Monster’s answer to the Mini Jambox

Monster bills the SuperStar, a slim, splash-resistant wireless speaker, as “the world’s smallest audiophile Bluetooth speaker.”

While that certainly catches your attention, I haven’t run across too many tiny Bluetooth speakers that would impress audiophiles. And I’m not sure the SuperStar will either. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad little speaker. It’s just not a superstar.

Available for around $130 online (£100, no Australian pricing yet), the 7-ounce (198-gram) speaker comes in a few different color options. I like its form factor and it has a nice, soft-to-the-touch silicone cover that wraps around its plastic body. You can prop the speaker up vertically or lay it down horizontally and the the two small drivers fire upward while the bass port on the back reflects off a surface.

Monster Superstar product photos
See full gallery

With a built-in microphone, it has speakerphone capabilities (it performed pretty well in my tests), and there’s a line input for non-Bluetooth devices. It charges via micro USB and offers about 5 hours of battery life, which is pretty average for this class of speaker.

There are volume controls on top of the speaker but no pause/play or transport controls (skip track forward/back). I had no problem pairing the speaker with an iPhone 5S and a Samsung Galaxy GS5 and it managed to hold a steady connection.