Before I covered technology, I was a home and design writer. Nothing breaks my heart more than how ugly technology devices often are–particularly ones you’ll be looking at all day in your home. Is it so hard to make it look nice? I mean, really?
Maybe not. Creative’s Pebble V3 desktop PC speakers manage to tick every box on the list. They have clear sound and an eye-catching design, and they cost only $35. Are they too good to be true? I wondered the same when I ordered them, but they’ve been a delight.
Heart of Chrome
These speakers are small, which makes them easy to fit on just about any desk or gaming setup without sacrificing volume.
They’re just 4.8 inches tall and have a similar width and depth, thanks to their shape, which is a half-moon of sorts—a small cavern cut out of an otherwise orblike shape for the actual speaker to project sound from. The speaker at the center of that cavern is a metallic gold, and the body comes in either white or black.
It’s often hard to find white speakers at all, but white and gold? It’s the closest thing I’m getting to a light academia-style setup. Maybe I’m biased. It does match my similarly white and gold Tears of the Kingdom OLED Switch, and the color palette looks lovely in my office. The speakers tend to fade into the background a bit while giving the room a welcome pop of gold.
The two speakers are connected by a white cord that can’t be removed, so they’re forever a pair. It’s just 4.4 feet long, so the two speakers can sit on opposite ends of a shelf or desk but can’t go much father than that. There’s a built-in white USB-C cord that you can use for power and connect for sound at the same time. If you’re using the included 3.5-mm audio cable for sound input, it stands out as the sole black cord of the bunch, but you don’t have to use it as your sound source (more on that below).
Small Form, Loud Sound
Photograph: Creative
Given how small they are, I assumed the sound wouldn’t carry through my home. I was mistaken. My husband had to text me, “I can hear your game over the sound machine,” while he was trying to get our son down for a nap on the opposite side of our apartment. Oops.