The iPod travel dock should be so many different things at once. First and foremost, it shouldn't cost a fortune. It should easily fit into my luggage, if not my carry-on bag (this is where most "portable" docks usually strike out). Ideally, it should also deliver excellent sound, but I'd settle for a speaker unit that produces decent sound without distortion at a reasonable, lower volume. Sonic Impact's i-F3 may be a bit on the heavy side, and it's more likely to be a checked luggage item than a carry-on, but it truly surprised me on a recent vacation: It sounds good! Does it have tremendous rich lows and a throbbing bass? No, but do you really want the cops coming to your hotel room because of the noise? The i-F3 delivers clear and distortion-free audio with enough low-end to make me happy; a dependable, built-in alarm, which lets you wake to your iPod; and FM radio that gets good reception. Add in a reasonable price tag of $170 and it's definitely a worthy travel companion.

The i-F3 can seem a little large when in use—it unzips and opens like a small briefcase, with the top half housing the speakers and screen and the bottom half with the dock and controls. When the i-F3 is zipped up and closed, it measures roughly 7.5 by 9.8 by 2.8 inches (HWD) and weighs a somewhat hefty 3.2 pounds. But its relatively small size makes it easy to stow in your luggage. Compared with the Bose SoundDock Portable (which doesn't feel very portable at all), it's far easier to pack in a bag and take with you.

The clock is easy to set; the alarm is a bit less intuitive, but consulting the manual can clear up any confusion. There are two alarms, and you can set either one to wake up to iPod music, FM radio (there are 20 presets), or a buzzing sound. The power supply is a bulky AC adapter, but it charges an internal battery, so you can play music away from outlets and leave the adapter behind if need be since rated battery life is 15 hours. The dock also has an aux input for non-Apple players and an antenna in for the FM radio.

There's an included remote that can skip tracks and control volume, but I found myself doing most of the controlling on the dock and iPod itself, which brings me to my main gripe with the i-F3: its lack of real iPod navigation. You have to figure out what you want to listen to using the iPod's controls—and the play/pause button on the dock will often start playing the first tune in your iPod's library if you haven't selected a track and paused it already. This isn't a big deal, but it's the only real annoyance I encountered.

Sonically, the i-F3 stands out from most portable speaker docks. It has powerful output, but not a whole lot of low-end. This means you can turn it up fairly loud without getting angry fists pounding on the other side of your hotel wall, and the speakers rarely overload and distort. Sure, at max volumes, most rap and electronic music will make these speakers start to buzz, but reasonable levels for most music types sound pleasantly clear and crisp. At high volumes, you can feel air being pumped out of the ports below the drivers, which means these little drivers are doing their job!

The sonic quality is comparable to that of the Bose SoundDock Portable—though the i-F3 comes at roughly half the price. Vestalife's smaller Ladybug speaker dock is another affordable ($110) and portable option with comparable sound quality. But the i-F3 can maintain crisper highs and a hint of low-end at higher volumes without distorting, so I give it the slight sonic edge.

Is the i-F3 a portable music masterpiece? No. But thanks to its compact design, I had an easy time packing it on my last trip, and I loved listening to my iPod on speakers that didn't sound terrible. The extras like FM radio and the alarm clock are nice touches that make the i-F3 seem worth its $170 price. Portable speaker docks rarely provide a sonically impressive experience, and to say that the i-F3 does would be a stretch. It does, however, offer more bang for the buck than most travel docks, and it's what I'll be taking on my next road trip.

Sonic Impact offers a one-year limited warranty on the i-F3. For product support, visit si5.com/support

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