review: Altec inMotion Compact

Hands down, Altec Lansing’s $149 and $299 portable stereo systems for iPhone and iPod are the best portable options at their respective price points. So what happens when the company halves the price yet again to offer a budget-oriented option at $79? Of all the dockable systems I’ve reviewed from various vendors over the years I’ve never seen one for less than $99 that wasn’t compromised in some way. The bad news is that the inMotion Compact doesn’t change that fact. The good news is that it’s not as compromised as a lot of other ones have been.

Much as I hate to review this product based on what it doesn’t have, the list of features that get hacked off on the way from $150 to $79 is striking. You expect the $150 inMotion Classic’s top of the line features (LCD screen with track info, built in rechargeable battery) to disappear, but even the Classic’s basic features like the FM radio, built in handle, and included remote control are gone. What’s left, in effect, is a simple system with a thin leathery cover that folds back into a basic stand, and audio quality that’s merely okay. As its name implies, the Compact is a degree smaller than the Classic, but not so much that you’d buy it over the Classic for portability reasons; this is purely about not having more than $79 in your budget.

And in that sense, it’s a respectable system. But while it’s one thing to get half the audio quality for half the price, it’s another thing to lose nearly every feature beyond basic playback controls in the process. In fairness, every other vendor who tries to do a portable dockable system at this price point has hit the same wall (and others have fared even worse in the audio quality department).

If $79 is the absolute upper limit of your budget, then don’t let my snobbishness stop you from buying the inMotion Compact. But otherwise, my advice is to do what you can to save up for the $149 inMotion Classic (iMT620), which is massively superior and can currently be had from Amazon.com for $114, making the Compact seem even less appealing in comparison.

Learn more about the Altec Lansing inMotion Compact AltecLansing.com