Philips ShoqBox PSS110

July 25th, 2005 | by Rebecca Day

Design and Features

At 2.28 x 2.08 x 7.16 inches and a ¾ pound, ShoqBox is the size and weight of a 1990-era cell phone.  You wouldn't tote it around like an iPod, but it's small enough to fit easily in carry-on luggage.  Two tiny speakers deliver stereo sound either from FM radio or digital tunes stored in flash memory inside the device.  It also accepts an input from a portable music player, enabling you to listen to a vault of tunes stored on an iPod or Zen through the tiny music system.  At night it's a music playback system; in the morning it's an alarm clock.  Now that's versatile. 

Our PSS110 review unit was a 256MB version ($129) on which I crammed 28 jazz tracks and then, after a swap out, 44 shorter-length pop songs.  A higher capacity version doubles storage to 512MB and lists for $149.

ShoqBox's alarm clock wakes you to a buzzer, radio or your own MP3 or WMA tunes that you've downloaded to the device.  Its rechargeable battery specs at 10 hours, so you need to back up battery power with the supplied AC charger when you travel.  The sleep timer sets to intervals of 15, 30 and 60 minutes.

Various equalizer settings tailor sound to genres including rock, hip-hop, jazz, dance and funk.  The differences among the modes are subtle; you're likely to stick just with one or turn them off altogether.  The Dynamic Bass Boost button, on the other hand, beefs up the overall output, pumping up the sound to levels that defy the size of the mini music maker. 

Image Courtesy of Philips