Customer Ratings & Reviews

Pros: superior soundfor this price range , charging pad. Cons: clunky charging nugget (nitpick) and no iTunes out of the box (it’s android after a all) I am an Apple guy. Phone/watch/homepods- apple ecosystem all the way, but after spending time with this device, I absolutely prefer its sound to HomePod. Combine the Google virtual assistant and most of all the wireless charging base, it becomes little contest which device is superior. Out of the Box: just the device itself and the charger. The power brick is rather large, and one of my few gripes. That being said, it’s usually tucked behind stuff you’ll never see. The speaker feels substantial and high quality and it’s appearance looks like you went “fruit ninja” on a HomePod cutting the top off at an angle. It leaves a cylindrical design with an slanted top that acts as a wireless charging pad for your phone. There are led lights hidden under the fabric enclosure that encircles the speaker That help with pairing, setup, and as a volume indicator. Speaking of setup, it’s a snap with the google app. Easy to attach to WiFi and Bluetooth as well as Spotify and other streaming services. No iTunes out of the box sadly, but that’s more of an android issue than a Belkin one. The design isn’t supposed to be an eye catcher, just to blend in, which it does beautifully. Touch controls adjust volume, Bluetooth and the assistants microphone are cleanly placed along the leading edge of the top of the speaker. The sound is the real winner in this package. The bass is phenomenal. The midrange and high end are clear and crisp. Setting this on my kitchen counter there is not a hint of rattling, even at max volume. Belkin was smart to involve French premium speaker firm Diavalet and their patented push/pull subwoofer system. They definitely got an excellent return for their investment. It is rich and deep. More importantly, it allows you to simply lay your phone on the top of the speaker for charging without a securing mechanism. The push/pull tech eliminates the vibration of the speaker itself, and even at max volume my phone sits without movement or vibration on the soundform’s wireless charging pad. Brilliant. It is a comparable size to the HomePod- I own 3- but the sound is noticeably superior on the sound form. The charging pad itself charges rapidly, and seems to be situated At an ideal angle for viewing while standing in the kitchen, but also on my bedside stand. Overall, I was happy with my homepods, but I have to say, being around the Belkin Soundform Elite sends a clear message that the folks at Cupertino need to up their game in both feature and sound quality if they expect to remain competitive in this market. Belkin just sounded notice, and it sure sounds good!

I'll admit it - when it comes to technology, I'll ask my millennial daughters or call my computer Guru. I hoped this would be an easy plug in but alas not the case. We are a "house divided" - I am a devout ANDROID user and the rest of the family (and possibly the world) LOVE APPLE! I own a SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 20 and my husband has an IPHONE 12 PRO. I also have and love my SAMSUNG WIRELESS charger which was a promo gift when I bought my phone. I had hoped that we could use this device interchangeably but that too was only a hope. The IPHONE requires the additional purchase of a charging plug which for the first time was not included in the original purchase package and the NOTE 20 uses a USB mini which is not compatible with this device. I am now the owner of this somewhat expensive speaker /charger device which is totally unusable. To make matters worse , no telephone tech support is offered in the small instruction booklet that comes with the device. Guess one of the millennials is getting a holiday gift!

Maybe I’m out of the loop, but I don’t know Belkin as a speaker company nor have I ever heard of this Devialet audio business. Well, I do now! This speaker sounds fantastic and gets LOUD. I’m routinely listening to it with the volume set at one on the little dot scale/Google Assistant display. It will fill a medium-sized room easily and would likely be perfect for parties. The bass is noticeable and plentiful in my opinion (I’m not a bass head). Make sure you use the Google Home app to tweak the EQ settings to your taste, by the way. And speaking of, I have a small Google nest hub, or whatever they’re calling it now - the smaller one with the screen - and there is just no comparison between the sound of these two devices. The Belkin is the one I will listen to music on from here on out, every single time. But I do love the Google Assistant integration. If you’re on the fence about it, don’t be. For one, you don’t ever have to press a power button on your speaker. In fact, I don’t think there is one. You can cast from your device and music app of choice, or you can set it up so that you can just ask the speaker to play what you want. It’s also very handy for asking random questions or getting weather reports and news, or listening to podcasts. Two suggestions for Belkin: I wish I could turn off the Google Assistant display (the four dots) when the microphone is switched off. I’m using this speaker on a bedside table and prefer to have the microphone off at night. Unfortunately, this means dealing with a bit of orange light coming off the speaker in an otherwise dark room. Second, I completely overlooked the quick start guide in the packaging. If you buy this and are baffled at how you’re supposed to set it up, look for the round green card that says Belkin. It’s actually a little folded manual that will point you to download the Google Home app and go from there. I just thought it was some disposable part of the packaging. I can easily see how someone might accidentally throw that out when unboxing. Sheesh, I didn’t even talk about the wireless phone charging. Simple: it’s a smart idea and one that every speaker in this category should have. I don’t know why it has taken this long to incorporate, but it’s fantastically convenient and works well. It will likely warm your phone up a bit, but nothing I’ve noticed that is unique from other wireless characters. The speed has been great in my experience thus far. I’ve had a handful of small Bluetooth speakers. This is the largest one I’ve had, but is by no means unwieldy. And it is, hands down, the best sounding one of the lot. Well done!

