Pure’s Evoke Play is an odd little product to bring to market in 2022.
Too boxy to hide away as a subtle speaker system, and without the pristine audio quality expected at this price point, the Evoke Play seems charmingly and somewhat confusingly, out of step with the market.
With a front made of recycled grey wool, and a prominent metallic handle and tuning knob to match, the Evoke Play recalls an old beach wireless in its design, and shape. If this thing turned up in an old episode of Neighbours, sitting on a kitchen bench with a horse race blaring through it, it wouldn’t look out of place.
Yet it seems to also incorporate that brief window in turn-of-the-century stereo design, when the then-nascent DAB+ radio format was struggling to match its ‘digital’ promise, a period when iPods were the major new music-delivery system but still needed stereo speakers in order to be useful.
You ended up with hybrid stereos that did a little bit of everything, but specialised in nothing in particular, with iPod docks, pop-up screen, USB slots, and players for CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and other soon-redundant media.
The flip-up 2.4-inch screen is another hold-over from this early-00s mindset, with its physical controls tucked under a pop-up screen. It’s also been quite a while since we’ve seen an actual antenna take such a key role in a new tech product, or ‘FM radio’ being touted as a key feature. Hell, even buttons are aren’t completely flat or on a touchscreen seem like a novelty from the not-so-distant past.
The Play is actually a portable version of last year’s Evoke Home system, which also featured a CD player to add to the anachronistic feel of Pure’s stereo range. With its portability as a key selling point, it is baffling that the battery pack is sold separately.
I’m not actually sure who the market is for this product.
The 2 x 20mm soft dome tweeters and 1 x 3.5-inch full range woofers give decent 40W stereo sound, but fall short of any comparable party speaker. At anywhere approaching full volume, the bass rattles and turns muddy, while the trebles are far too shrill to enjoy at such a level.
Innovation wise, this product also falls short, with digital, FM, and internet radio, Spotify, Bluetooth, and ‘podcasts’, the only available options. No Apple Music support is available, let alone lesser known streaming services, while an inordinate amount of focus appears to be on setting up the clock, alarm, and timer.
It’s also way too expensive, at $499, there’s simply no reason for this to be priced where it is.
VERDICT:
Again, it comes back to the actual usefulness of this. Simply put, this type of product has been usurped from almost every angle – there are much better portable speakers for this price, speaker systems have long since camouflaged into the home décor, while radios haven’t needed actual antennas for over two decades now.
Like an esky with a radio built into it, this seems like a useful product, but isn’t. 4/10
PROS:
The wool is recycled
CONS:
Way too expensive
The sound suffers notably when cranked past 50%
No battery pack included
No wider audio format support
