UE Wonderboom Portable Bluetooth Speaker Review
Portable bluetooth speakers have cracked into the market and created huge demand for consumers. Ultimate Ears is one of the main leaders in this segment with its Boom range. The latest Wonderboom is nimble, durable and has great colour options.
The Wonderboom stands 102mm tall and 94mm wide, weighing in at 425 grams. This size is perfect for portability as it fits into any backpack with ease and can easily be carried around on the go.
We have tested rectangular shaped speakers in this market but found the squareness of the Wonderboom to be refreshing. It fits into the palm of the hand perfectly, sort of like a large tennis ball, and makes transporting this device a piece of cake.
The Wonderboom has two 40mm loudspeaker drivers and two 46mm by 65mm passive radiators (these are similar to loudspeakers but are not connected electrically, instead they are tuned to resonate at different bass frequencies to make the bass stronger).
UE has also given the Wonderboom 10 hours of battery life. Obviously the louder you use the device, the smaller that figure will be. But we found it almost on point when utilising the speaker at around 60-70% or so.
This speaker gets an IP67 waterproof rating meaning it is completely dust proof and able to be dunked 1 metre deep into a pool for up to half an hour. Impressive! But remember, bluetooth doesn’t go through water well. Basically, keep it out of the water, but if it does happen to fall in, it will survive. Splashes near the pool are also perfectly okay.
These little masterpieces come in 6 colours: black, grey, orange, blue, light pink and mauve. UE names these: Phantom, Stone, Fireball, Subzero, Cashmere and Lilac. UE has also released two new colours: a dark green ish type colour (named Avocado), and a black/white splash colour (named Concrete).
On top is also a sturdy loop for it to hang – and this simple loop is strong enough for it to dangle off anything, great loopage! It holds the device well and is a great little addition to the speaker.
On the device itself, there is the usual UE speaker + and – on the front to control the volume. Then on top, there is a bluetooth pairing button, an on/off button and the UE logo. The logo acts as a play/pause and double tap next song button. Although it lacks a triple tap previous song option here.
At the bottom is a micro USB port to charge the speaker with the bright yellow fettuccine cable that can charge the speaker in 2.8 hours according to UE. The speaker flashes as it is charging and then goes solid once it’s ready to go. We found that 2.5-3 hours was the average charge time with 5 watts of power.
So how does it sound you ask? Well, in short, it sounds amazing. For its size, this thing is ridiculously loud, clean and has a decent thump to it.
Remember how small this speaker is, so it won’t reach party levels, but it will put out consistently loud sound for people within several metres. We tested this in a few different environments and found it struggle outdoors in a backyard and had to leave it on max. But again, we know the size limitations of this device.
Indoors, it handles itself incredibly well and provides enough juice to notice the sound at least a room or two away.
The high frequencies are actually astonishing. The mids and treble are fantastic with vocals sounding oh so crisp. The frequency range is stated as 80 hz to 20,000 hz. UE has developed this device so that the mid-bass boost from the passive radiator can restore the perception of strong bass which works very well.
The Wonderboom works on battery, but also works as it is plugged in. It auto switches off after 15 minutes which is great if you forget to turn this little guy off (which happened to us several times).
It is now priced at $99 locally, making it a steal if you are unwilling to commit to the higher price points of the Boom and Megaboom. With such great sound quality, portability, versatility and durability, we can highly recommend this product if you don’t require the volume levels of the much larger speakers such as the Boom and Megaboom.