Hi, I’m Ethan Green from nosleeplessnights.com and in this video I’m going to be doing
a review of the Drowsie pillow speaker.
And so far I’ve been quite impressed with how it works, particularly the fact that it
works via Bluetooth.
And it's the only pillow speaker I’ve tried in the last couple of years that allows you
to listen to it without a cable in bed, so that's a great thing.
The main benefit of pillow speakers in general is that they allow you to listen to music,
radio, podcast, whatever it might be, in bed without disturbing a partner.
But also to be able to lie on your side listening to your music where normal headphones might
not allow you to do that comfortably, particularly if you've got big headphones or quite sensitive
ears.
So without further ado, let's pop over to the table and take a closer look.
Okay, so these are the pieces that arrived when I got the Drowsie.
It came in this very simple zip lock bag.
There's no shrink wrap or excess packaging and the bag can be reused, so for the environmentally
conscious it could be much worse.
As for the charging cable that’s included, it's a micro USB cable.
And it really is micro USB, micro, micro itself.
It could have done with being a bit longer I think!
But, you know, it does its job.
To actually charge it, there's a pouch on the back here and inside there is the charging
point, which is quite fiddly.
You have to really kind of get it in there, get your fingers in there, and then you've
got the point to connect it to.
It takes about two hours to charge and then it will last for about 10 hours, which is
a good amount of time I think.
You can get a whole night’s use out of it, a very long night’s use, or a couple of
nights if you're going to be listening to it with the timer.
The instructions are very clear, just a few different points to bear in mind and it's
nice and easy to understand.
So to turn it on you've got the main button here, and there's a control unit buried deep
inside this fabric here.
It's very well padded so it's nice that you can put it underneath your pillow and it's
not going to feel too unnecessarily lumpy in different places, you’ve just got this
long flat piece.
So, to turn it on you're going to hear something which some people don't like, but I’m not
too bothered by myself.
[voice from speaker says “power on - connected”] I’ve already connected it to my phone to
save some time.
So, let's talk about the actual fabric and the pillow speaker itself.
It's very soft and quite well padded, and I like the fact that it's got three different
speakers.
It’s got three little round speakers there.
However, one thing that I will say is that it's stitched all the way around and there's
no way to take those speakers out, and that has two repercussions.
One is the fact that you can't actually see what they are without destroying it or undoing
all the stitching, which I’m not going to do in this review.
And secondly, you can't wash it.
And that means that you can't really have it underneath your ear directly if that's
what you're thinking of doing for weeks or months on end.
Well, you can if you want - you'd have to spot clean it or use wipes as they say.
But for me personally.
I would have liked it if you can remove the components and wash the exterior.
However, I do like the way that it's very nicely stitched for the stitching that they
have done.
And it's just a nice all-round look to it with no fraying of the stitching, which is
always a worrying sign.
So, so far so good.
So let's have a listen to first of all a podcast and then some music.
So what have I got here, a BBC Earth podcast.
[Voice from speaker says: “the last several decades scientists have been going out on
oceanographic cruises that would sail into the middle of the ocean and these ships have
big capability to lower a drill down to the sea floor throughout kind of kilometers”]
There you go.
And I like the fact that you can hear it really clearly.
Actually, the first time I turned it on, I wasn't sure whether the voice was coming from
my phone directly and it wasn't connected or whether it was coming from the pillow speaker
and that's a good sign.
And the fact that you can listen to it clearly means that there's a good chance that you
can hear it through your pillow, which you can, and I’ll be talking about later.
So, now let's have a listen to some music.
[Music plays from the speaker] There you go.
So a couple of things to say about that.
Firstly, the maximum volume which is set at the moment is pretty good for a pillow speaker.
I’ve definitely heard those which are much quieter, one or two which are a touch louder
perhaps, like the Sangean.
But generally, I think that it's a very good volume for a pillow speaker and I like the
fact that you can hear it clearly, particularly the treble and the higher frequencies.
However, one thing I will say which is, you know, typical of all pillow speakers - let's
be honest - there isn't much bass.
In fact, there really isn't any bass at all I think with this one and that's a bit of
a shame.
And if you're an audio expert and you're wondering what I’m recording on, I’m using a Rode
lav mic and a Samsung S10.
So going back to the instructions, another thing that I found on here that I’ve really
liked and I’ve used a couple of times now is the fact that you can, in the section underneath
tips, you can save battery life by double clicking the left button to set drowsy to
turn off automatically after one hour.
That means that it has an auto off timer.
You can double click it again to set it to turn off after two hours and you can double
click here again to set it to play all night.
And I think that's really fantastic that it has auto off timers.
It's the first pillow speaker that I’ve tried that does have auto off timers, and
I just think that that's great for a couple of reasons.
One is that, you know, it's always nice to not have your music playing all night but
listen for an hour and then have it turn off.
It just saves power.
And the fact that you don't have to charge it every day, then you can get three or four
days use out of it.
That just means that you're less likely to be forgetting to charge it every day and you'll
get a few days, and I like that a lot about this device.
So, next I’m going to go through to the bedroom and talk about placement, and where
you can put it in the bedroom - underneath the pillow or on top of the pillow.
Before I do, let me put one more bit of music on so you can have a listen to just something
different.
[Music plays from the speaker] Okay, so here we are in the bedroom, as you
can probably tell!
And there's a few different things I wanted to cover in the bedroom with the pillow speaker.
For me, there's three main things to consider.
Firstly is where you can place it.
Secondly is if you can hear it through a pillow and what kind of pillow.
And thirdly, if anyone's sleeping next to you, can they hear it as well when they probably
don't want to.
