User Review Promate Hook Wireless Neckband Bluetooth Speaker

My first tryst with a neckband bluetooth speaker was way back in 2016 or so when I bought the LG HBS-A100 neckband bluetooth headphones and I did not even know it had embedded speakers in it so I can hear without needing to put the earbuds in my ear. I liked the concept and found it useful in certain condition for me.
I have always wanted to get a proper neckband speaker as I don't always like to plug in earphones and during work too, many a times I would have earphones plugged in entire time. Also sometimes my kid will watch tv in same room where I am working so wireless neckband speaker can get the sound only confined to him.

I looked at multiple option on amazon but this is niche product and you will have limited options. There are also such devices from known brands like Bose and Sony. The bose is discontinued and when it was available, it was 25K while the sony has 2 options, one for 14K and one for 25K. I went through reviews of sony and didn't feel the need to spend so much.
I had also considered one from Bluedio brand for 3.5k-4k but that also had not so good reviews and also its shipping time was like a month. But it did have features like SD Card playback, inbuilt FM so feature wise seems to be great on paper.

Then I found the Promate Hook which was available for 4K. Started going through its reviews and luckily saw one with an actual video of the operation of the product. Youtube hardly has anything on this device. After checking the video, i was impressed by the loud sound because such devices usually have tinny sound which even with little environment noise (like we usually have in our homes) will make us not hear the other person properly.

I ordered the Promate hook wireless bluetooth speakers and they arrived in 4 days. I have been using them for last 2 days for WFH and here are the main pros and cons..

Pros:

• Sufficiently loud sound.
• Stereo separation is good when watching tv shows or movies. There were instances where (as intended by the show), I would get one dialogue from right side and then one from left and then both. This was intended so it is NOT a fault.
• Great for work from home calls. Don't use in office though as everyone else can hear what you are saying.
• In Teams calls, audio comes from both sides. I say this because in my LG Headphones, they come only from one side speaker, sort of it considers the calls as mono sound. Sound from both sides is important.
• USB C charging

Cons:

• Has some weight that you do feel after extended period of time.
• More features like FM and microSD card playback would have been great additions.
• Price could have been better.
• Unable to register product with serial number on box. Will be emailing them.

Attached are some pics and a sample video so you can know how loud this goes. Also comparison to my Samsung Level U2 earphones.

Video Link: https://streamable.com/4v7cqq

 

[oprime05]

If we use it at night, will it disturb others? I mean is the output loud for others who are not sitting right beside us?

Also from which website did you buy it?

 

[raksrules]

If we use it at night, will it disturb others? I mean is the output loud for others who are not sitting right beside us?

Also from which website did you buy it?

All depends on how loud you keep it. You can keep volume very low and the person besides you mostly won't hear anything but can probably feel something playing. I got this from amazon.in.


As I would tell to everyone, please ask yourself 10 times before you put money in anything like this which is a very specific use case product. You won't be able to use it on roads and in public transport due to sound it will make and cause inconvenience to others. Also, do not buy for use in office for calls and such as others can easily hear you.

 

[oprime05]

All depends on how loud you keep it. You can keep volume very low and the person besides you mostly won't hear anything but can probably feel something playing. I got this from amazon.in.


As I would tell to everyone, please ask yourself 10 times before you put money in anything like this which is a very specific use case product. You won't be able to use it on roads and in public transport due to sound it will make and cause inconvenience to others. Also, do not buy for use in office for calls and such as others can easily hear you.

My usecase is specifically using it for listening to TV via BT.
I currently use Oppo M32 neckband for this. But it won't last any longer as the wires are starting to tear.

Can you check and tell us the exaxt seller name on Amazon? The product listing mentions a specific seller name(PROMATE.UAE) as the original seller. But that seller I can't see for this product(I can only see Quantron as the seller)

I can see Bluedio HS available for 3.5k. Is Promate significantly better than Bluedio? (I have heard of Bluedio before. But never heard of Promate)

 

[raksrules]

My usecase is specifically using it for listening to TV via BT.
I currently use Oppo M32 neckband for this. But it won't last any longer as the wires are starting to tear.

Can you check and tell us the exaxt seller name on Amazon? The product listing mentions a specific seller name(PROMATE.UAE) as the original seller. But that seller I can't see for this product(I can only see Quantron as the seller)

I can see Bluedio HS available for 3.5k. Is Promate significantly better than Bluedio? (I have heard of Bluedio before. But never heard of Promate)

The seller is Quantron in my Invoice. This can serve well for watching TV definitely. In fact that is what I intend to use to give my kid instead of earphones if he wants to watch TV in same room as I am working. Right now, I am using it satisfactorily for my office calls and also for watching videos on my tablet. Since this has no multipoint (would have loved that feature), I need to manually disconnect them from laptop and reconnect on tablet when watching videos and other way round when taking calls.
Bluedio is known brand and I have used one of their products years back. I have no clue if it better or not but I saw it has 1.5w x 2 speakers while promate is 3w x 2 so louder speakers.
I saw some people in reviews saying volume is low so I did not go for that. On paper, bluedio seems good with SD card playback that I am 100% sure I would never use and FM radio which I am sure will give terrible reception inside homes.

 

[raksrules]

Update after using for 1 week..

I am getting very much accustomed to this kind of design for my office calls and also for watching TV shows on tablet. No earbuds in ear is very liberating. I do miss multipoint feature which would have been great addition but nevertheless, it is great (for me) without that too.

 

[raksrules]

Update after 1+ months..

Still works well. The unit tends to feel heavy on shoulders after extended usage. So I keep it aside in between calls. But within calls, it feels great not to plug earphones in.