Sony Ericsson MPS-60 portable speakers

If your MP3 player can have a set of bolt on speakers why can't your phone? That's probably the same thought a product manager at Sony Ericsson had before creating the Portable Speakers MPS-60 for its Walkman range of handsets.

The Grey, White, Orange and Silver ultra portable, tiny speakers are 30 x 55 x 42mm in size making them just a tad too big to fit in your pocket, but easily small enough to fit in a small bag.

We tested our set with the W810i and all you have to do is simply plug the MPS-60s into any of the Walkman-branded handsets via the charging socket (they won't fit any of the other handsets annoyingly) and they instantly share the music that is playing.

Volume is controlled via the phone as the speakers have no independent controls whatsoever and sound wise although they aren't anything like a more traditional set of MP3 accessory speakers, they are pretty good for creating an instant party with your mobile and certainly good enough to share your tunes with friends. The inclusion of a 1 metre cable that joins the speakers together helps spread the noise out a little further.

The catch, well you can't charge your phone at the same time, which is a tad annoying, but nothing that is going to put you off completely and, because they are powered by the phone, expect a dip in battery performance.