Honeywell Trueno U7000 Soundbar Review: Gorgeous Looks, Soaring Sounds, Confusing Price Tag
Honeywell Trueno U7000 price feels a bit too high as of now, especially considering some of the top rivals out there.
Honeywell Trueno U7000 Review: Honeywell continues to surprise me. A few months ago, I reviewed the Trueno U300 portable speaker, going in with low expectations, but then coming out the other end with an expression of disbelief as the product was not only well-rounded in terms of sound signature (at that price point), but was also one of the most premium-looking little speakers I came across. The Honeywell Trueno U7000 soundbar, too, had a similar effect on me. Make no mistake, the build and design of the product is as premium as it can get. However, given what it offers, the high-ish price tag does come as a bit of a surprise (and not the good kind).
Honeywell Trueno U7000 Review: Quick Pointers
What we love:
- Gorgeous design
- Subtle LED bar elevates the looks
- Punchy, air-y bass that can fill up large rooms
- 5.1-2.1 channel switch is a nice touch
What we don’t:
- High price tag
- Lack of multiple HDMI ports
- No wireless subwoofer/stereo speaker connection
Designed To Perfection
When it comes to soundbar design, there isn’t much you can do that will make people stare in awe. Sure, you can take the Bose route and offer a flat-top design with iPhone-like straight edges. Or, you can even pull off a Devialet Dione look, with subdued white colours and gold inlays. However, for me, a soundbar looks best in black as it sits just perfectly with your TV set, blending in with the black screen when your unit is powered down, and is dark enough to not distract you from the screen.
The Trueno U7000 plays it traditionally, which does lend a certain gravitas to the overall design. The curvy outer edge is marked by a solid grille with the Honeywell and Dolby Audio logo placed at both ends.
The red LED bar at the bottom which lends a subtle dark red colour on your table/TV cabinet when the speaker is on is pretty chic. The LED light rarely overpowers my TV screen, but it does bring a moody glow in my room when I turn off my lights and listen to John Lennon chant “Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream” in “Tomorrow Never Knows” on Bluetooth. Nice fit, that.
The subwoofer is pretty heavy and hence sits snugly on almost any plain surface, be it your tabletop or the floor. The left and right stereo speakers follow a similar design to the soundbar, making the overall unit seem singular, rather than following multiple designs for multiple elements, which is ever so distracting.
The right side of the soundbar features a four-button touch panel, which is pretty much standard. The metal buttons are sensitive to touch and were a delight to use (especially since it wasn’t very ‘clicky’).
Overall, the design of Trueno U7000 makes it look very premium - which is the case with other Honeywell products as well.
Connectivity Woes
Now, I know that a price tag of Rs 15,399 (or Rs 14,399 if you’re buying from Amazon during its festive sale) shouldn’t arouse a great deal of expectations in me. However, the super-premium looks did give me hope that perhaps, just perhaps, the bulky subwoofer and the stereo speakers would come with wireless connectivity, as some of the Philips soundbars do. Sadly, the peripherals come with wired connectivity.
Now, the wires are pretty thin and quite long so you don’t have to worry about cramping everything together at one space. However, it does leave a mess of wires lying about behind your TV cabinet that just irks the OCD out of me. Perhaps, that’s just me. Perhaps you wouldn’t even notice the wires after a few days. Would have been a nice touch, though.
The Trueno U7000 comes with all your standard connectivity options. You have your 3.5mm aux, your standard Bluetooth, optical input, as well as USB port. However, there is only one HDMI/ARC port, and at this price point, I definitely would have loved at least two or three HDMI and ARC ports to make sure I can connect my TV, my PS5, as well as any other digital entertainment device I might have lying around. A serious miss from Honeywell, this.
The dual-AAA battery-powered remote does its job pretty well. No notes there.
Sound Supreme
Just like the U300 speaker I reviewed earlier, I’m happy to report that the Trueno U7000 also packs in a proper punch when it comes to sound. No matter if you’re having a party or just watching hundreds of Fremen people chant “Lisan al-Gaib” as the gorgeous Timothée rallies them for battle in ‘Dune: Part Two’ - the sound signature is pretty engrossing and surrounds you perfectly.
Matter of fact, the further you move away from the soundbar and subwoofer, the better and more filling the sound gets - always a good sign of a premium sound device.
I lined up my review tracks on my phone to understand the Bluetooth sound better. Tyler Jospeh’s chompy keyboards sound particularly crunchy in Twenty One Pilot’s “Lavish”. The sharp vocals of Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, or The Weeknd, soar around the room {and the one beside it (and the one beside it)} in “Save Your Tears”. The intense violins of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” hits you like a freight train.
Honeywell Trueno U7000 fares well in all three frequencies. The bass sounds enjoyably deep and it’s especially sweet when you listen to it in low volume standing right beside it. The mids are rich enough to bring any dance party to life. And of course, the trebles are just perfect for any Netflix series you’d like to binge.
One glaring omission would be the lack of Dolby Atmos, especially when you are watching Netflix or listening to hi-fi audio. The Dolby Audio does justice to almost anything you listen to, but only just. The finesse that Atmos brings, especially when you have a 5.1-channel setup, was sorely missed during my “Get Back (2021 Mix)” listening sessions.
The option to switch between a 2.1 and a 5.1 channel was a nice touch. I preferred listening to the Beatles rooftop concert on a 5.1 channel to get as much immersion as I could get. However, when it came to their studio recordings, I found that the 2.1 channel brought the sweetness in “I’ve Just Seen A Face” just right.
Honeywell Trueno U7000 Review: Final Verdict
Good looks? Check. A great sound signature (for its class category)? Check. A sensible price tag? Umm, at Rs 14,399, no check.
When you consider some of the other 500W 5.1 soundbars in the market currently, like the Mivi Fort Q500 (Rs 9,999) or the Motorola AmphisoundX Vibe (Rs 8,999), Honeywell Trueno U7000 might not make sense.
However, having said that, it still fares much better than Boat Aavante Bar 5500DA, which comes at Rs 16,999 on Flipkart but offers much less in terms of prettiness of punchiness.
And I can try and guess why Honeywell would want Trueno U7000 to be in the Rs 15,000 club. It would want the Trueno U7000 to be taken seriously and stand out from the crowd from the so-called ‘entry-level’ speakers. However, it does know its limitations. It is not positioning itself as a trendsetting Dolby Atmos beast. And sometimes, you don’t need a beast to have a good time. Sometimes, all you need is a no-frills comfort brand that delivers what it says on the tin. Honeywell can pull another such winner out of its hat.
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