Razer Leviathan Mini - Review

Whenever I get the chance to review speakers, I always find myself thinking that the size of them is always going to impact the quality of the sound they produce and given just how tiny the Leviathan Mini is, that would be bad.

Turns out, I was wrong, in many ways, the size of the Leviathan Mini is only just one aspect of the device that provides a tick in the column of must buy. I am however getting ahead of myself, everything of courses starts with what you get in the box and with the Leviathan Mini, you don’t really get a lot, but then you don’t really need to. When I first saw the box, my first thought was purely that the speaker was a lot larger than I had envisioned, given the size of it, but after taking the top off, I found the speaker contained at most only 40% of the box, the rest of it is taken up by cables, power adaptors and stickers, though there are only two stickers.

What you get, alongside the speaker is the usb charging cable, a handy, if a little strange carry pouch for when you take it places and three different world power point plugs. Given the nature of the device, travel was going to be something that people did with it, but providing wall connections for Australia, Europe and the United Kingdom, seems a little strange. On top of that is the usual stack of booklets for safety and how to, but given that half of the height of the box is taken up by all of this, it seems like quite a lot of nothing in it. The speaker itself sits a very non-descript cardboard tray and is held down by some plastic wrap, but it surrounded by lots of empty space.

What this means though is that the speaker is amazingly tiny, given the illusions that the box provides, but don’t let that fool you at all, it provides a lot of sound. The speaker itself measures a tiny 5.5cm tall, 5.3 deep and 18.5 long, so its size is something that really does need to be considered, if only because what it packs into and onto itself is incredible. On the speaker itself, there are 5 buttons, two for volume control, one for song control, one for power and one to scan for Bluetooth signals, that is it. You can charge the device using a standard mobile phone charging cable, or the one that comes included and the only other input is for the 3.5mm connection, if your phone does not support Bluetooth. Pairing your device to the speaker is easy, when you turn it on, you get a cool power up sound, pressing and holding the Bluetooth button will result in a pulse sound happening, to let you know it’s ready to pair and then that’s it.

Once you have connected your device, it is time to listen to your music and this is where the speaker shines the best, but also where it has the worst problem. The speaker comes with an internal battery, which can deliver 10 hours of audio playback, letting you place it wherever you desire, add that to the speakers inside and the unit becomes quite heavy. Thankfully with its rubber grip on the bottom it does not move around that easily, so you can place it on most surfaces without the worry of it falling off. Of course, as with any speaker, the quality of the sound is where things are won or lost and the Leviathan Mini has amazing sound for its size, proved when you are listen to songs that project a lot of volume.

What I mean by that is say Justin Timberlake or Run D.M.C will sound great on the device, as artists they usually have a collection of songs that provide bass and are great to listen to at volume. I threw a range of artists at the speaker from those above to AC/DC, OMI, Green Day and more, with the results being the same across the board, the louder the song the better, with the lyrics never being drowned out by the tracks they accompanied. All this was of course happening when the speaker was at its maximum volume, with my device controlling the output of the music, but whenever I listen to any quieter tracks, by artists like Michael Buble, the sound was inconsistent to the point where it became impossible to listen to.

While quieter tracks are always nice, for just relaxing to or playing in the background, what was happening here is that the volume was randomly changing, when the song would become quieter, the tracks would lose volume and give the feeling that the speaker was being covered or pointing away from you. This was not happening on loud songs, or songs that had a quicker beat, only the slower paced and quieter song suffered from this. Now it may sound like a small issue, but if you are someone who likes to have background music on while doing other things, this will likely annoy you as well, of course if you are going to enjoy the sounds of Kanye West or Michael Jackson, you probably won’t notice or care.

The Razer Leviathan Mini is one impressive speaker, it is portable, which many of its price range can’t match, but it also provides some impressive volume for its size. The weight might be an issue for those who take it travelling, but it’s a trade-off of course, but a decision like that is up to the individual. Sadly, though given its issue with quieter tracks it’s not going to be for everyone. 

Thanks to Razer for supplying the speaker for review