The Pocket Hive’s tall, top-heavy packaging might be held together with strips of cellotape, but KitSound has been quite generous with what they have included with the Pocket Hive. It isn’t the loudest speaker around, unless you’re happy to put up with significant distortion, but the volume on offer is perfectly suitable for intimate listening. The feeling of sleek minimalism is enhanced by the sheer lack of visual distractions on the Pocket Hive’s surfaces. KitSound has increased the power and clarity of sound on their second generation of the Hive; the 40mm active drivers and digital amplifier, combined with a passive bass radiator, creates 12 Watts of sound.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. We are an award-winning British audio brand that believes great-looking, high-quality audio products shouldn’t cost the world. If your phone can keep up with the KS Hive Xs battery life, KitSound has also included a USB charging output. You can connect in many ways, including wireless via One Touch, NFC pairing or Bluetooth, so you can connect with most tablets and smartphones.Maybe that's something to do with the power rating, but it seems odd to me, and is a bit of a pain as the wall charger is much more convenient to use than the laptop. As usual, there is no mains adaptor for charging, but there is a USB-to-mini USB cable provided, along with an auxiliary cable. if you turn the volume to maximum on your audio output then control the volume on the speaker itself the popping goes away. Apart from a slight tendency to collect visible fingerprints, it does not suffer from any rough edges. The aux socket is a welcome addition for devices that don't have Bluetooth, or for quick playback from a friends phone for example.

The instructions on how to connect via Bluetooth were easy to follow but it was not a fast process with our computer and we had to wait a few minutes for the process to complete. British engineering may have gone the way of British Rail and British Steel, and pretty much any manufacturing industry we could be proud of (sad face), so when I received the Kitsound Hive 2 I confess that I didn’t get very excited. Because of its sturdy design, the Hive will withstand the occasional knock much better than other speakers and, like all KitSound products, it's been built to last.But usually these portable players require wired headphones for you to enjoy your music, or you had to plug them in to huge speakers to fill the room with music. The chunky design can withstand a bump or two, it is stable and the rubber feet will prevent it sliding about, even when its vibrating on the loudest setting. There are many pitfalls for a tiny speaker to avoid in the big world of audio: tinny sound, unattractive pricing, short battery life, and so on.