Digital Trends

Boynq Alibi December 17th, 2007 | by Jason Tomczak

Setup and Use

Setting up the Alibi is dirt simple. Set the Alibi on a desk or table; plug the USB 2.0 cable from your computer into the back of the Alibi. Then take a look at the Alibi's audio cable. One end will have a single 3.5mm plug and the other end will have two 3.5mm jacks. The single jack goes into the audio port on the Alibi and the dual jacks go into your computer's analog microphone and speaker ports. That's it. The Alibi is set up and should be instantly recognized by and accessible to your computer. (Make sure that the webcam head of the Alibi is popped up and that the green power indicator is on.)

To test the Alibi, open up a program like Skype. In the preferences/options screen, select the Video tab and choose the Alibi as the default video device. In a quick moment, the Alibi will kick into gear and video will appear in your Skype settings window. If all looks good, close the settings window and make a video chat call to someone else on Skype. Have fun!

The Alibi renders different quality video in different programs. On the MacBook Pro, for example, the Alibi renders "ok" video in Skype, but renders much nicer video in iChat. It's not as good as video taken directly from the built-in iSight camera, but it's actually very acceptable. 

As for sound quality, I tested the Alibi with a few raucous beats. The first was Herbie Hancock's Rockit from Future Shock. Without EQ settings employed, the Alibi sounded hollow and tinny. With "Bass Booster" selected from iTunes, the Alibi began to sound a little more genuine. It never pushed out a sound that was "impressive", but for 5 watts, what can one expect? The song Beat Box (Diversion 1) from Art of Noise sounded pretty good - the highs were high and bright, the mids were pretty tight, but the bass was flimsy. Finally, I played the song No Brakes by The Bravery at various EQ settings. It sounded like the music was coming from a tin can at times. Highs and the upper end of mids were all strong, but bass seemed to be constantly coughing up fur balls.

To be fair, the Alibi's sound quality for VoIP and audio chat is just fine. Voices sound natural and clean, and this is the way the Alibi will typically be used. For a good speaker set for music, look elsewhere.

One of the nicest things about using the Alibi is the fact that there's no power brick. It's all powered by the USB port. Very nice.

Conclusion

The Boynq Alibi is a fun, goofy and irreverent speaker and webcam combo unit that will appeal to pre-teens and those who have a light-hearted sense of humor and/or style. Even though the speaker isn't able to produce impressive sounds, the camera works well and provides a quality image with clean movement - very good for VoIP programs. The pop-up, rotating webcam head is entirely unique. It's also easy to set up on Windows and Mac systems. Plus, at only $60 USD, the Alibi is a decent bargain.


Pros:

• Easy to set up and use
• Nice clean picture and smooth motion possible
• Unique design and functionality

Cons:

• 5 watt speaker is very limited
• Image quality varies by software used