The Logitech Squeezebox Touch has been on our radar for more than half a year, but the music streamer and hi-fi command centre is now finally on sale. Has it been worth the wait? Is it a knockdown Sonos alternative worthy of your consideration? Read on and find out in our full Logitech Squeezebox Touch review.
Read the rest of our Logitech Squeezebox Touch review
Logitech Squeezebox Touch review: Internet radio and widgets
Logitech Squeezebox Touch review: Touchscreen and controls
It’s been a long time coming, but the Logitech Squeezebox Touch’s been worth the wait: if you’re looking to solve the exact hole it fills in your home entertainment set up, that is, and that might be a niche audience. While we love the build and functionality of the little home music hub, a few major omissions mean it’s best left as a fancy bed side alarm clock or kitchen music player, rather than on top of your hi-fi in the living room.
For newcomers to Logitech’s Squeezebox line of music streamers, the Logitech Squeezebox Touch may look more like an O2 Joggler calendar than a tune controller, and the web widgets on the colour touchscreen certainly give that impression. It’s smaller and lighter than the calendar, but is surprisingly similar in functionality.
On the back of the Logitech Squeezebox Touch, you’ll find stereo analog, digital optical and digital coax output slots to hook up your speakers, plus a 3.5mm headphone socket you probably won’t use much, an Ethernet slot (There’s 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi as well) and a USB port for locally stored music playback that’s a tad too close to everything else to accept all your different shaped memory sticks. But the centrepiece of the Logitech Squeezebox Touch is the 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen for scrolling through your music and picking what to play with a prod. It’s bright, and as gloriously responsive as the Sonos CR200 remote’s display, so typing login details is never tricky, and offers inertial scrolling for whizzing through lists with a flick.
The Logitech Squeezebox Touch actually works by connecting up to your computer’s music stash over your network, then letting you play it back through the connected speakers. While it doesn’t support video on that lush screen (It’s a bit too small to be much of a shame), Logitech’s certainly covered all the bases for audio, with MP3, WAV, AIFF, WMA, Ogg Vorbis and even Apple Lossless and FLAC format support to keep digital audio purists happy.
Of course, hopping on home networks isn’t always the easiest of tasks for technophobes (Ever tried explaining the concept of DLNA to your gran?) but the Logitech Squeezebox Touch couldn’t be simpler to set up. It pulled up our home Wi-Fi with no problem and connected in seconds. On the desktop end, it uses the same Squeezebox Server software that works with other models in the range, and it’s available for PC, Mac and even Linux, which Logitech certainly deserves kudos for. We tested it with a Snow Leopard MacBook Pro: on OS X, it’s a quick 32.1MB download which integrates into System Preferences and lets you specify a folder or just use your iTunes collection. Once that’s done, you’re away playing songs, and skipping through music from the comfort of the sofa.
The Logitech Squeezebox Touch’s touchscreen has been designed for more than just cover art though. If you saw our hands on back in October of last year, you’ll know that the Logitech Squeezebox Touch uses the network connection to suck down and pump out internet radio, and even check Facebook and Flickr. The “apps” for the system are fairly limited, and there are a few design and settings issues with the image slideshows, but the music services are superb: as well as Last.fm, there’s Napster support, so if you have a subscription, you can play all the tunes you want.
Unfortunately, our fears we voiced at the time have now been confirmed with testing too. The Logitech Squeezebox Touch really suffers from being locked down by a mains connection. It’s all very well being able to flick through a visual list of everything on your home network, but the lack of a screen on the tiny bundled remote means you’ll have to get up and wander over to choose, killing all the convenience and ease of use. Or buy a Squeezebox Duet remote and receiver, but for an extra £289, that slips you straight into Sonos price territory.
What the Logitech Squeezebox Touch tries to do, it succeeds in. But with so much R&D time, Logitech could have really pushed the boat out, and let you take the screen section of the unit away from the base, to create a touchscreen tablet remote. As it is, this is one to use as a bedside alarm clock, or in the kitchen.
Read the rest of our Logitech Squeezebox Touch review
Logitech Squeezebox Touch review: Internet radio and widgets
Logitech Squeezebox Touch review: Touchscreen and controls
