Logitech Z305 Laptop Speaker Review

One of the few things holding back the laptop from completely replacing desktops is their limited sound reproduction ability. With stock speakers, one could never enjoy the full fidelity that their movies and music can provide. Usually powerful explosions would sound like opening tin cans, and intimate dialogue would feel distant and cold. Stock speakers just simply cannot cut it if one wishes to enjoy the full experience of their media. Logitech Z305 Laptop Speaker is a possible solution to this long time problem, and with the recent acquisition of long time audio professionals Ultimate Ears to their ranks, they very well could pull this off.

Very well built
Great mids and highs
Superb soundstage
Easy installation and storage
3.5mm jack for PMP use

May be a bit long for smaller laptops
Bass absent
Lightly veiled sound
Laptop cannot be fully closed when installed

Soundbar Approach
First thing that struck me about the Logitech Z305 out of the box was its size. To me, it appeared to be a giant kit-kat bar with a Logitech symbol on top, and I thought that there was no way this would be a serious set of speakers instead of a cool gadget. I will explain later on why I was completely wrong about it. Overall, the speaker feels very light, but not flimsy. The body is made out of durable ABS plastic, and despite the speakers being located on each end, the center chamber is surprisingly solid and does not reverberate. Kudos Logitech!

Logitech Z305 mounted atop the 15" Asus K52J notebook.

Under the Logitech logo is where the business end of this speaker can be found. A giant spring loaded clip secures the Z305 onto the bezel of the laptop screen, and the rubber strips beside the clip makes it "stick" to the back of the screen to prevent any rattling. This is an excellent design improving on the portability of their previous V20 laptop speakers, improving the ease of use greatly. Overall this mechanism is very well designed, and I would confidently keep the speaker on my laptop during travels.

However, there are a couple of small disadvantages stemming from using such a large clip over the top of the screen is that the laptop could not be closed properly while the speaker is mounted. Logitech knows this problem and provided a carrying bag for the portable speaker, but I couldn't help but wonder if they could improve the design in the future. Another particular problem I foresee is using the speaker on smaller notebooks or netbooks. Since the Logitech Z305 measures about 12.76 inches in length, it feels right at home clipped on a 14.1" or 15.4" laptop, but it would look quite out of place on something like a 11 to 12" laptop. However these small issues would ultimately be of personal preference, and could be easily overlooked in favour of its sound quality.

The Z305 mounted atop the 15" Asus K52J notebook.

One thing Logitech knows very well is user experience, and they demonstrated their years of experience in ergonomics and design through other recent products such as the N700 Lapdesk Cooler Speaker, which was a great fusion of sound quality and cooling performance. A personal peeve of mine is loose cables, and Logitech managed to carve out extremely well designed cable guide underneath the Z305 that one could store the cable out of use. On top of the speaker, there are 3 jumbo sized speakers dedicated to power and volume. Since the speaker will be behind the laptop screen, these buttons are a stroke of brilliance by Logitech as they are extremely easy to find, even in the dark. Just a note, that since the Logitech Z305 is a true USB speaker, these buttons double as dedicated Windows volume adjustments. In addition, there is a handy little 3.5mm input jack for users intending to use the speaker with their PMPs. Very neat feature!