eMeet OfficeCore M2 Hands-On Review: A Speaker Equipped with Artificial Intelligence Designed For Conferences

Who of us has never used a speaker to listen to music or to speak on speakerphone? And how many have complained about background noise or interference?

In this regard, eMeet Tech, a very young Chinese company, presents a level up of the OfficeCore M1, a speaker presented in 2017. The eMeet M1 presented itself as an excellent speaker, compact in size, suitable not only for those looking for a simple case Bluetooth, but also to those who, for work and other reasons, we’re looking for a product that would allow an optimal vocal performance with people with whom it could not be face to face. The results obtained were excellent and this is how the company presented the eMeet OfficeCore M2, a professional device of great value for which, in about 7 days, sales will be officially open.

Although it is not a product that we usually deal with on the web, the new eMeet OfficeCore M2 that we present today is the total solution for the modern office that requires multi-person conferences, since its 4 microphones capture the sound in 360º for an ideal communication. In this complete review, we will go to see closely what are the main strengths of this intelligent speaker thought mainly for the business world. All that remains is to find out how eMeet OfficeCore M2 behaves and whether the actual performance is up to the price.

Before starting the review, we would like to thank eMeet for sending us the eMeet OfficeCore M2 portable speaker for Test.

Let’s see before starting the Technical specifications of the eMeet OfficeCore M2:

Technical Specifications

Unboxing

The eMeet OfficeCore M2 comes in a simple cardboard box that protects it perfectly, On the Back, also showing its main features. The eMeet OfficeCore M2 package is immediately minimalist, compact and well made.

Inside, in addition to the speaker, we find the microUSB cable, a 3.5 mm AUX cable and User manual in English, and other languages. The scope of delivery contains only the most essential, but nothing more is needed.

• eMeet office core M2
• AUX cable
• USB cable
• User manual in English, and other languages

Design

After completely unpacking the eMeet OfficeCore M2, we have an elegant and well finished circular speaker that measures 125 x 125 x 35 mm and weighs 290 grams, so it is portable and relatively light.

On its surface, in addition to having a grid to let out the sound of its 3W speaker, it has the usual multimedia controls and a very special button that allows us to launch the assistant of our smartphone if we connect it by Bluetooth, either Siri or Google Assist.

Around it, we find 4 microphones that allow the capture of sound in 360º so that up to 12 people can communicate “simultaneously” in the same room, with a range of up to 8 meters thanks to the VoiceAI positioning and noise cancellation algorithm.

In addition to the Bluetooth 4.1 connection , it offers micro-USB connection to use it from the PC and recharge its battery , as well as 3.5 mm jack for input and output analog audio or connect it to a smartphone / tablet in conventional hands-free mode, and a 2500 mAh battery that can be recharged in 3/4 hours.

With dimensions of 12.5 x 12.5 x 3.5 cm, the Speaker is good to go. Because the office core M2 for meeting rooms is being considered and, accordingly, not optically unsightly should appear, here also placed a lot of value on Design. Made of high-quality aluminum and manufactured to the feel of the Speaker is quite significant.

The individual parts are all very clean with each other, processing errors here are nowhere to be found. The LED light around the device’s edge illuminates in blue, which is what I love about the design; instead of making a loud voice prompt on startup, it gives a gentle sound.

Controls Buttons

eMeet OfficeCore M2 can be operated via the individual symbols keys on the upper middle. The individual functions of the speaker. Use the middle button to cut your own sound. The control buttons respond quickly when the button is pressed, and a short beep sounds as confirmation. Depending on the command, you can also press and hold the corresponding key to trigger another command. This only applies to keys with multiple functions. Ideally, you can cut your own sound using the middle button. We know this from our office experience and know how convenient it is in video conferencing with many people.

Smart LED Signals

Above the on / off button, an LED indicates the state of the speaker. If this lights up in blue, a Bluetooth connection is established or already exists. The white indicator indicates that an AUX connection has been established. Set to USB, the indicator lights green. This connection method can be changed using the “Source Switch” button. The small LED light provides an overview of the respective connection. Thanks to the different light colors, you always have a good overview of the connection currently selected for the speaker. Definitely practical, but without it, it would also be a huge gap. The charge level of the battery can also be tracked; at 5% of the remaining power of the battery, the light ring lights up red.

Features & Performance

First of all, the particularity of this product is that it can be integrated into any ecosystem considering the fact that it is compatible with any voice assistant. We tried eMeet OfficeCore M2 on both Android, iOS and Mac devices and found full compatibility.

At the same time, the presence of microUSB, AUX, microphone and 3.5mm jack ports allow the speaker to be connected to many different sources. For example, you can connect OfficeCore M2 to your computer via a USB or Bluetooth cable, in addition to the smartphone with the AUX input and also connect speakers or earphones by bypassing the integrated 3W speaker.

Just the integrated 3W RMS speaker offers good overall sound quality. To handle audio calls is excellent. In case of reproduction of audio tracks, quality decays showing all the limits of this speaker, perhaps also due to the Bluetooth SBC protocol used.

Being a solution designed for the business world, audio quality during audio playback may be a less important feature than during audio calls.

During the course of our tests, the array of four microphones behaved excellently. Even from a distance, eMeet OfficeCore M2 is able to pick up the words of the interlocutors. In particular, this product uses artificial intelligence algorithms that are designed to select which microphone to activate, offering a voice recognition even within a radius of 8-10 meters with relative noise suppression.

We also remember that eMeet provides a homonymous application useful to expand the functionality of this speaker. However, the moment we are writing the only language supported is Chinese.

Here is a brief overview of the speaker’s individual functions:

• Video and telephone conferences
• 360 ° voice recognition at a maximum distance of 8 m
• automatic switching between speech and music modes

After pressing the speaker for about three seconds. The principle behind the smart speaker is easily explained:

1. When a call is received, it is accepted via the phone key and the other party is heard via the loudspeaker.
2. The language assistant (Siri, Google Assistant, Cortana) is called via the button with the eMeet symbol.
3. Use the center button (held down until the recording is in progress) to record voice recordings.
4. Press and hold the Language Assist button to play the recordings.

The sound quality of the speaker is really good, the phone calls are loud and clearly understandable. The call quality is really good, both for phone calls and for playing music. To what extent this is related to AI cannot be understood with normal means. The user manual also mentions a corresponding application, but this does not seem to be complete yet. If the application still needs to be published, we will inform you of course.

Battery

The 2500 mAh battery lasts approximately 9/10 hours on average, although this parameter may change depending on the audio volume used and how it is used. In case the battery is empty, you can connect eMeet OfficeCore M2 to the power outlet, keeping all Bluetooth connections active.

Conclusion

Overall, eMeet OfficeCore M2 is a very interesting product, designed mainly for the business world. However, in case you want to have an intelligent device, capable of simplifying our daily life, this device can be inserted in a context that is more devoted to entertainment.

In case you are interested in buying, eMeet OfficeCore M2 is available on Amazon to use 10% off coupon code: EMEETGOM2  . The price, when compared to the overall quality of the device, is very interesting and makes the eMeet intelligent speaker a valid alternative to more noble models.