Simple to use and great sound for the price. goood!

Great speaker and so much more! I use it everyday, often through out the day.

I got this because i love wirless speakers and the charger is a plus. Unfortunately its not a simple bluetooth pairing. You have to download an app. I downloaded belkin app. It reconizes the device but yet wont set it up. App just keeps stalling... this is exactly why a speaker shouldn't need aapp just to get used. It says open my google home. Opened google home the dive wont even add. Im not wasting another minute on this. Im going to put it back in the box for a refund. Really guys its a bluetooth speaker it shpuldnt be this serious trying to use something that should be more simple.

Great speaker for the money. Was skeptical at first when I bought it online, but glad I did it.

Great idea. Best sleep and the phone charger made thus a winner for me.

Belkin always makes great products. This speaker sounds amazing and has never once given me a problem.

Works well and I like the integration with Google. Sounds very good.

Pretty cool how they put two common household items in one.

Very nice speaker good sound I enjoy it thank you Best Buy

I love it great charger amazing sound easy setup 10/10

If you want ease Bluetooth connection , do not buy this one. I am really mad because the sound system sounds good but it gime 45 minutes headache to find the way to connect.

The sound quality is good. Great Companion. Very responsive

Belkin is a solid technology company that has been building quality products over a wide spectrum of consumer electronics categories for many years. The Belkin company story is quite interesting, and worth reading on their website (in About Us). From assembling cables in a garage, to being part of parent company Foxconn - this is a substantial company with huge engineering resources. I mention this mainly because for a company not known for building portable speakers - they entered the field in a big way. The portable speaker market is saturated, and Belkin did a smart thing... They partnered with French audio company Devialet who set the speaker world on its ear with the introduction of the Phantom speaker. If you have ever walked into an Apple Store and seen a strange 'space-alien' looking speaker pumping out gobs of amazing sound - then you have experienced Devialet's astounding technology. Unfortunately technology like theirs comes at a price, around three thousand dollars! This price point makes bringing this magnificent product out of reach for most people (me included). Until now... Belkin struck a deal with Devialet to license their speaker technology. It is a brilliant idea, and I was so hopeful! There are many things I love about the SoundForm Elite speaker, but alas I come away disappointed because the potential is there but the execution was not. I came away feeling this product wasn't fully baked, and wasn't ready for marketplace prime time. I'm not saying the speaker isn't worth considering, but this could have been a huge slam-dunk for Belkin if they had just worked on this a bit more. I have high hopes for a version 2.0, or other more mature products in the Belkin speaker line-up. If you are the type that needs to have the newest toy on the block - then check this out. Otherwise this speaker is a mixed bag and requires careful consideration and comparison.In its price category are many fantastic speakers, from big brand name audio companies. This was a good first attempt by Belkin, and I applaud them for the effort. However, they missed out on a home run here. Give it a listen in a Best Buy, compare it to Bose or make your way back to the Magnolia section in the store and check out other high end portable speakers. This is a good speaker worth your consideration. It's just a little sad because it could have been a contender! Hits Devialet's "push-push" and "SAM: speaker technologies Beautiful audio reproduction Gets loud without distortion Good build quality Pleasant aesthetics Innovative packaging of several technologies Integration of Google's Smart Home technology Wireless inductive charging worked well Support for a few streaming music services (Spotify, Google Music, Pandora, etc.) Voice controls through Google, with whole house capabilities WiFi or Bluetooth connectivity Misses Giant wall-wart. I hate these power adapters. Please spend another few pennies and place a cord in between the transformer and the wall outlet. Serious pet-peeve of mine. The cloth covering on the speaker is loose and I can foresee it catching on something and getting pulled and damaged. I see no easy way of replacing it. No primary ON/OFF button Google voice command doesn't support Power On or Power Off Lacking a dedicated APP that should be developed for this Flush buttons are difficult to use with any precision and no haptic feedback. Volume buttons do not adjust up or down with enough granularity. I found it difficult to find a happy volume level (without using google assistant) Lacking a mini-jack for line input. I have a high-res audio player that I can't connect to this speaker. That is silly. Lacking a battery for portability. This runs only on AC. I live in a part of the country that loses power every winter, and sometimes in the summer. Why couldn't Belkin have either built in a rechargeable battery pack. Or made it a modular system where a rechargeable battery could be added on as an option? I can only assume cost savings (again). The power connector leading to the underside of the speaker kept getting tugged out unexpectedly. I had to re-seat it a number of times. Finally I put a piece of duct tape on it to keep it from falling out. Bad design. Google assistant has many clicks and pops that are made when an event occurs, these are system sounds. The problem is they get equally loud along with music. So crank up your music, get a text message on your mobile phone - and your in for a loud attention sound. Annoying. No USB or Lightning connector for input or for charging. No sensitivity settings for the flush buttons Control panel surface is a fingerprint magnet. Lacking controls on the speaker itself. Could use more functionality and Belkin should include a built-in display to show status and other controls. The speaker froze-up on me twice while switching between whole house (wifi) mode, and Bluetooth. I had to reset the speaker to factory defaults (pinhole button on bottom of speaker), to clear it up. I see no option to update firmware to fix bugs (which I encountered) No support for Apple or Amazon music streaming services Minuscule user's guide and not much more information online Not great at low volume level listening. Audio quality suffers. Unboxing was nothing interesting, quite boring really. For a premium product I expect more of how Apple boxes up their products. I guess I set my expectations too high for this speaker. But all is not lost, the potential is still there to create a stunningly good speaker. It just isn't this revision. The unit cost is high, probably due to the licensing fees from Devialet. But that still doesn't excuse the lack of many features and straight forward refinement for this device. I hope the product manager for Belkin is reading this review. Please go back and make this into the product it was meant to be. I'll send you the requirements if you like! You guys are very close, everyone deserves a second chance. Take yours, and swing for the fence this time!

