Tempt Cinebar and Rapoo A250: Affordable portable bluetooth speakers review

Portable Bluetooth speakers come in all shapes and sizes. The products we will be reviewing today also identify themselves as mini-soundbars, and it’s not hard to see why. The Tempt Cinebar and the Rapoo A250 have a lot of things in common and hence we thought of reviewing them together. Despite the many common threads, their performance is distinctly different. So which one should you buy? Let’s figure out.

Tempt Cinebar and Rapoo A250: The similarities

While both are essentially wireless Bluetooth speakers, their elongated bodies make them look like mini-soundbars. Tempt calls its product a Cinebar as well. Both measure about a foot and a half in length, with the Tempt speaker being a slightly more compact. The build quality is pretty good for both with plastic bodies and a metal mesh to protect the speakers. The Rapoo A250 looks slightly better of the two, but it is a matter of individual taste.

More from Reviews

Both the speakers are graced with RGB LED lighting to spice up the desk if not the room. The Rapoo has a little extra lighting on the left and right sides around the passive radiators too. Speaking of which, both the speakers are equipped with a pair of 52 mm drivers and passive radiators to deliver a stereo output. If you wish to have further stereo separation, you can pair another of its kind to double the output and broaden the soundstage; a different kind of TWS this - True Wireless Stereo.

The Tempt as well as the Rapoo support USB-C charging and can also be used as powerbanks to charge smaller devices. Don’t expect them to fast charge your phone or even charge it fully, as they have modest capacity batteries. These are speakers after all with reverse charging features and not actual powerbanks. Use the feature only in case of an emergency.

While the Tempt Cinebar and Rapoo A250 are essentially wireless Bluetooth speakers, they offer you multiple inputs like Aux, USB-A and a microSD card slot. Playback controls in the form of physical buttons are present at the top centre of the speakers, along with a multi-functional button. And lastly, both are affordable products mostly selling under Rs 2,000. Now let’s put the spotlight on each speaker individually and see how they shine.

Tempt Cinebar Review

Price: Rs 1,598 (one year warranty)

You already know most of its key features by now but there are a couple of things unique to the Tempt Cinebar as compared to the Rapoo A250. For starters, this Bluetooth 5.4 compliant speaker offers a higher 24W RMS sound output and a higher capacity 4,000 mAh battery. Numbers aside, this speaker is significantly louder and offers much better battery backup. The drivers are angled upwards, which is a good thing as the sound doesn’t hit your ears directly if you place it on a desk in front of you.

This is important because the speaker is low on bass and the sound tuning is a little mids-forward. While it enhances the vocal clarity, it isn’t enjoyable in bass-heavy music as it sounds a touch flat and bright. On the brighter side (pun unintended), for voice heavy content, the dialogue clarity is very good. Yes, you can use it for music as long as you listen to it on low to moderate volume. Once you take the loudness beyond 50%, the music feels harsh on the ears, but it’s amply loud below that level.

The Tempt Cinebar has a 4000 mAh battery that is expected to last for 8 hours on a full charge. But that depends on the volume level you listen at. With volume under 50% for the better part of the testing, it lasted for close to 6 hours, which is not bad at all. And we used it entirely in Bluetooth mode. The numbers may vary in either direction for an Aux, USB or microSD playback. All said and done, the Tempt Cinebar is a good option for those who watch dialogue-heavy stuff on their phones or tablets with their friends or family and are looking for a louder audio experience.

Rapoo A250 Review

Price: Rs 1,999 to Rs 2,299 (one year warranty)

The Rapoo A250 may have lower capacity battery and loudness levels than the Tempt Cinebar but it does offer a couple of extras. It has an integrated microphone, and as a result, it lets you answer calls directly from the speaker. However, the mic isn’t very sensitive and you need to be closer to the speaker for the person on the line to hear you clearly. The other person is heard with decent clarity on the speaker. This is a useful feature to have if you indulge in a lot of handsfree calling or with multiple people in the room keen to talk.

The other hidden feature here is a built-in FM tuner. Hidden because, the product manual provides no insight on how to use this feature. I had to figure things out on my own. Once you get into FM mode, you need to press the Play/Pause button for a few seconds to let the speaker tune and save the available channels. Once done, you can use the skip track buttons to cycle through the channels. Like in the olden days of mobile phones, you need to keep the Aux cable inserted in the port for better signal strength. After all the efforts, the radio is barely usable with moderate clarity at best, even when using it on my balcony.

As for the sound quality when using it as a Bluetooth speaker (v5.3 compliant), it is a little better in terms of bass as compared to the Tempt, especially in music. The sound signature is largely V-shaped. Though you do not get thumping bass here, the output has more warmth which helps in music. The highs could have been tempered better as they feel a tad sibilant at higher volumes. However, the sound does not have the same vocal clarity as the Tempt Cinebar. On the positive side, the speaker does not crack till 90% of its peak volume, which is a good thing as you need to push the volume closer to 75% for normal loudness.

The battery backup is average at best with the speaker offering about three and a half hours of Bluetooth playback at 75% loudness without any calling. All in all, the Rapoo A250 is a jack of all trades that lets you do a little bit of everything including handsfree calling. If you have the need for that function or prefer a bit more bass, choose the Rapoo over the Tempt. But if you prefer sharper sound and better battery backup, opt for the Tempt. If you are looking for a speaker to blast music on, skip both and look elsewhere.