Isotunes has been promoting their new Sidekick clip-on Bluetooth speaker with more comparisons against Dewalt.
See Also: Isotunes Dumps on Dewalt with New Sidekick Jobsite Speaker Ad
In this Isotunes Sidekick comparison, Isotunes says that the Dewalt has no work light, but theirs does.
“One of these has a work light in it.” That is true. Isotunes is comparing their $100 Sidekick speaker ($80 at discount retailers) to the older model Dewalt speaker that retails for $60 at Amazon (~$53 with coupon).
But there’s a more recent Dewalt model, and it’s this that makes the Isotunes comparison misleading.
As I understand it, Isotunes is making unfair comparisons by false equivalence.
Dewalt launched an upgraded Bluetooth wearable speaker months ago. Dewalt’s launch preceded all of the ads I’ve seen for the Isotunes Sidekick.
At the time of this posting, the more featured Dewalt Bluetooth speaker is $76 before coupon, or ~$67 at checkout.
This Dewalt Pro Max wearable Bluetooth speaker model does feature an LED worklight.
The Dewalt Pro Max wearable speaker would be a closer equivalent to the Isotunes Sidekick.
With respect to multi-device audio streaming, Isotunes advertises “theirs pairs with nothing.”
The more recent Dewalt Bluetooth speaker features Auracast, which lets you stream audio to multiple compatible devices.
Again, this Dewalt model launched months before I started seeing Isotunes’ heavy advertising campaign for their Sidekick speaker launch.
This is the speaker that Isotunes should be comparing their new Sidekick to, rather than the older model.
Isotunes emphasizes their “up to 20 hours on one charge” runtime.
A user called out the runtime claim, saying they’re only seeing a fraction of that. Isotunes responded to their comment by saying the runtime depends on factors such as playback volume. I wonder how the real runtime compares for both models.
That encouraged me to look into the actual battery size.
Let’s start by talking about a more relevant comparison.
The Isotunes Sidekick, which they’re selling for ~$100 directly or ~$80 via Walmart, looks nearly identical to the Infurture jobsite speaker that’s selling for as low as $14 on Amazon.
The Infurture wearable speaker is $14 in green, or $21 in black.
Their close resemblance is a coincidence, right? Luckily, we don’t have to guess.
The FCC has published teardowns, so we can look inside without having to buy both and do the same.
Here’s what the FCC shows as the circuit board for of the Infurture Bluetooth speaker (in green). The Infurture speaker launched well before the Isotunes Sidekick.
Here’s what the FCC shows as the circuit board for the Isotunes Sidekick Bluetooth speaker. They look identical to me.
Here’s the rear side of the Infurture PCB.
And this is the rear of the Isotunes PCB.
You can read the same version number on the board. I’m seeing that the circuit board and components are the same. Can you spot any differences that I might have missed?
From other images included in FCC reports, the Isotunes Sidekick has a slightly larger battery than the Infurture.
Here’s the Infurture wearable speaker, which is as low as $14 at Amazon (green color) and as high as $21 (black color).
And the Isotunes again, which is as low as $80 at Walmart, or $100 directly.
Unless they made changes, the teardown shows the Infurture speaker as having a 600 mAh battery. Infurture advertises a “10 hour battery.” The Isotunes has a 750 mAh battery, and they’re claiming “up to 20 hours” of runtime.
Infurture: 600 mAh, 10 hours
Isotunes: 750 mAh, up to 20 hours
From what I’m seeing in the FCC-published teardown, the circuit board and components are identical.
As the kids would say, the math isn’t mathing.
And here’s the Dewalt mini wearable Speaker Pro Max.
Looking further, the Isotunes Sidekick also has a slightly larger battery than the new Dewalt – 750 mAh vs 700 mAh.
The Dewalt battery is just 6.67% smaller than Isotunes’. Dewalt advertises up to 12 hours of runtime.
Infurture: 600 mAh, 10 hours
Dewalt: 700 mAh, up to 12 hours
Isotunes: 750 mAh, up to 20 hours
Here’s where things get more confusing.
The FCC teardown shows a battery with 750 mAh written on it.
But in their Walmart page Isotunes has an image that says the battery capacity is 600 mAh.
This does at least say that the battery life is 20 hours at 25% and 9 hours at 50%.
But going by this, the Dewalt Pro Max speaker’s battery is 16.7% larger, at 700 mAh for the Dewalt vs 600 mAh for the Isotunes.
Whether 600 mAh or 750 mAh, Isotunes’ runtime claims don’t seem congruent with the others.
I looked at the FCC breakdown for the V1 speaker, and it’s shown to have a 560 mAh battery.
If Isotunes’ 600mAh spec is accurate, this means the Dewalt V1 battery is 6.67% lower in capacity than the Isotunes Sidekick, but that somehow contributes to a 100% difference in “up to” runtime. The 600 mAh spec would make the Dewalt V2 battery 16.7% higher in capacity than the Isotunes Sidekick.
That the Dewalt V2 speaker has a larger battery makes this even more of an unfair comparison. But aside from that, the worklight, and multi-device streamling, how does Isotunes get “twice the runtime, half the downtime” from a 600 mAh or 750 mAh battery (depending on where you look) compared to the older Dewalt V1 speaker with its 560 mAh battery?
$80 to $100 for the Isotunes vs $14 for the Infurture. Or vs $21 if you want the Infurture in black. What exactly does that extra price difference get you?
I find Isotunes’ paid ad comparisons to be unfair and misleading, either by cherry-picking or false equivalence. Whether the unfair comparisons are intentional or not would have different implications, none of them good.
But what could be said about how the Isotunes Sidekick appears to be nearly identical to the Infurture speakers aside from the color and larger battery. White-label capitalism?
The Megapro-made Channellock ratcheting screwdriver is $37 (via Home Depot), and often less expensive than you can buy the Megapro-branded one for. There are some examples where branded tools are a little more.
But $80 vs $14? That’s a huge price difference.
Even if you compare the Sidekick against the black Infurture speaker at $21 instead of the lower-priced green speaker, that’s not much better.
I could be wrong – can you find any differences, aside from the fractionally larger battery, between the Infurture wearable speaker and Isotunes Sidekick?
Unless I’m missing something, that’s a that huge markup. What do you get for it?
Maybe they need the markup to pay for all those comparison ads, and there’s where the high price comes from.
If anyone wants to double-check, here are the FCC IDs. The first 5-digit are the “grantee” code, and the second part is the product code.
Infurture FCC ID: 2A2OD-BH134A
Isotunes FCC ID 2AJRDIT-59
Dewalt FCC ID: 2ADH6-1901178