The sound is spectacular ! I got a deal on it. Great purchase

Love it this thing is awesome nice job belkin. Awesome speaker and wireless charger

Looks great, sounds great considering the size, but not as full of a sound as I was expecting. Charges slowly. Options are hard to see on front ledge.

Intro To save you some reading time if you’re in a hurry…I’m very impressed with this Belkin smart speaker and can highly recommend it to others. Feel free to buy one. You won’t be disappointed by any aspect of it. Full Disclosure: I received this product through Best Buy’s Tech Insider Network in exchange for an unbiased evaluation and review. I review products honestly and have written several unfavorable reviews since joining TIN in 2015. Packaging I wouldn’t normally review packaging unless there was a problem. But, in this case, I was fascinated by its uniqueness and thought it worth mentioning. When you open the retail box lid, the upper protective packaging lifts up off the speaker and comes out with the lid as you open it. The pre-formed upper clamshell packing is affixed to the underside of the lid. The pre-formed, protective packaging appears to be made of recycled cardboard. The smart speaker was stored in a white drawstring bag instead of the more typical plastic wrap. Overall, it has unique packaging that sufficiently protects the product. Setup Setup was easy and is done through the Google Home app that you must install on your smartphone. Setup was slicker than any Plug’n Play devices I’ve ever used. Pairing with my smartphone occurred without me even noticing it. To connect to the Internet, the setup routine asked me for permission to retrieve my home Wi-Fi passphrase from my Android smartphone. I gave permission and it acquired the passphrase and then self-connected to my Wi-Fi effortlessly and without any further assistance from me. Very cool. Bluetooth pairing with my iPad also occurred without incident. Also, the Google Home iOS app installed and set itself up with no problems on my iPad Pro. In the Smart Home arena setup, I was able to connect with my Honeywell smart thermostat and then use Google Assistant to raise and lower the temperature setting. I love that feature. However, I was never able to get it to connect with and control my Honeywell smart home security system even though my system was one of the ones listed. Sound Quality OMG, the Devialet acoustics technology in this Belkin smart speaker delivers an outstanding sound. I’m very impressed with the level of pounding bass you get from such a small speaker. Sounds like it has its own miniature subwoofer. It literally vibrates my massive, one hundred year old, oak desk! Bass and treble can be adjusted using the equalizer in the phone app. Google Assistant First, the two far-field microphones on either side of the speaker’s control panel are very sensitive and are meant to perform accurately from a distance. It easily responds to a normal voice command from across a room. But, with a slight touch of a button, you can mute the microphones on this smart speaker and then the Google Assistant stops listening to the vocal activity surrounding it. That said, know that when the microphones are unmuted, the Google Assistant can accurately respond to even a whispered command from several feet away. The Google Assistant is unbelievable sometimes. Did you know there’s over a million ways to ask it for information? So there’s no comprehensive list of commands. My best advice is to form your inquiry as a normally spoken question. Then if you don’t get back what you want, alter the phrasing slightly and try again. My most complicated inquiry so far was, “Hey Google, what are the names of all medicinal herbs that begin with the letter C?” Incredibly, it returned a complete list on my first effort! If I seem like a kid with a new toy, you’re basically correct. I’ve had iPads for over five years and had never used Siri. So yeah, this technology niche is new to me and I’m beginning to like it. Wireless Charger The onboard wireless charger fast-charged my Samsung Galaxy S8 in its Otter Box case when even my Samsung wireless charger couldn’t do that. Your smartphone sits upright in the cradle at the perfect angle for viewing and using. Recommendation As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I’m very impressed with this smart speaker and can recommend it without reservation. If you’ve been waiting to buy the right smart speaker for you, then this Belkin may be the one you’ve been waiting for. Feel free to buy this Belkin SoundForm Elite Hi-Fi Smart Speaker & Wireless Charger. You won’t be disappointed.