Review- Griffin Air Curve

The following review is a guest post by George G Smith Jr. He writes at No Sense Of Time, and can also be found on Twitter @GeorgeGSmithJr.

Hi – my name is George G Smith Jr. and I write for NoSenseofTime.org.  I’m not much of a product reviewer.  If I like something, I scream to the world about it.  If I don’t like it, I’m not much to trash things – I just keep quiet.  However, I saw the AirCurve in person and decided that I needed to try it out. So, Monica hooked me up with the Air Curve from Griffin.  So, after owning it for a few months, what do I think of it?

Let’s examine this in steps.  First of all, I’m a big fan of simple design and there is nothing that bothers me more than chords all tangled up around a desk.  (One of my goals is to achieve a workspace experience like Gina Trapani: http://lifehacker.com/software/cord-management/cordless-workspace-redux-the-gina-edition-239904.php )  The Aircurve – with it’s acoustic design – takes care of that easily.  You can have this on your desk and not even know it’s there.  The simplicity of design is really one of the biggest reasons that I wanted to have the Aircurve.

As for functionality, this little block packs quite the punch.  One of my biggest issues with the iPhone is that it’s speakers do very little on their own.  The distortion when you have it on maximum volume is disturbing and it makes being able to play music without headphones pretty much moot.  The Aircurve resolves this issue.  Even without it on the highest volume, I’m now able to listen to music from my iPhone without getting any of that distortion or having the annoyance that headphones can sometimes provide.  Ultimately though, since I’m always so close to my computer, I rarely use the AirCurve to listen to music.

I did discover a better use though!  The true power to the Aircurve is speakerphone.  As a very active businessman, I take a lot of my phone calls via speakerphone.  The amplification of the sound makes this perfect for those situations.  I bring it with me as I travel so that, when I’m in a hotel room, I can take conference calls on my phone with little to no trouble at all.

Overall – I give the Aircurve an A in design and a B in practical use.  At $20, it’s something I would recommend to travelers and others that spend a lot of time on their speakerphones.   For those that aren’t around their computers or only keep their music on the iPhone, than I would put that practical use grade up to a B+.

**FTC Disclosure:  I received a free AirCurve to write this review.