Mighty Vibe review: A much improved iPod Shuffle for Spotify

I’ll admit it. When Mighty was first announced in 2016, the prospect of a standalone, offline Spotify player was an exciting and attractive concept — especially for this subscriber. I got my hopes up. Plus, the tiny device was about the size and shape of an iPod Shuffle, so there was some nostalgia at work too. It looked good on paper, but the original model had some major issues. With the second-generation, $86 Mighty Vibe, though, the company has remedied many of those hiccups and created a compelling gadget for Spotify users.

Mighty Vibe is also much better at remembering Bluetooth devices you’ve paired with it. That first model required you to go through the whole setup on a regular basis to pair headphones and speakers, even if you’d used them with the music player before. Thus far, the Vibe has done a much better job automatically connecting with my Jabra Elite 65t earbuds. It may not sound like a huge deal, but trust me, having these things connect automatically when you turn them on makes using them way more enjoyable.

Last, there’s battery life. Mighty promised around five hours of playback on the first unit, but the actual results were inconsistent. Sometimes I’d hit that mark, but other times it would be much closer to three or four hours on a charge. Thankfully, battery performance is much better on the Vibe. Five hours, even with wireless headphones, is the norm rather than the exception. It’s more than enough to get me through a few workouts before I have to plug it in.