Shiny Review: Miidio UFO Speakers

Miidio speakers are designed to use the surface they are resting on for amplification; basically what that means is that the speakers themselves produce a tinny, faint noise until placed on a hard surface - which can include glass, plastic and wood - at which point you get proper sound and resonance.

The UFO speakers are the mid-range option at £70, and they're surprisingly heavy to the touch. Despite being small, they feel like solid metal; they also come with a couple of leads, a mains charging cable and a battery box. One lead hooks up to any phone / iPod / MP3 player that has a 3.5mm jack or suitable adapter cable and the other to either the mains or the battery pack. I used a BlackBerry with a media player.

I appreciate that battery pack is supposed to make it portable, but because it needs eight AA batteries, it becomes an unwieldy addition and threatened to drop out of my - admittedly klutzy - hands quite a few times as I move it around the office.

Still, that's a minor point - once set up you'll probably leave the speakers where they are. So the next question to answer is which surface the Miidios work best on. Well, we tried the ultra-scientific approach in our video review and came up with the answer that a wood or smooth plastic surface, preferably one with a hollow space beneath it, is best. So a garden table, desk or similar works well, although a hollow glass vase does not, presumably because there needs to be some air flow beneath.

Truth be told, I really liked these speakers. They're small, they're cute, and they work reasonably well. I'm not sure they're terribly practical, or even budget-friendly - there are Piggy and Keg versions for £50 and £80 respectively - but they don't claim to do anything that they don't deliver. I can't complain that anything didn't work, or that they weren't fun to try out.

So if you're looking for an unusual present and don't mind spending a bit more, I would happily recommend these.

Miidio UFO Speakers can be found at Twisted Carbon.