Computer Shopper - UK (2020-07)

ISSUE389|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JULY2020 33

CREATIVET100

★★★★★

£110•From http://www.amazon.co.uk

DESKTOPSPEAKERS

VERDICT

Fewsimilarly priced speaker sets offer the flexibility,
minimalist design and sound quality of the T100

DRIVERS (^2) • RMSPOWER OUTPUT80W•DOCK
CONNECTORNone•WIRELESSBluetooth 5.0•
DIMENSIONS220x90x120mm•WEIGHT2kg•
WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•DETAILSuk.creative.com•
PART CODET100

SPECIFICATIONS

THECREATIVET 100 arethelatestentryin
Creative’s‘T’seriesofdesktopspeakers.
Creativeisperhapsbestknownforhaving
producedtheSoundBlastersoundcardinthe
late1 980 sbuthassincegainedareputation
forproducingaffordable,great-sounding
speakers,including theGigaWorks T20 Series
II and T40 Series II.The T100 maybedearer
than their predecessors, butimpressive sound
quality combined with afew bells andwhistles
make them aworthy addition to thefamily.
For£110 you get apair of stereospeakers,
amains adaptor, a1.5m-long 3.5mmaux-in
cableand an infrared remotecontrol. The
speakershouse2.75infull-range drivers and
each delivers acontinuous20W of power,
with the output of thepairpeaking at 80W.

COUNTING CONNECTIONS

The plastic casingmakesthe speakers pretty
lightweight at 1kg apieceand, whilefar from
luxurious in their build quality,theydon’t feel
cheap. Crucially forthose that like to keep
theirworkspace uncluttered, they don’t take
up ahuge amount of room on your desk,with
each unit measuring90x120x220mm.
The T100 are incrediblyflexible forasimple
pair of stereoPCspeakers.You can connect to
them via an analogue 3.5mm connection, butif
you want to go wireless, youcan pair via
Bluetooth 5.0. Sadly, the T100 only support
the basic SBC codec, so you can’t enjoy higher-
quality audio streaming via Bluetoothasyou
would with aptX, aptX HD or AAC.
Whileyou can also playhi-resaudiofiles
by plugging in aUSB storagedevice,there are
afew caveats. The storage
device must beFAT32
formatted, 32GB in capacityy
or smaller,and you’ll only
be abletolistentoMP3,
WAVand FLAC files. Your
final connection option
comes in the form of an
opticalinput thatallows
you to hook up the T100
to your TV or games
console.These are
trulymultipurpose
multimedia speakers.
Setting up the T100 is
aboutaseasy as it gets;
yousimply plug them
intoapower source,
choose howyou want to
connecttothe speakers
and awayyou go.Poweringon

thespeakers,cycling

input sourcesand

changingvoluume

canallbedonevia

buttons on theetop

paneloftheleft

speaker.Theinnfrared

remoteaddsafewmore

options,includingamutebuttonandindividual

settings forbasssandtreble,whilealsogiving

youtheabilityttoswitch between four

pre-programmeedEQpresets.

ThedifferencesbetweentheMusic,

Cinema,Concerrtand Gaming presets is not

especially markeedd,bbuuttaassiiddeeffrroommCConcert,

which strikes us as aslightly strangeinclusion,

each suited itsdesignated medium.

Unfortunately,there’snowaytoquicklytell

whichsettingsyou’recurrentlyusingand

when you turn the speakers off,the settings

reset. This is aminorannoyance,but the

inclusion of adisplaywould have driven up the

pricesoit’s an understandable omittance.

LOWMOOD

Forapair of compactspeakers, theT100do

agood joboffilling smallrooms withsound.

We didn’t have any issues with dialogue

clarityywhenwatchinggmoviesorTVshows,

either––the T 10 0reproduced

midssand highs cleanly

witthout anytinniness,

which isn’talwaysthe

caase with cheaper PC

sppeakers.Unfortunately,

video playback suffered

frrom noticeableaudio

laagwhenconnected

oover Bluetooth, so we

hhad to use the3.5mm

ccable when watching

vvideo content.

As with the majority

oofthe T-series, theT100

sspeakers use Creative’s

BBasXPorttechnology,

wwhich the firmclaims

wwill do away with the

neeed forasubwoofer.

Wewwouldn’t go quitethat

far:theweigghtooffbbaassssoonnddiissppllaayyiisscceerttaiinlly

impressive fora2.0speaker setup,but it

would stillundoubtedly benefit from a

dedicated speaker forlow-end frequencies.

That said,the omission of asubwoofermakes

the T100afarmoreappealing package to

thosefor whomdesk space is at apremium.

STRONGEST LINKS

The T100 have an impressive rangeof

connectivityoptions andthe speakers look

smart whileremaining spatiallyeconomic.

Theyperform superbly if you’re listening to

music or watching video via the wired

connection, though Bluetooth latency detracts

from the wirelessexperiencewithvideo.And

while notadeal-breaker,it’s ashame Creative

didn’t include supportfor newer codecs.

If you’ll make useofBluetooth connectivity

formusic alone and want theflexibility of

beingable to connectvia an optical-in or play

music viaaUSB device, the Creative T100will

serveyou very well. If you’re not goingtotake

advantage of thosefeaturesand aren’t fussed

abouthavingaremote, save yourself some

moneyand take alookatone of Creative’s

cheaper desktop speaker sets, such as the

Pebble Plus, T20 Series II or T40 SeriesII.

AndyWhite

TheT100perform superbly if you’relistening tomusic

or watching video via the wired connection