I won’t fault you if you’ve never heard of a company called Fugoo. It has only been around for a couple of years, but it’s quietly making a large impact in the wireless speaker category. Fugoo saw an area lacking with wireless speakers and aimed to fix it. It created the first speaker that could literally go anywhere – snowboarding, kayaking, at the pool, on a jobsite, or anywhere you heart desires.
I’ve been a fan of Fugoo since the first Fugoo Tough, and have used all of its speakers since then. I’m a chemist by trade, a tech geek by hobby, and an avid fan of the outdoors at heart. I was raised a Boy Scout where I learned to develop a love of nature that I still have to this day. As a resident of Southern California where I can get out anytime of the year, I’m outdoors whenever I’m not in the lab cooking up new chemicals or writing about tech gadgets for deTeched. I snowboard, hang out at the beach, hike, camp, fish and even kayak a few times a year. There’s no outdoor adventure that a resident of Southern California doesn’t have access to. I even drive an off-road pickup so I can go anywhere at anytime and that’s when I love to bring along my Fugoo speakers.
I’ve been using the latest Fugoo Style-S speaker (as a pair) and think it’s a solid addition to its lineup.
Let’s check it out.
Design, build and specs
The Fugoo Style-S is very similar to the original Fugoo speaker in size (2.5″ x 8.3″ x 2.9″), shape and design. A few upgrades were made to the original design: the 3.5mm input port and microUSB charging port were moved behind a rubber door. On the opposite side of the charging ports are a dedicated power and Bluetooth button. The top is where the play/pause, volume and track controls lie for easy access. It’s a simplistic design, but elegant and sporty in its own right. The Style-S design is capable for indoors and outdoors alike.
The exterior was also simplified where the cover that was once removable, is now fixed to the body. The speaker still maintains its ultra-durable precisely built fiber-reinforced core that is probably the toughest I’ve ever tested.
The Style-S is roughly the size of a standard 500mL water bottle and is wrapped in a good-looking canvas material. It also feels great when holding it and is a neutral color that won’t show dirt stains after extended usage.
Another change to this year’s Style-S is the removal of 360 sound. The speaker is now directional, but there’s a reason for that. The Style-S added the ability to pair to another Style-S which gives users the ability to play music in dual or stereo mode. It also allowed Fugoo to bump up the power to put out louder music without sacrificing too much battery life. The full range drivers and dual passive radiators are much larger than on the original Style. Bluetooth also saw an upgrade from 4.0 to 4.2 which significantly increases the range from 33ft out to 100ft.
The Style-S is true to Fugoo’s heritage of being capable of “Going Anywhere” with its IP67 rating, that can resist water/snow, dust/dirt and even drops. There’s even a bracket on the bottom of the Style-S for swapping out optional mounts from Fugoo.
I tested the Fugoo Style-S in single and in Stereo mode. Pairing the two devices isn’t as straightforward as other speakers I’ve used before, but if you follow the instructions in the manual you will be good to go. However if you’ve already thrown away the instructions like most people do before using a device, I’ve listed pairing instructions for you.
How to pair two Fugoo Style-S wireless speakers together
- Connect your first speaker to whatever device you will use (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.)
- Press and hold the Bluetooth and + on that first speaker to go into double pairing mode.
- Press and hold the Bluetooth and – on the 2nd speaker.
- They should now be paired together and you can toggle Stereo/Double Mode
How does the Style-S perform?
Now that you’ve read through the design and purpose of the Style-S, you should know it’s truly designed for being an outdoor speaker first. It’s simply one of very few speakers that are actually capable of going anywhere at anytime. Other speakers might make a claim to be outdoor proof, but very few are anything more than poolside speakers. The Style-S is tough. When I squeeze it as hard as I can in its weakest spots, it doesn’t flex. When I drop it from arm height, it bounces off the ground. When I bring it to the ocean, here in San Diego, it resists sand and salt water as good as any other mobile accessory. And when I took the Style-S speaker pair camping last week in Idyllwild, they easily withstood the dirt, dust and playfulness of five teens by the campfire who played music for three-day and nights on them.
