Altec Lansing InMotion Air February 2011

Altec Lansing's InMotion Air, also known as the IMW725, is a portable Bluetooth speaker system. Which? hasn't fully lab tested the InMotion Air, but this review is based on our first impressions. 

Altec Lansing claims the InMotion Air offers 'true wireless freedom' by dispensing with cables and docks. What this means in practice is that the InMotion Air is a pared-down speaker dock - there's no proprietary docking area for iPods or iPhones. The beauty of the inMotion Air, in theory at least, is that it will work with any MP3 player or stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) handset - so that's iPhones, Android, BlackBerrys and Windows Phones.

Design and controls

The InMotion Air comes with a Bluetooth wireless USB dongle which can connect to PCs or Macs

Out of the box, the InMotion Air's strange slanted angular design was the first aspect to grab our attention. The InMotion Air felt quite plasticky, albeit with a fairly tactile soft-touch finish. There's a carrying handle on the back which, as it is also angular, didn't look comfortable but in practice wasn't actually too bad. The InMotion Air weighed less than its 'hewn from a solid slab' aesthetic suggested, at just over 1kg. Along the top is a row of silver plastic buttons, some with small indicator LEDs above. We felt build quality was generally acceptable, although some of the buttons on our sample didn't quite align with the casing.

The controls include a power button, auxiliary input button, volume controls, and track skip buttons. There's also a small remote control, about the size of a packet of chewing gum, which slots neatly into the rear of the InMotion Air for storage, and ensures it won't get lost when the Air is used on the move. There are actually more controls on the remote than on the speaker unit itself. Buttons include 'mute', an 'ESS' button that turns on the Expanded Sound Stage audio enhancement feature, and a 'launch' button for launching media player software on a connected computer.

Around the rear of the InMotion Air are a power socket and a 3.5mm input jack, and a switch to let you charge the integrated rechargeable lithium ion (Li-ion) battery, or stop it discharging if you don't use it for a while. You need to charge the battery for a few hours before first using it, but once it's fully charged, it has a claimed battery life of 7 hours of Bluetooth music playback. The InMotion Air will automatically switch off after 4 minutes of inactivity to save battery power.

Bluetooth pairing

We tested the InMotion Air with an Android smartphone and with a PC. Pairing with a smartphone was as simple as searching for the InMotion Air with Bluetooth switched on. 

Altec Lansing's portable InMotion Air speaker has built-in carry handle

The InMotion Air comes with a USB wireless Bluetooth adaptor 'dongle' that plugs into your PC or Mac. No software or driver installation is required - making setup simple and fast.To pair the Air with the adaptor involves holding down the pairing button on the speaker and on the USB dongle, and when the lights alternately flash red and blue, they are paired.

While we found the pairing process easy, getting the InMotion Air to play the output from our Windows 7 PC wasn't so straightforward. In the end we had to fiddle around disabling other sound devices in Windows Control Panel, and starting and restarting Media Player software - not helped by the web link printed in the instruction manual not working. 

It should be possible to launch media player software on your PC direct from the InMotion Air's remote control, but we couldn't always get this to work with Windows Media Player, Winamp or iTunes. 

Sound quality 

Altec Lansing says the InMotion Air uses apt-X sound codec technology, and claims this gives CD quality audio even from compressed audio files such as MP3s, over Bluetooth. We found music sounded crisp and clear, although we felt it could be a bit thin and sibilant at times. There's enough volume output from the InMotion Air to fill a reasonably sized room, but the sound isn't much more than you'd expect from the relatively small speaker drivers inside. 

If you still want to listen to music on the speakers connected directly to your PC, as well as through the InMotion Air, there's a 3.5mm audio pass-through output on the USB adaptor. This worked fine, but it's worth noting that this setup isn't totally suitable for using for multi-room sound, as there's a slight delay to the sound being transmitted over the Bluetooth connection.

The InMotion Air connects via the Bluetooth Class 1 system, which is claimed to cut down on interference to nearby wi-fi networks and cordless phones. Altec Lansing claims that the InMotion Air will work up to 100m from a Bluetooth source. In our real-world test, it struggled over a distance of less than 10m through the floors of a house.

The InMotion also allows two units to be linked to one transmitter - a simple way to set up basic multiroom music. 

First Impressions

Overall, we weren't completely sold on the InMotion Air. The lack of a screen means that controlling music playback on a remote PC can be a bit hit and miss. You can navigate through tracks using the remote control, but this works best when you've set up music playlists in advance on your computer. And while Bluetooth and wired connections make it compatible with all MP3 players, most mobile phones and computers, there's no option to connect over wi-fi or ethernet, which could make the Air much more appealing as part of a home network.

If you've got an iPod or iPhone check out our reviews of MP3 speaker docks - there's plenty of choice, and if you're using primarily Apple products, the InMotion Air's Bluetooth connection may not be for you.

The Altec Lansing InMotion Air will be available in late February, in black or gunmetal grey, priced at around £180 from Apple, John Lewis, Dixons and PC World.

Pros: Reasonable sound quality, Portable, Bluetooth means widespread compatibility

Cons: Plasticky, range not as far as claimed