Hisense Party Rocker Speaker (HP100) Review – Loadshedding’s Best Friend

The Hisense Party Rocker Speaker (HP100) is likely one of the best “out there” pieces of tech I have used from the brand to date. The company aims to provide high-end music playback through this giant portal speaker they call the Hisense Party Rocker. It is packed with some cool features and believe it or not, the RGB lighting effects built into this tech actually work and at the same time, look pretty awesome.

Watch the Hisense Party Rocker Speaker review below

Hisense has also packed this speaker with a hefty built-in battery that provides up to 15 hours of playback depending on your volume and lighting presets. Given our current state of loadshedding, I found myself using the Hisense Party Rocker Speaker quite often, especially at night when the loadshedding hit me at 8 pm. There was nothing better than filling the room with some soothing soundtracks as I sat there thinking about all the ways I could burn Eskom down.

The Hisense Party Rocker Speaker also came in handy during some family functions when I had to fill the air with some background music while we braaid and enjoyed each other’s company. Over the past few weeks, this Hisense Party Rocker Speaker has slowly become more like an essential piece of tech in my home than something I would occasionally use. This was surprising to me as I didn’t even think a speaker like this would be so versatile.

So what are you getting yourself into when picking up one of these Hisense Party Rocker Speakers? Let’s dive into this review.

Hisense Party Rocker Speaker Unboxing and Design

The Hisense Party Rocker Speaker is quite a hefty piece of tech. It comes in a large box that has a colourful marketing poster on the side of it. There isn’t really much in the box besides the speaker, a power cable and some paper documents. It is important you read through all of these to fully understand what all the bits and bobs do on this device. The speaker has a lot of potential that you won’t experience if you don’t understand this all.

If you have used other large party speakers in the past, this Hisense Party Rocker Speaker will look quite familiar. It stands at 66cm high and weighs 10KGs. It looks like a giant speaker because it is. There are two large handles on the top so you can carry it around. If you’re tall and fairly strong you can use one handle but the second handle is helpful for those who might struggle to pick this up alone.

The entire front of the speaker is wrapped in a clean metal black mesh. It curves around the front slightly. The mesh protects the four speakers that make up a total of 300W of power. There are two 6.5-inch woofers and 2  2.5-inch tweeters. This is a 2.0-channel speaker system. You also won’t see it when the speaker is turned off but there are four large RGB rings that surround each speaker.

On the top, you’ll find most of the speaker’s operational buttons. There’s a large wireless charging pad used to charge supported phones. The digital display shows a number of things too including the Bluetooth connection pairing status, volume, radio frequency and more. There’s the battery indicator light that shows how much charge the battery has in it.

The other buttons act as no-brainer switches to change the lighting effects on the speaker, tune the radio and increase the volume. I will get into all of the technical stuff in a bit, I do need to mention that this entire top panel is IPX4 rated meaning it is completely waterproof. Of course, you can’t go and dunk the speaker in the pool but this top level is protected from splashes, drops of water and spills. So if you’re getting out of the pool to change the song on your phone which is currently charging on the wireless pad and happen to drip water on the top, it won’t damage the speaker.

Considering the type of environment this speaker will be in, I think the waterproofing is such a great feature. You don’t can just change songs, increase the volume of the speaker, change the lighting effects and more without ever worrying about spillage or drops of water. There’s even a docking area on the front where you can slot your phone or tablet so it stands up straight. Hisense thought of everything with this top area.

The speaker is also designed to stand in a lower position thanks to its rubber feet on one side of the panel. Of course, this makes it harder to press the buttons but at the same time, if you have the setup done correctly for Bluetooth and choose the lighting preset you want, you won’t need to fiddle with the speaker anyway.

Lastly, you’ll find some handy ports at the back of the speaker too. There’s a USB port auxiliary in and out port, a microphone in port and a guitar in port. These will come in handy if you’re making use of the karaoke feature. The USB is also handy for both charging and data playback.

Overall, I think the Hisense Party Rocker Speaker is pretty stylish. I enjoyed using the lower standing position because of the way the RGB lights lit up the floor when it was turned on. But no matter how you use it, this speaker will definitely have friends and family commenting on it.

Hisense Party Rocker Speaker Performance

The Hisense Party Rocker Speaker packs all of the features you look for in a speaker like this. Most importantly, Bluetooth 5.0. You’ll likely use this the most and have everyone fighting over who is playing the music at your shindig. Pairing is simple and easy and there’s really nothing to it. My devices were paired and the music played. I was also surprised to see how low the input lag was on the speaker. Turning up the volume on my phone and changing tracks was snappy and quick on the speaker itself.

The device also comes with other means to listen to music too including the aux-in and FM radio. Of course, FM radio comes with its own setbacks in sound quality but the feature is nice to have. The karaoke mode is also great for those who use that sort of set up and the various volume adjust dials give you more freedom to tailor the inputs to your liking.

The RGB lighting is one of my favourite things on this speaker. Mainly because it wasn’t a gimmick. There are 5 lighting effects that animate in different ways but they all respond to the music playing. I was really happy to see these effects responding properly to the music rather than doing their own thing at random times. The effects load in and out rotate colours and much more. It was hard to choose which one to go with at times because they were all so cool.

Hisense has also included DJ effects in the speaker too that play 5 different sounds when pressed. I didn’t really use these much. The sound range from applause to a disc scratch effect. I guess if you’re manning the speaker at a party and want to have a cool transition from one song to the next, these sounds come in handy.

The speaker’s battery mode is quite a big deal and it should be. We never have damn electricity in this damn country.  It includes a 2,500mAh battery.. Hisense says you can get up to 15 hours of playback when using no RGB lights and low to medium volume. The instruction manual also states that the overall power is reduced on the speaker when using the batter to prevent too much draw on the unit. It makes sense – this is a 300W speaker and it unlikely has the inverter capabilities to convert that sort of power draw inside the speaker itself.

With that being said, the overall experience with the battery use was great. I used the speaker lights and the volume on medium and it lasted me a few days of 1-2 hours of use overall. I would say in total, I got about 9 hours of use out of the speaker before I had to charge it again. This is quite impressive given the punchy sound quality that the speaker still delivered and the lights being on at the same time. You can obviously get more or less if you turn off the lights and volume or increase the volume too.

When it comes to sound quality, this Hisense Party Rocker Speaker didn’t disappoint at all. There are various equalisers to choose from that tweak the sound to whatever genre you’re playing. Overall, everything was quite impressive. Hip-Hop delivered that heavy bass you look for in the music. Pop and electronic filled the room with all the digital effects. It was all clear and even on the louder volumes, I never had any sort of distortion at all.

Even during the dark loadshedding sessions when I listened to more tranquil soundings like Florence + Ther Machine, the vocals were clear and I heard every chime of the harp as I sat there contemplating life.

Overall, I think Hisense has done an excellent job with this Hisense Party Rocker Speaker. Not only does it look incredibly stylish, but it is also versatile, portable and packs a great battery. Sure, there are some things I would never use like the karaoke feature and some DJ effects but for those who will, it is added benefits. The speaker is also decently priced at R5,500 but I have even seen it at low as R4,500 on sale. It is but a small price to pay for something that serves so many purposes.

The Hisense Party Rocker Speaker is available in SA now. Find out more on the site here.