Tribit PocketGo Review: Pocket-size dynamite 

The Tribit PocketGo is a really good portable Bluetooth speaker that offers you everything from a military-standard rugged build, a palm-sized compact form factor, and an IP68 waterproof rating to 20-hour long-lasting battery life, app-based controls, and clear and super-loud sound. 

While it doesn’t offer highly detailed sound, you do get the all-round package at an affordable price point. If you want to get the most out of the speaker, minor EQ adjustments will definitely help you to achieve a better sound experience. 

The Tribit PocketGo is priced at $34.99/£29.99. By contrast, it’s much cheaper than some of its immediate rivals, such as JBL GO 4 and Edifier ES20, which carry price tags of $49.95/£39.99 and $89.99/£50, respectively. 

Right now, the Bluetooth speaker is now available at a 17% discounted price, bringing the price down from $29.99 to $24.99 for a limited time. Interestingly, Tribit offers a range of color options, including green, blue, and black. 

Portable Bluetooth speakers are a dime a dozen. Every audio brand has its compact and budget-friendly Bluetooth speakers, and Tribit is no exception. Tribit, a brand genuinely known for offering solid Bluetooth speakers at a competitive price point, has come up with its latest model, the Tribit PocketGo. 

The company’s new portable Bluetooth speaker offers some interesting features, such as an IP68-rated water-resistant design, advanced Bluetooth 6.0 support, up to 20 hours of battery life, and even microSD card support, which is hard to find in speakers, especially under $35. 

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve been testing the PocketGo to see if it’s really capable of holding its ground against the likes of the JLab Go Party, the Edifier ES20, and the JBL GO 4. Read on to find out more about the PocketGo speaker in my detailed review. 

Despite being an entry-level speaker, the Tribit PocketGo comes with a very eye-catching design. It’s compact yet lightweight and easily fits in my palm and even in my jean’s pockets. Speaking about dimensions, it measures 4.25 x 3.19 x 1.65 inches (108 x 81 x 42 mm) and weighs just 0.5 lbs (220 grams), making it super portable, and one can easily carry it on the go without worrying about its weight. 

The PocketGo has a very similar design to the JBL GO 4, albeit with a few tweaks. Despite costing less than the typical cost of its main rival, it has a durability rating of MIL-STD-810H. The company claims that it can withstand drops from up to four feet thanks to military-grade drop protection. During testing, the speaker did fall from my hand two times, and surprisingly, there was no damage. So I can confirm that it does have a solid build quality. 

Wrapped around in a mesh covering, the speaker looks quite premium and sleek. I really liked the button position of the PocketGo. Unlike the GO 4, Tribit has managed to place the entire button setup on top of the speaker. You can power on/off, control the volume, play and pause, and control Bluetooth from the speaker. Unfortunately, you can’t skip songs directly from the speaker, which is slightly disappointing. 

The portable speaker has an IP68 water-resistant rating, meaning you can use the speaker in the pool area or during a shower without any worries whatsoever. There’s a fabric loop on the top right side of the corner of the speaker, making it easy to hang, or you can even attach it to the outside of your bag. 

The back of the speaker has four silicone feet, which allow you to lay it flat for a more dampened sound. I’d recommend laying it flat instead of using it in its upright position if you want the best sound quality experience. On the side, there’s a USB-C port for charging and the TF card slot for playing music directly from a microSD card. Unfortunately, there’s no AUX output. 

The Tribit PocketGo has an interesting set of features, which is hard to find in this price range.  The portable speaker has Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, which is great. Even its immediate rival, the JBL GO 4, ships with the older Bluetooth 5.3. 

The latest Bluetooth 6.0 variant unlocks some new quirks, such as lower latency, longer range, and fast pairing. Speaking of range, Tribit claims that the speaker can offer a stable connection at distances up to 50 meters. The speaker did connect to the device quickly and I also liked how fast it reconnects to an already paired device after being turned on. There were no range issues, even though I took the speaker into my living room while placing the phone in my kitchen. Speaking more precisely, I didn’t notice dropouts or stutters during testing the speaker. 

Unfortunately, it lacks multi-point connection, which means you can’t connect two devices or swap between them. If you have to do so, there’s no other option; you need to fully disconnect the first device in order to pair with the second one. However, you can pair two speakers together for stereo playback, thanks to TWS pairing support. 

Regarding codecs, the PocketGo supports basic AAC and SBC—though you can’t expect anything more in the entry-level speaker. It does have companion app support. More on that in the app section. 

The PocketGo also supports the Tribit companion app, which is free and available for both Android and iOS devices. The app is pretty simple, offering six preset EQ modes (Tribit signature, rock, rap, outdoor, popular, and audiobook), custom EQ settings, and some customizations. On top of this, it has a built-in microphone for voice assistant control, which is compatible with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant. 

I noticed the companion app was slightly buggy. There was an issue where the app wouldn’t allow me to upgrade the speaker’s firmware. Despite updating the companion app to its latest version, I still couldn’t upgrade the speaker to the latest firmware, which was really disappointing.

The Tribit PocketGo is equipped with 7 W of power, which produces enough volume to fill a moderately sized room. With this speaker, I used the Xiaomi 15T Pro smartphone to stream music from Spotify and YT Music.  

I tested the speaker with a range of genres, including rock, jazz, pop, classical, rap, and R&B. Honestly, the result felt very decent. By default, the speaker uses the “Tribit Signature” EQ setting, which sounds a little flat. However, things changed when I tried several other presets and some custom EQ settings in the Tribit app, and this made a big difference. 

When listening to Be Free by Vidya Vox with Tribit's “Popular” EQ setting, the speaker performed quite well; at least it’s better than the default one. Speaking more exactly, the speaker efficiently managed vocals, beats, instruments, and bass, giving a pleasant sound experience. 

I also listened to Big Dawgs by Hanunmankind, using the “rap” EQ preset. This threw a decent bass with increased mids, clear vocals, and decent treble. However, the PocketGo isn’t perfect when it comes to mids and highs. Though, what’s impressive is that the speaker doesn’t distort the overall sound at higher volume levels. 

In short, this affordable speaker does offer good sound for its price point, and I actually liked it. However, the only thing is that it requires minor EQ adjustments depending on the genre, which further treats you with a better sound experience. 

Speaking of battery life, Tribit claims that the PocketGo offers up to 20 hours of battery life at 50% volume from its 2,400 mAh battery capacity. During my two weeks of testing, I didn’t even charge the speaker once. However, the battery usage will depend on person to person. Speaking about my usage, I cranked up the speaker to a 65% volume window for around 30 minutes daily and there was still 15% battery remaining. So it’s safe to say it got a solid battery life. 

The Tribit PocketGo portable Bluetooth speaker really shines with its palm-sized form factor, lightweight design, and clear and super-loud sound. If you’re looking for an affordable portable Bluetooth speaker, you can’t go wrong with the PockeGo.