Konftel Ego Portable Conference Speaker Review

Konftel Ego Portable Conference Speaker Review

The Konftel Ego is a portable conference speaker. Here at liGo, we've seen an enormous increase in the number of people using these devices over the past couple of years. With people working from home through the pandemic, and now more flexible working going on, virtual meetings are much more common nowadays. A portable conference speaker is a great way of boosting the quality of these calls for both you and the person on the other end of the line. But is the Konftel Ego any good? Let's take a look!

Design & build

Most portable conference speakers tend to be either circular or square. The Konftel Ego is triangular, which instantly sets it apart from the competition design-wise. On top, there's a metal grille which covers the speaker. There's also an LCD screen hidden beneath the grille, which shows when you turn the volume up and down or switch modes. The rest of the unit is made from plastic, but it feels nice and solid. On the bottom, there is a rubber base which keeps the Konftel Ego in place quite securely.

On the sides, there are touch-sensitive buttons for the controls. Everything is clearly laid out, so you shouldn't have too much trouble using the speaker. There are also three LED lights on the Ego, which change colour depending on what mode is active: orange for corded mode, blue for Bluetooth, and green when you're on a call.

The last thing to mention here is that the Ego comes with a little soft carry case, as most conference speakers tend to do. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it does the job just fine and keeps the speaker itself from getting scuffed or scratched when it's in the bottom of your laptop bag.

Sound performance

When testing conference speakers in the past, we've found a lot of them prioritise volume over everything else. This means that they can often sound distorted when you turn them up to maximum volume. On the other hand, we found the Konftel Ego to actually be a nice volume. It's still plenty loud enough to hear, but there wasn't any of the harshness that you can sometimes get with conference speakers.

In terms of actual sound quality, the Konftel Ego impressed us as well. As a small, portable model, there are of course going to be limitations to the audio- we didn't go into it expecting the same kind of quality as a speaker that costs four or five times as much. But nonetheless, the Ego is a world above the kind of sound that you'll get from your laptop speakers.

The microphone quality is impressive as well. The Ego is advertised for use by 1-4 participants, and while we only had the chance to test it with two people on a call, but both were picked up clearly despite being at the opposite ends of our boardroom table.

The one thing that we would criticise is that when you press the volume buttons, the little beep that comes out the Konftel Ego doesn't match the speaker volume. That means you have no idea how loud it is actually going to be until sound starts coming out of it.

Ease of use

If you want to use the Konftel Ego immediately, then just plug it into your computer using the included USB cable (which is also a charger)- it should then automatically install itself, and then divert the sound that comes out your computer to the Ego.

Bluetooth connectivity is nice and simple, too. You just press the Bluetooth button, wait for the icon to pop up on the screen, then find and select the Ego from the device you want to pair. After you've done this once, the Ego will remember the device and automatically connect when both devices have Bluetooth switched on. The battery offers up to 12 hours' use before it's time to recharge.

The Konftel Ego is compatible with Microsoft Teams, meaning all the built-in controls will work as they should. It's also compatible with all major UC platforms, too. All in all, it's a portable conference speaker; these things are generally pretty easy to get up and running, and the Konftel Ego is no different.

Konftel Ego: The Verdict

The Konftel Ego is a solid, stylish mid-range conference speaker, and one that really impressed our experts during testing. With good sound quality and easy setup, it's a great way of instantly boosting the quality of your video calls.