Review: Tribit Stormbox Flow Bluetooth Speaker

You can get a whole bunch of good stuff in a Bluetooth speaker for less than $100, especially if you’re willing to consider up-and-coming audio brands like Tribit. The company’s $80 Stormbox Flow (which is sometimes $20 off) is fully loaded, offering a sleek yet rugged design, plenty of features, and battery life that holds out longer than anything I’ve tested.

The Stormbox Flow’s sound quality isn’t as poised or detailed as the best Bluetooth speakers we've tested, and its hefty 1.5-lb weight makes it better for your back patio than a beach getaway. Otherwise, Tribit’s latest is surprisingly versatile, making it a real contender for those seeking a pliable wireless companion on a tight-ish budget.

If you’ve seen Bose’s Soundlink Flex, you’ll feel right at home with the Stormbox Flow. Much like how many of Tribit’s earbuds mimic Apple’s popular AirPods, the Flow does a great Soundlink impression—and that’s a good thing. Pulling the speaker from its garish yellow box reveals surprising style for the price, with sleek lines of matte plastic that look and feel premium. Like most modern portable speakers, it’s built to take on the elements with an IP67 waterproof rating, indicating it's been tested to block dust and survive a quick dunk in a pool or lake.

Photograph: Tribit

Along the speaker’s top panel is a handy band of raised command keys for controlling power, playback, volume, and Bluetooth pairing. There’s also a key that looks like an infinity symbol which can pair the Stormbox Flow with a second model for stereo playback.

Rubbery feet on the speaker’s bottom panel help diffuse it from surfaces to keep it from rumbling when the bass gets heavy, while a second set of feet at the speaker’s backside lets it blast sound upward if you’d like. With only one active driver beneath the Stormbox Flow’s acoustic grille (along with a passive radiator to extend the bass), the availability of multiple playback positions significantly improves the speaker’s reach when set on a table or countertop.

A strap along the side to hang the speaker provides another playback position, but considering its weight, you'll need a sturdy hook. Tie the speaker to a backpack like the website shows and you’re in for a bumpy ride.

The Stormbox Flow offers nearly everything you’d expect in a great Bluetooth speaker, and some you wouldn’t, such as its built-in speakerphone. The once-ubiquitous feature has gone out of fashion, and I admittedly discovered it by accident, calling a friend while jamming out. I tested the feature over a few days and discovered it produced clear and full calls on my end and good clarity for callers on the other end, with one friend saying it sounded as good or better than my iPhone’s speaker.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Long battery life is the Stormbox Flow's marquee feature, rated for a whopping 30 hours at half volume without the speaker’s bass boost feature engaged and 24 hours with XBass bass boost enabled. Many portable speakers cut out at 10 to 15 hours of playback, while a few extend to 20 hours or more. I haven't been lucky enough to try one that lasted this long. You probably don’t need the Flow's full battery most of the time, but it will come in handy for extended off-grid adventures. Tribit also says the speaker's 4,800-mAh battery can charge your phone “in a pinch” but charging isn’t available when the battery falls below 50 percent. Assuming the Stormbox Flow is topped off, you probably won't get much more than a half charge for an iPhone or standard smartphone, but that's great in a pinch.

Most of the Flow's other features are accessed via the Tribit app, where you can control playback and volume, adjust options like auto shutdown and voice prompts, and access a variety of sound presets and a customizable multi-band EQ. The app also lets you customize the speaker’s physical EQ button to always enable your custom EQ on the fly in place of the default XBass off, XBass on, and Audiobook modes. It’s always nice to have options.

The app also supports over-the-air (OTA) updates, which I recommend seeking out as soon as you download the app. Tribit has pushed a few significant fixes to the speaker, including a video sync issue at launch. I did find one odd quirk where the app surfaces a message in an unidentifiable language (to me, anyway), but it’s more of a novelty than a problem.

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

The Stormbox Flow provides mostly pleasant audio performance that’s especially clear in the midrange. There’s a spritely touch to vocals and dialog that sometimes pushes toward sharp, but rarely crosses over. You can push the speaker pretty hard without audible distortion, and engaging the bass boost feature will bring some solid thump to the party, especially with cleaner hip-hop tracks.

Compared to speakers like the JBL Flip series, the Stormbox Flow’s sound lacks a sense of confidence and weight, especially when it comes to upper register instruments like cymbals and woodwinds. It also tends to get overwhelmed with particularly dense mixes; cranking some Black Sabbath led to a lot of digital compression, holding back some of the grittier instruments to push the vocals out front. This is by design so the lone speaker driver isn’t overwhelmed, but it does put a slight damper on the experience.

I found myself trying to broker a compromise between the Stormbox Flow’s chippier treble and midrange frequencies and the sometimes flabby bass, futzing with the EQ several times. I never quite got the deal done, but the speaker provides fine moments across genres, with clear vocals and a lyrical touch to instruments like strings and acoustic guitar.

I tend to put sound quality at the very top, which leads me to favor JBL’s pricier Flip 5 or Flip 6, one of which can usually be found at similar pricing on sale, even if it doesn't offer as much battery as the Stormbox. If you like its business-class design, the Bose Soundlink Flow is also worth a look, though it's usually priced at nearly double Tribit’s model.

For a budget in the $50 to $80 range, the Stormbox Flow has plenty to offer, from 30 hours of battery life to handy extras like a speakerphone, making it a worthy alternative to the status quo.