So, first of all, for me I think the most important thing with this one being a Bluetooth
speaker is that you can place it wherever you like in the bed, which is great because
most of the others that I’ve tried, well all the others that I’ve tried, have a cable
which needs to be connected to your audio device.
So you've always got to worry about where the cable is and you know whether you're going
to yank out in the night or if it's going to get wrapped around you, so with this one
being Bluetooth and having no wire I think that's a really flexible option that I personally
really like.
Now, when it comes to placement you can put it on top of the pillow, next to the pillow,
under the pillow - you've got lots of different options to play around with.
Personally, I wouldn't put it directly under your ear even though it's very flat and soft
and padded and you can do, in theory.
The fact that you can't wash it is a concern for me.
However, having it next to your ear as I’ve got it at the moment is actually quite pleasant
to listen to.
Now, when it comes to putting it underneath your pillow, I’ve tested it with different
densities of pillows and you can hear it.
But obviously it depends on your own hearing, and what you're listening to, and what particular
pillow you've got.
But I found that you can hear it no problem through most pillows, even with two pillows
like this one at the moment.
Having said that, with very dense pillows and double pillow like this one, I found that
I can hear it much clearer when I’m on my side, as you would expect, than if I’m lying
on my back like this when it's underneath the pillow.
Now, when it comes to the person sleeping next to you, I found that if you’ve got
worries about them listening to your bassy music then you don't need to worry about that
because it doesn't really have much bass!
But what you can hear if you're sleeping next to someone using this one is some of the treble,
some of the higher frequency noises because it is a bit more high pitched in terms of
the sound that is pumping out.
Well, pumping is a bit of an exaggeration - some of the sound that is producing.
So, I think that's something to bear in mind: you might want to do some negotiating with
someone sleeping next to you to find the right volume setting.
But probably, if you just stick it underneath your pillow and you lie on your side directly
over it so you've got your weight on it then it's going to help to reduce the sound that
they hear.
But I do find that you need to keep the volume down particularly if you've got music with
more high frequency sounds in it.
So for me, on balance I think this is actually a really good pillow speaker to use in the
bedroom.
I really like the fact that it's so flexible in terms of the placement and the sound quality
is clear when it comes to listening to music and also radio and podcasts.
I can hear people talking through the pillow, which is what I really want from it.
And the person next to me can not listen to if they don't want to, as long as I play around
with the volume in a way that's convenient for them as well.
So overall, it gets a thumbs up for use in the bedroom.
Okay now let's wrap up with some pros and cons of the Drowsie.
For me, the main pro is one that applies to all pillow speakers, which is the fact that
you can listen to your music or your radio podcast in bed without headphones in.
And in this case, without a cable connecting either because it works via Bluetooth, which
is probably in some ways the best thing about this one compared to the other pillow speakers
I’ve tested - the fact that you can use it via Bluetooth.
I like the fact that it's flat as well, it's probably one of the flattest pillow speakers
that I’ve tried.
Some of them tend to be slightly bulkier than this one, so it's good that you can put it
under your pillow and if you've got a relatively thin pillow it's not going to create too many
lumps and bumps underneath it.
It's good that it's got a couple of controls on the device as well, so once you locate
them you can change the volume and change the track choice as well without needing to
get your device from your nightstand and turn it on and have the light flashing in your
face.
And I do like the fact that it's got a timer as well.
It's very unusual for a pillow speaker, so it's good that this one does have the option
of a one hour or two hour timer or continuous play if you like.
As for the battery life, I do like the fact that it's got a 10 hour battery life and takes
about two hours to charge it.
So if you're gonna listen to it all night then perhaps you'll only get one and a half
nights out of it, but if you're gonna use the timers of one or two hours then you can
get several nights out of it.
So that's a good thing: it just means a little bit less time fiddling around with the charging
cable and actually remembering to charge it.
Okay, now let's talk about the cons of the Drowsie.
For me, the number one thing is that it's the most expensive pillow speaker that I’ve
seen.
Does it warrant that price?
Well, I think that comes down to whether you really value the Bluetooth functionality.
If you don't and you're happy having a cable connecting to your audio device then really
you can get one for quite a bit cheaper.
Another key downside to consider is the fact that you can't take out the speakers and then
wash the fabric part.
They say that you can spot clean it and wipe it, but really, I think if you've got something
that's fabric and you perhaps want to have it underneath your ear rather than underneath
your pillow or even underneath your pillow, over time - if it's going to last the test
of time - you're going to probably going to want to wash it at some point.
So really, I think it would have been better if they'd made it in a way that you can remove
the internal components and wash it like a lot of the headband headphones are, for example.
Most of those can be removed and washed.
Another point to consider is the lack of bass in these pillow speakers.
They all have a lack of bass really because they're just tiny little speakers and they're
not designed to be particularly loud.
You know, one of the main reasons to have one is that it doesn't disturb people sleeping
in your bed next to you, but it's something to keep in mind.
If you're used to listening to high-end headphones, or even normal headphones these days, or a
decent Bluetooth speaker, for example, or stereo, then you are going to be slightly
disappointed when you listen to one of these and you've never listened to one before, if
you're expecting the same kind of sound quality.
But as long as you've got reasonable expectations and you understand why you're listening to
it and what it's going to provide, it's not such an issue.
And that's it for my review of the Drowsie pillow speaker.
I hope that you found this video helpful.
If you did and you'd like to buy it then you can find a link in the description below to
do so.
And please also subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep in touch and see future videos.
Thanks again, this is Ethan from No Sleepless Nights.