Pioneer Rayz Rally Review by Gear Diary

Pioneer Rayz Rally: A Tiny Yet Powerful Conference Call Speaker

If you have to take conference calls regularly — even when you’re traveling — then you know that it can be a pain to carry a portable speaker with you. The Pioneer Rayz Rally is a powerful, portable conference call speaker that is so small it can fit in the palm of your hand with plenty of room to spare.

You can fit the Pioneer Rayz Rally in your pocket, yet it is a strong speaker that delivers a “surprising level of audio volume and call clarity, a level typically experienced from larger conference phone systems, despite its small size.”

As you probably gathered by its picture, the Rayz Rally plugs directly into the Lightning port on your iPhone; it’s not only great for calls, it handles music well, too.

Billed as “the world’s first Lightning-powered plug-and-play speaker”, the Rayz Rally doesn’t have a battery, as it’s powered by your iPhone.

Avnera’s LightX platform enables Rally to minimize the power used from the iPhone. Simply plug Rally into the Lightning port, initiate calls from your device and your call is automatically transferred to Rally’s powerful speaker. Rally adapts to the needs of the consumer; its use can be extended to internet calling on iPad and iPod touch, and on Mac and PC via a standard Lightning to USB cable. Create a conference call wherever and whenever you need to. It’s a new kind of experience that works effortlessly.

Even better, like the Pioneer Rayz in-ear headphones that we reviewed earlier this year, the Rally allows you to charge your iPhone while it is plugged into the Lightning Port on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

I had a chance to see the Rally in action under embargo while at Mobile World Congress; Pioneer used an effective trick of making a conference call to our table while the Rally was hidden under the shell of a larger conference call device. We all thought that’s where the call was coming from until the shell was lifted, and we saw the tiny speaker we’d been listening and speaking to; the whole demo was quite impressive, to be sure!

The Rally also has some smart features that are worth mentioning. Whether you are participating in a conference call or listening to music, Rally will “optimize the audio for crystal clear phone calls or engaging music playback.  Rally’s single button is smart, and will mute/unmute calls or play/pause music depending on what you are doing. The iOS app also supports automatic software updates, keeping users current with new features and benefits over time.”