Lanchiya mi-football iPod dock review

The World Cup is on its way, about a month away now and everyone with a product to sell is jumping on the football bandwagon. We've got shirts, flags, footballs and even Pringles trying to get a slice of World Cup fever. It'll come as no surprise that electronics manufacturers are also trying to get in on the marketing buzz; the World Cup is a brilliant motivator to get people into stores and buying nice new large screen HDTVs. Even the Chinese electronics industry recognise the potential market the World Cup provides which is why we've been sent the Lanchiya mi-football for review.

OK, I know what you're thinking: 'Lanchiya, who?' To be honest, I'd never heard of them before, but a quick Google shows you they make a few different iPod docks under the brand Speakal. You'll get no prizes then for guessing that that's exactly what the mi-football is, as the name might suggest, a powered iPod speaker dock in the shape of a football. The mi-football or miSoccer as it's known in the US, fits into a range that comprises of the iPig, the iPanda, the iBoo (think a Pac Man ghost) and the iPom, all featuring similar riffs on the ball shaped powered iPod speaker docks.

Design

On first impressions, it's not immediately apparent what the mi-football's function is. It has a slot in the top that takes the universal dock adapters for your iPod, a few logos for the touch sensitive control buttons on the top and comes with a little card remote; but the actual speakers and sub are hidden inside the ball. The sub, which vents directly down is heard but not seen, whilst the two stereo speakers are hidden in the dark panelling of the ball, which itself is available in white and black or white and blue colour schemes. The white panels themselves are begging to have your favourite clubs crest stuck on them, be it England for the World Cup or Arsenal if you're a gunners fan.

The ball is suspended off the deck by four small legs with rubber pads that keep it nice and stable on a flat surface. The bottom panel on the front houses the mi-football's IR receiver and LED indicator to keep you abreast of what's happening, plus a duct for the sub, hidden in the black. Underneath there's a socket for the power adapter, a 3.5mm socket for auxiliary audio and a switch to turn off the mi-football, as well as the perforated speaker grill of the sub.

Overall, the mi-football is anything but sleek, but it is a grower. The longer you look at it, the more attractive it seems, but it's certainly one for football fans, or someone looking for something cute.

Function

That's the design, but what's it like to use? Well the mi-football is a 'Made for iPod' device meaning that it has access to the iPod play controls using the touch sensitive buttons and the iPod menu system using the included card remote. The remote has up and down buttons, a menu button and an enter button for navigating through the various iPod menus. Volume, track skip, play/pause, a mute button and a standby button are also included, along with treble and bass adjustment for fine-tuning the speaker's performance and an AUX button for alternative audio input. Overall, operating the iPod or iPhone through the mi-football is fine, a little frustrating using buttons on the remote rather than a scroll wheel or kinetic scrolling but as good as it's going to get using a remote without a screen. Of course to see what's happening on the iPod you're going to have to be within touching distance of the thing, which to my mind slightly defeats the point of having menu controls on the remote. Another small annoyance about the mi-football when it comes to actual functionality is that when you stick your iPod in the dock it instantly starts playing at a default volume that you can't set yourself. That's great if you want an instant loud blast of music, but if you're looking for something a little quieter or just want to charge your iPod or iPhone, it's extremely annoying. To make matters worse when you do want to turn it down quickly, the touch sensitive buttons that ring the front of the iPod slot aren't all that responsive. In fact if you don't put enough of your finger on the button it doesn't register the input at all, leading to frustrated stabbing at buttons whilst trying to shut the thing up. It's a shame Lanchiya didn't make a better job of honing the button sensitivity or just used physical buttons, but making sure you use your thumb or a large finger touch gets the job done in the end.

Sound

OK, so it works fine for the most part, but it's a speaker dock, so last but probably most importantly, how does it sound? Quite good is the short answer. Of course it's not going to win any medals for sound quality and it falls a fair bit short of the impressive and expensive Bose SoundDock, but for the best part of £50 (£49.99 best price at the time of print), it's not bad at all. For the price, it's got punchy, if not deep bass, relatively well defined highs with a decent mid-range. These speaker docks are often measured by their 'room filling sound', and the mi-football certainly has enough power and volume to fill a room. It's sub moves an impressive amount of air through its channelled duct at the front, which can be felt blasting out in operation and it shows in the loudness that the little ball is capable of. Even at high amplitude the speakers in the mi-football do an admirable job with little to no distortion. There are a few caveats however, mainly that the bass and treble adjustments that Lanchiya has given you on the remote do very little, and the stereo separation of the small closely packed speakers is pretty poor, but considering its size and compact frame it's not much to quibble about.

Can you get better sounding iPod docks? Yes of course, but the mi-football holds its own in the budget price range and at £50 it might be just the bit of football tech you need to see you through the World Cup.