The Ikarao Shell S1 Is Almost the Perfect Portable Karaoke Speaker

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Karaoke has been performed with the standard microphone and portable speaker for many years, and we've gotten by fine. But Ikarao, a karaoke speaker company, decided to take karaoke to the next level. They're using technology that we've had at our disposal for years, but for some reason was never implemented well into karaoke speakers to make them more practical and fun. Until now. Their latest flagship product, the Shell S1 Karaoke, is their most affordable karaoke speaker, with a touchscreen tablet, two Bluetooth microphones, and a powerful sound for a small portable speaker.

Ikarao sent me their speaker to review. After countless hours of karaoke, I can recommend this to anyone looking for a portable karaoke speaker. There isn't much competition in the market for this kind of device, but the Shell S1 is still a solid product that bests its own catalog of speakers.

Shell S1 karaoke speaker pros, cons, and specs

Pros

• Has a 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet

• Compact and portable karaoke machine

• Powerful 104dB stereo speaker with optional bass boost

• Comes with two wireless microphones with 20-hour rechargeable battery life

• Can connect to a TV with HDMI cable

• Can play and charge at the same time

• The integrated Karafun app brings the most out of the speaker.

• Integrated Spotify app

Cons

• No easy way to cast screen to TV

• No integrated YouTube app

• No way to fully customize EQ

Specs

• Battery Life: Up to nine hours with the screen on and 12 hours with the screen off

• Connectivity: USB, AUX In/Out, HDMI, Wifi, OTG, and Bluetooth V5.4

• Inputs: AUX input, microphone input, USB input

• App: None

• Drivers: Equipped with two 15W 3.5-inch woofers and two 10W 1-inch tweeters, covering a frequency range of 50Hz – 18kHz

• Power Output: Peak power of 280 W and a maximum sound level of 104dB

• Water Resistance: None

• Size: 13.9 in by 6.9 in by 6.7 in (L × W × H)

• Weight: 11.7 lbs

First impressions of the Shell S1 karaoke speaker

My expectations were somewhat low for this review, mainly because I had never heard of Ikarao before. But I was happily surprised. The Shell S1 is a portable, one-stop shop for everything you need for a karaoke session. This makes it easy to pick up and take with you to a friend's house or around the house. But as I'll explain, it's not perfect.

I was blown away by how loud this speaker can get—104 dB, to be exact. That's loud enough to fill most living rooms. There is also a bass boost button on the front (along with volume control, power, Bluetooth, and a local play button to switch the input source) that really bumps the bass substantially. I was able to blast music on my surround sound system and sing over it with just the microphone on the S1 (this is useful if you have a surround sound system you want to use along with the speaker).

While portable, the speaker is pretty hefty for its size (nearly 12 pounds), which makes sense—you're jamming two microphones, a tablet, and a stereo speaker in one product. Ikarao includes a shoulder strap to make carrying the S1 around easy.

The two Bluetooth microphones are cleverly hidden inside the speaker when you lift up the screen, and they automatically charge as they're stored (just like earbud charging cases). They have a range of about 32 feet, and the batteries last 20 hours. They also have convenient volume controls, a power button that also lets you change through mic effects (including some fun ones), and a button that controls the media so you can play, pause, or skip to the next song in the queue (the mics essentially double as remotes). I was also surprised by how little feedback I received when blasting the volume and getting close to the speaker. I really had to try hard to get any. Overall, the microphone experience was excellent.

The back of the speaker has all of the interface inputs and outputs. It has another option for a third wire mic with a 3.5mm input, an AUX input, USB On-The-Go (OTG), a USB port, an HDMI so you can hook up the tablet to a TV, a type-C power inlet for charging, and an AUX out to connect to other speakers.

Now, let's get to the fun stuff.

Features of the Shell S1 karaoke speaker

The touchscreen for the Shell S1 is an Android tablet, but it lacks the ability to download apps, meaning I'm stuck with what it comes with (unless Ikarao decides to do OTA updates in the future). There is also no way to fully customize the EQ, but to be honest, it sounds great out of the box.

The Shell S1 has an HDMI output that I was able to connect to my TV quickly and easily. However, I have a surround sound system in my living room that doesn't have an AUX connection, meaning I was stuck playing music only through the Shell S1 speaker. If the Shell S1 had the ability to cast its screen to a smart TV, it would not just make it easier to project into a bigger screen for larger parties, but it would also allow those with surround sound systems to use them for karaoke. Ikarao does give the option to cast to a smart TV using a third-party app that is downloaded in the speaker, but the experience was confusing and I can't imagine anyone at a party (especially after a drink or two) managing to figure it out. A swing and a miss from Ikarao.

Although the first thing you might see when you open the screen is YouTube, don't get too excited. It's not the YouTube app; it's just a direct link through a Firefox browser to YouTube. If you ask me, this is a huge dropped ball by Ikarao. Karaoke is mostly done through YouTube, where you can find virtually every song imaginable in a karaoke version, all for free. The web version of YouTube through Firefox with a 10-inch touchscreen is clumsy and slow, to say the least. (If you're wondering, yes, this means you can use the browser to do everything an Android tablet lets you do.)

Instead of focusing their efforts on YouTube, Ikarao decided to include the Spotify app. Which is cool, if you're a smart portable speaker. But this is supposed to be a karaoke speaker, and Spotify is not karaoke-friendly. Sure, you can make it work by singing over lyrics or by chance finding an actual karaoke version of your go-to song, but good luck reading along the lyrics.

You can also play music through local USB drives. Not as exciting as the other options, but very much appreciated if you find yourself somewhere without wifi or just have a obscure taste in music.

Of course, you can also connect your phone directly to the speaker through Bluetooth, but then there's no way to follow along with lyrics, which defeats the point of the karaoke machine. So what good option is left?

I saved the best for last.

The KaraFun app

Ikarao partnered up with KaraFun, a well-thought-out karaoke app that starts at $9.99 a month. This could explain why Ikarao decided not to include YouTube in its speaker, and if this is the reason, it's frustrating. Ikarao does offer a six-month subscription to KaraFun with your purchase, but why not also include the YouTube app?

Frustration aside, KaraFun does make full use of the speaker's potential. It's a more seamless experience than using YouTube for karaoke, with a huge catalog of karaoke songs, a queue feature, the ability to join sessions and add songs through any phone just by scanning a QR code on the screen, and a fun feature that lets you take pictures and email them at the end of your session. But if you're not ready to add yet another monthly subscription to your budget, then you'll have to make do with the other options.

Bottom line

The Shell S1 smart karaoke speaker is impressive and one of a kind. It's very close to being the perfect portable karaoke speaker, although it still has the potential to get there if Ikarao decides to add the YouTube app with an update. If that app also lets you cast YouTube to a TV, karaoke bars might run out of business. But for now, the physical HDMI cable will have to do.

Unfortunately, the best way to use the Shell S1 to its full potential is with the KaraFun app, which starts at $9.99 per month. But if you don't mind that, the partnership works very well. The speaker is powerful for its size, the bass boost is strong, and the quality of the music does not falter at high volumes. The two Bluetooth microphones are quality, they control the media, have a long battery life, automatically charge when stored, and have very little feedback. The touchscreen tablet looks good and makes it truly an all-in-one karaoke machine.

The speaker is very portable and has everything you need to karaoke out of the box. The ability to play and charge means the party never stops as long as there's an outlet close by. For around $300 to $350, this is a top-notch portable karaoke machine.