Editors' Note: The rating on this review has been lowered from 7.7 to 7.0 due to changes in the competitive marketplace.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
We've gotten our hands on a wide array of portable speaker systems designed for the iPod, but we haven't reviewed one that was quite as thin as Altec Lansing's $130 inMotion iM500. The splendid-sounding iM500 measures only 0.67 inches thick when closed up for transport, so you can pretty much stick it (or slide it) in any bag, backpack, or carrier. With a pleasing design that matches the black iPod Nano, these speakers look as good as they sound, though the speaker set could be better with a remote control.
The iM500 speaker system measures about 8.5 by 5 inches (when closed), weighs 12 ounces (without batteries), and looks and feels, as Altec Lansing markets it, "impossibly thin." An elegantly minimal design that closes up flat and snag-free doesn't hurt. Pressing a button in the center of the grille opens the base (which measures about 2.5 inches from front to back), which includes the iPod dock connector port and power and volume buttons on the front. When the posterior base opens, it reveals standard mini USB, mini auxiliary, and AC power ports.
Dock your iPod Nano, and you have a very attractive system; the thinness of the Nano and the iM500 play off of one another. When docked, the speakers are very stable. The iPod Nano actually sits in an indentation on the iM500 making the whole system even sleeker. The tiny puffy-style volume buttons are easy enough to use, though we definitely were itching for a remote control (no dice). The iM500 comes with a basic leatherette slip-on case; the wall wart-style AC adapter shouldn't take too much additional space.
Though the system is designed for the iPod Nano, we were able to force a regular 5G iPod onto the dock; while you can get away with this, we don't recommend it, as it could damage the dock connector.
The iM500 is actually a little unstable without an iPod docked; if you use it as your bedside speaker set, for example, and the Nano's not docked, chances are the iM500 will be knocked over if you gently brush up against it. It also comes in black only (by far the better color for speakers), so your white Nano will certainly stand out. Needless to say, the dock also charges the iPod and (very) conveniently, you can connect to a computer via the standard USB port. Forget your proprietary dock cable? No worries, if you have the iM500 and a friend with a USB cable.
We appreciate the line-in port, which allows you to connect any other audio device (including your laptop), though we don't love the 2.5mm micro jack input, which is much less common than the standard 3.5mm mini jack. Altec Lansing includes an 11-inch micro-to-mini cable--remember to bring this along on trips. Making the iM500 truly portable are the two battery compartments on the back, which hold three AAA batteries each. The system is rated to last about 10 hours per change of batteries--not bad.
The iM500's pretty and waify looks wouldn't count for much if the system didn't sound good, and it does. You get quite a bit of oomph for the size of the speakers. Though they are definitely personal-size speakers, the iM500 can pump. They really shine when it comes to clarity and balance. The two full-range drivers pump out surprisingly good bass, too. Wynton Marsalis's trumpet soared divinely in "Bourbon Street Parade," while Dexter's electronic "Mr. Blunt" blared throughout CNET's cubicle district without breaking up (though some electronic music sounds a little tinny). Acoustic- and vocal-centric music such as Regina Spektor worked well with the iM500. Sound is certainly comparable to Logitech 's bigger $150 (list) mm50, so the $130 price tag shouldn't be too off-putting.