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Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM Review

Here are Pocketables we get to review quite a few Bluetooth speakers. They come in all shapes, specifications, capabilities and prices. It’s not easy to stand out in such a market. Hercules does their best to, though, with the new Hercules WAE (which stands for Wireless Audio Experience) Outdoor 04Plus FM. That name is quite a mouthful and approaches the ridiculous, but the product does not. It’s a compact, water and dust proof, powerful speaker that also serves as an FM radio. It’s available for $72 from Amazon. Is it worth it? Keep reading for my opinion.

ir?t=robnhl 20&l=li3&o=1&a=B01M4MZJQC - for some reason we don't have an alt tag hereHercules WAE 04Plus FM

DESIGN

The Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM (hereafter referred to as the Hercules WO0PF) is compact, measuring 15.1 cm long and 6.1 cm tall. It’s triangular with rubber caps on either end and a mesh speaker grill wrapping most of the body and it includes a screw thread mount for using it on a bike or other standard holder. It’s pretty dense, weighing 300 grams, but not overly heavy. The unit is all black, with the only color provided by a thin band (white or blue) wrapping the left side. There’s a power button on one end, as well as a button to enable the FM radio and a flap covering micro-USB charging port and line-in connector. There are large, easily identifiable volume buttons on the front of the speaker. The overall look of the speaker is quite handsome.

Hercules WAE 04Plus FM

PERFORMANCE

The Hercules WOoPF sounds great. It outputs stereo sound from its small body and sounds great. Look, it’s a sub-$80 speaker and not professional gear but it is perfect for using by the pool, at the beach, or in the park. Or even just in the office, which is where I spent most of the time with the Hercules WO0PF. The sound is nice and full; bass isn’t too heavy but does let you know it is there. There’s a companion app for your phone which has an equalizer to theoretically modify the sound but it never worked for me.

The app does let you control the FM radio, however, and also shows you how much charge your speaker has remaining. It scans for stations and lets you set presets. The FM radio works surprisingly well and is a really nice feature. I expected the WO0PF to struggle to pick up stations without some sort of external antenna but every station I wanted to listen to came in clear and crisp.

Hercules claims about 10 hours of battery life when using the WO0PF in Bluetooth mode and they are spot on. Supposedly, using it exclusively in FM mode will add an additional six hours of life but I’ll confess I didn’t use it enough in FM mode to judge the accuracy of that claim.

CONCLUSION

All in all, the Hercules WAE Outdoor 04Plus FM Review ticks the boxes you want in a portable speaker – sounds good, lasts a long time, is water resistant, looks good, and even has a built-in FM radio. The$72  price is just about right for the features and quality. I wish the companion app was a little more modern looking and worked better, but that’s a minor complaint. If you are in the market for a Bluetooth speaker with a bevy of features, check it out on Amazon.

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Robert Daniels

I'm a long-time tech and gadget enthusiast that currently uses Android, Windows 10 Mobile, and iOS devices. I'm always interested in ways to improve my family's life with new devices and services, though my beautiful wife might just say I'm addicted to playing with gadgets.

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