Portable iPod docks have always left us feeling a little confused. What exactly would you do with a take-anywhere set of speakers? Carry it laboriously to different rooms in your house while you vacuum? Miss the point at a music festival? Become a deserving assault victim on a bus?
But the Altec Lansing inMotion is different. Firstly, the Li-ion battery is integrated (it can be removed, at a pinch) and rechargeable, so once it’s out of batteries you don’t need to hunt for more. Also, it’s small: just 5.2cm deep.
Make it drippyThere’s a limited set of buttons: just enough to turn the set on, change the source, shuffle through the tracks and change the volume. The buttons are touch-sensitive though, and it can be hard to know when you’ve made contact. However, the inMotion is one of only a few iPod docks you could tote into the bathroom in the morning and be able to use without much fear of dripping water between the controls.
The inMotion MAX has a design which could be charitably called “minimalist”, or unkindly called “dated”. It's certainly neat. The speakers – a pair of 50mm drivers and two 50mm passive radiators – are visible behind the mesh, while the glossy black top masks a single-line LCD display, which displays track information when playing from an iPod.
Remotely unsatisfyingIf the design of the dock itself is take-it-or-leave-it, the remote control is an aberration: it looks like something that fell out of Tomorrow’s World circa 1985. You can at least do a reasonable amount. Shuffle and repeat controls are there, and the P2 and P4 buttons flick through your iPod's playlists.
Play it loudApple’s entire current range of iPods, plus a healthy list of discontinued ones (bar the shuffle) is suported, and if you use an iPhone, it will mute when a call comes in. There's a 3.5mm auxiliary jack, while an FM radio lets you catch up with the news. The inMotion is also compatible with the iPod's alarm and sleep functions.
ESSential soundsSound quality is ok – which is fine given that the inMotion is more likely to find a space in your bedroom or kitchen than it is to replace your stereo. The lack of a sub-woofer hurts, and thumping tracks had a little less impact than we’d like. Still, it's clear, if a little piercing at high volume.
You can use the ESS (“Expanded Sound Stage”, apparently) button to “widen the stereo image”, theoretically providing a fuller sound. At higher volumes, hitting the ESS button dampens a track’s treble, making it a little less piercing and more comfortable to listen to. At lower volumes, however, the effect is to merely muffle the track.
But we can live with the adequate sound quality, particularly bearing in mind the points the inMotion has in its favour. The remote control, if not exactly beautiful, works well enough, and the FM radio is a definite plus. If you need a tidy-looking place to charge your iPod overnight, the inMotion is an excellent choice.
Author:Dave Stevenson
Copyright 2009 Dennis Publishing All Rights Reserved.
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