I’m going to present the sound to you in a couple of different environments: indoors in my home office, and outdoors where the speakers are intended to be used. I want to do this because it’s easy to misunderstand these speakers if they’re only tested in a closed home environment.
As a tech writer, I’ve tested hundreds of speakers in all shapes, sizes and price ranges. One of the first things most testers do is power on the speaker, connect it up to their phones/tablets/computers and turn up the volume. In this setting, it’s easy to be overly critical of the Style-S as it seems the bass is lacking. However when you turn the volume down to actual indoor volume usage, anywhere from 10-50% of max volume, the sound signature is actually balanced with the bass present. The bass is also detailed – there’s separation in bass frequencies that other speakers fail to reproduce. Not all low-end sound frequencies should sound the same, and the Style-S is very good at separating the deep thumping bass from quick and fast punching bass.
More importantly though is the separation of mids and highs which are very detailed and accurate. For indoor usage the Style-S ranks up there with any speaker I’ve used under $150 with the volume set to normal levels. I had the Style-S within three feet of my ears, as well as 20 feet away when I was cooking. All frequencies are clear and present and make the Style-S an excellent indoor speaker.
When I paired up the two speakers, they sounded even better. I also like that I could put them into stereo mode, where one plays left and ones plays right as opposed to simply duplicating the sound. It makes the sound stage much bigger for small speakers and makes music truly come to life in this mode. The pair was able to keep me entertained while I spun on my indoor cycle for a couple of hours at a time.
The Fugoo Style-S is a Go Anywhere speaker
We’ve already established the Style-S can go anywhere with its top of the line outdoor build. When testing the Style-S in volumes greater than 50% for outdoor usage, the bass does tend to drop off. However remember, if you truly plan on using this speaker outdoors, you don’t necessarily want excess bass at the highest levels. It will drown out and flood the mids and highs. Too much bass equals terrible sound outdoors. Having less bass as the volume gets progressively louder is a good thing for people like me who actually get outdoors. I want the detail and separation far more than I want muddled sound.
I used two Style-S speakers for three days on a camping trip and they performed incredibly well. I liked having directional speakers – the campsites behind us weren’t forced to listen to our music with a 360 speaker. I also brought both speakers along our six-mile hike in my backpack water bottle pockets. It was fun to listen to music on the hike and the speakers even managed to withstand a couple of drops from my backpack when the kids were grabbing their water bottles. It wasn’t an issue, even when one of the Style-S speakers rolled 70 feet down the mountain.
The only issue I experienced with the Style-S was at maximum volume. The speaker tends to waffle at maximum output, however it’s so loud that I doubt most people would never get to this level unless it was a really loud setting like on an ATV. If that’s the scenario you see yourself in, you won’t be hearing much detail anyways. In that case, you wouldn’t be bringing along any other outdoor speaker with you because they couldn’t withstand the elements like the Style-S can. The Style-S does have the power (20w) to play above sounds from an ATV or dirt bike though.
Battery life
Fugoo rates 15 hour battery life at 50% of maximum volume. I achieved that number several times with both Style-S speakers throughout testing. Out camping I did have to recharge the speakers once to get me through three days, but remember I had five teens with me who played music non-stop. Non-stop. I don’t know how they did it, but they played it all day and all night. Of all of the wireless speakers I own, 8-11 hours battery life at 60-80% of maximum volume is good.
Should you get a Style-S?
If you never see yourself going anywhere other than indoors with your music, you probably don’t need something built as tough as the Style-S. However it is a capable indoor speaker and will please most ears for a reasonable price of $139.99. You can even load up on a second Style-S for 30% off, making the pair $238 which is a solid option. They sound better than almost all speakers in the $250 price range as a pair, since the soundstage and volume cannot be matched by any other single speaker option. They’re also more versatile too – you can always leave one at home when you want to pack lighter.
If you are an avid fan of the outdoors, the Style-S is in a class of its own where it actually can go beyond the swimming pool and “Go Anywhere” your heart desires. You’ll never have to worry about dropping it, getting it dirty or wet. It will sound great indoors or outdoors too. I having a three-day deep-sea fishing trip coming at the end of August, and I’ll be taking the Style-S wireless speakers along for the ride.
If you would like to get your own Style-S, you can head on over to Fugoo.com or Amazon.com.