Review: Creative Woof 3

The curiously-shaped Woof 3 from wireless speaker experts Creative had us intrigued as soon as we saw it – the looks raised a smile and it could be the ideal speaker for our small office, and if so that could make it a great way to listen to music in a small studio or design office. We had to test it out to see if something so petite and beautifully formed could possibly have the dynamic chops to make it a worthwhile purchase.

The TL;DR answer is: yes, it does. From the tumbler-sized metallic speaker comes a surprisingly punchy sound – easily enough for a small room, office pod, patio and the like.

The question is how it deals with high volume levels – so many small speakers fall down here due to lack of power and the inevitable distortion; not the Woof 3 however. The speaker's inverted bell shape directs sound upwards, distributing your tunes around the room and even at high volumes that sound is clean and clear. Encased within the metal housing is a 45mm driver and an oversized (relatively speaking) passive bass radiator for an enhanced audio performance.

As well as playing your tunes via Bluetooth from your smartphone, tablet or laptop, the Woof 3 can play lossless FLAC files via its MicroSD slot – which seems like overkill from a small single speaker, but is something for the spec fans and musos to brag about.

Despite its decent power, the battery life is claimed at a surprisingly decent six hours, although I found that the sound quality began to falter before then and only recovered when it was plugged into a charging source via its USB cable. You'll certainly get a few hours of solid use out of a charge, from what is an excellent wireless speaker that would be a great addition to your small space.

Creative Woof 3

• $49.99/£39.99