Saregama Carvaan Mini+ review: Novel portable wireless speaker on budget

With a unique audio device portfolio, Saregama Carvaan has made a separate space for itself in a congested wireless speaker market. Fresh in line is the Saregama Carvaan Mini+, a portable Bluetooth speaker with 1,000 classic songs built-in for standalone utility. This speaker seems to be a perfect companion for someone looking to buy a compact speaker with pre-loaded songs. Is it? Let’s find out:

Design

The Saregama Carvaan Mini+ has a rectangular body with a plastic enclosure in wooden finish covering the sides and metal grill on the front. The speaker has dedicated buttons for play/pause, previous, next, volume, and power available on the top side. Being a standalone speaker with songs built-in, the buttons make it easy to use and operate. However, there is no backlight to support ease of use in low-light or no-light environments. Speaking of standalone utility, the speaker has a dedicated ‘Saregama’ button on the left side, besides FM/AM radio and Bluetooth discovery buttons, for the user to access the pre-loaded songs.

Lifting the design are the pictures of legends like Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar engraved on the metallic grill and a retractable FM antenna with its own storage cavity on the back side. On top there is an AUX in and out port, USB 3.0 port (up to 32GB), and reset button. On the right side, it has a USB-C port for charging and an LED indicator to show battery-charging status.

Audio

The Saregama Carvaan Mini+ has 10W audio drivers, which may seem inadequate on paper but offer loud and clear output. There are many ways to listen to music on this wireless speaker – Bluetooth, pre-loaded 1,000 songs, USB drive, FM/AM radio, and the Carvaan app for smartphones.

The speaker has Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity with supported devices such as televisions, laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc. It comes with 1,000 pre-loaded Hindi songs by singers like Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, and many others. These songs are accessible either by pressing the Saregama button on the speaker or with the supplementary smartphone app for ease of use.

Interestingly, the app does not require internet connection to manage and operate the speaker and its built-in songs. However, an internet connection is required to sign in on the app for the first time. Another interesting feature is its ability to double up as a speaker for voice calls – when connected with a smartphone. Press the play/pause button once to answer the call and press-and-hold the button for three seconds to reject the call.

The only downside of the Carvaan Mini+ is the underwhelming charging time. Powered by a 2,200 mAh battery, the speaker takes three-four hours to charge completely. Equally challenging is the on-battery time – it lasts up to four hours, depending on the volume.

Verdict

Priced at Rs 3,990, the Saregama Carvaan Mini+ is unlike any other Bluetooth speaker available in the market. It is a standalone speaker with support for multiple input modes. Therefore, you get the best of both worlds. Besides, there is support for FM/AM radio services, which is hard to find in wireless speakers irrespective of price band. With a better on-battery time and charging speed, the Carvaan Mini+ would have been a perfect wireless speaker on budget.