REVIEW: Huawei Sound Joy Bluetooth Speaker

Launched in Europe at MWC 2022, the Huawei Sound Joy is the latest Bluetooth speaker from Huawei. The device was co-developed with premium French audio brand, Devialet, and it features Devialet’s audio technologies that promise to raise the bar regarding sound quality. We’ve been using the Sound Joy for a few weeks now and here are our thoughts.

Design & Build Quality

The Huawei Sound Joy is a well-designed and reassuringly sturdy speaker with a cylindrical body that has a height of almost 8″, weighing just 680 grams. It has a compact stature that is about the same size and shape as 500ml reusable water bottle.

The speaker has an IP67 water-resistant build and tough construction, so it’s more than capable of withstanding scuffs and scrapes and can even be submerged up to 1 meter underwater.

Covered with a woven fabric around a polycarbonate frame, the Sound Joy looks good and feels rugged. The bottom end has a rubber coating to keep it from sliding, while the top end has a ring of RGB light that pulses with a soft and pleasant glow. As an added bonus, the light also shows volume level and tracks battery life.

The Sound Joy can be used standing up or on its side. When used on its side, the speaker has two rubber nubs along its body to keep it from rolling around. The front side has the Huawei logo and the NFC sensor for quick connections.

It has a strip at the back housing the control buttons, a notch for the hand strap, and a USB-C port for charging. It has huge plus and minus buttons for the volume controls, which need a little effort to press.

Sound Quality

The Sound Joy features a Devialet 2-way speaker system, paired with the Devialet SAM technology. It combines a 20W full-range speaker and a 10W tweeter with two passive radiators. Connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.2 and supports AAC and SBC codecs. You can link your device to it directly or via NFC. If you have a Huawei smartphone, tablet, or laptop, the speaker is auto-detected as soon as you turn it on.

Despite the cylindrical design, the Sound Joy is front-firing, meaning it sounds best when the side with the Huawei logo is facing the listener.

And speaking of the sound, this is one of the best you’ll find for the price. Its sound quality is great. For a speaker this size, it has a full and rich sound with good bass and clarity. And it can get really loud, too. You can easily get by with less than half the volume, even in large rooms and open spaces. I don’t recommend going at full volume, which introduces some distortions to the sound.

A cool little additional feature, and one many of its other Bluetooth-speaker competitors implement, is that you can connect the Sound Joy to another Sound Joy speaker to form a stereo pair. If you want to go completely mad, you can connect up to 100 more speakers. This is done by shaking the speaker but there is also a dedicated button on the back, if you don’t want to look stupid shaking your speaker in public.

And for those who plan to watch movies and shows with the Sound Joy as the main speaker, I’m happy to report that I didn’t notice any discernable latency between the sound and the video.

AI Life App Features

You can edit a number of features and settings on the Sound Joy speaker by connecting it up to Huawei’s dedicated AI Life app. In here, you can turn the RGB light ring off, so as to help towards extending the already great battery life (more on that below) along with tweaking the overall sound profile and level of bass that the speaker puts out.

You can also update the speaker via the AI Life as well. I definitely recommend connecting your speaker up to this app, to really get the most out of your device.

Battery Life

According to Huawei, the Sound Joy’s 8800mAh battery can provide up to 26 hours of battery life. During my time with it, I was able to get more around two weeks with one to two hours of use a day. Of course, you can get lower numbers if you listen to higher volumes, but for the most part, Huawei’s claims are close to reality.

The speaker supports 40W fast charging, which is quite handy to have. It can give you an hour of battery life from a short 10-minute charge.

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a versatile wireless speaker, then the Huawei Sound Joy comes highly recommended. Its sound quality is really good and the battery life is long. But what I appreciate most of all is its compact size and rugged build, which are must-haves for those who like to bring their music with them when they travel.

Huawei Sound Joy Pricing & Availability

The Huawei Sound Joy portable Bluetooth speaker is available now in Sage Green and Black with an RRP of €149 from Vodafone but is currently on offer for €109.99 from DID, eir, Mint+ and Expert.