Logitech mm28

Logitech's mm28 is a standalone speaker setup for use with portable music players and other small devices such as a PSP. The system uses flat panel NXT speaker technology, so it's thin, light and portable, and combined with the option to use battery power, this makes the mm28 and ideal choice for taking to the park on a summer's day.

In our audio quality tests the mm28 surprised us a little, providing sound that belies the tiny design of the device. Obviously with speakers of this size, volume was never going to be astounding, though it's no worse than average for this kind of setup. Sound is warm and full, and though bass is fairly unspectacular, the speakers avoid sounding tinny. The one problem with the speaker is the lack of a volume control, meaning it's necessary to rely purely on the controls of the device you have connected. Using our MP3 player, raising the volume past half way resulted in horrendous distortion, to the point where music was unrecognisable. Things were loud enough at half way though, so it's not a huge problem.

There's not much setting up required to use the mm28. Firstly, you either insert four AA batteries into the back or connect the bundled AC adapter. Then plug the corded 3.5mm jack into your chosen device and hit the on switch. Logitech has designed the mm28 in such a way that its protective case folds back to form a stand. The unit also boasts an impressive 45 hour playback from the batteries, making it ideal to take on holiday.

Design wise Logitech has also kept things simple. The rounded frame is finished in a plain metallic grey, and as it uses NXT, it doesn't even look that much like a speaker. NXT is a technology that allows speakers to be crafted in a radically different manner to the usual setup of vibrating cones. Using a vibrating panel instead of cones allows the speakers to be far thinner than normal; the mm28 is only 3.2cm thick.

Overall, we found the mm28 to be a decent little speaker system. Portable units like this are generally unimpressive, but the NXT technology gave a crisp sound as well as being slim.