doesn’t encourage me to take it out to the lake on the weekend. Instead I want to have some awesome animations playing on its display while it appears behind me in a video or as a clock on my desk. It also works well as a sound machine as I lay down at night. Of course everyone’s usage is going to be different and there is a ton of functionality here that it should be appealing to just about everyone!
