Pros & Cons
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- Powerful for its size.
- Waterproof.
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- Can distort on very deep lows at maximum volume.
- Lacks high frequency crispness.
Ultimate Ears UE Wonderboom Specs
| Bluetooth | |
| Channels | Mono |
| Multi-Room | |
| Physical Connections | None |
| Portable | |
| Speakerphone | |
| Water-Resistant | |
| Wi-Fi |
It's difficult to get a lot of power out of a small speaker: You generally need more physical volume to produce more audio volume. Ultimate Ears pushes those limits with the UE Wonderboom, a tiny Bluetooth speaker that delivers a sound loud enough to fill a room. The Wonderboom doesn't produce the cleanest highs or distortion-free deep lows, but it's portable, rugged, and fairly priced at $99.99. The JBL Charge 3 delivers a bit more audio finesse in a larger package, but the Wonderboom is a solid alternative.
Design
The Wonderboom is a squat, rounded cylinder shaped vaguely like a Japanese lantern. It's available in six different colors, including black, blue, gray, orange, pink, and purple. It measures 3.6 inches around, 4.0 inches high, and weighs 15.2 ounces, making it too large to slip in a jacket pocket, but a fine size for a bag.
A small, thick elastic loop on the top lets you easily clip the speaker to your bag or hang it from a hook, which is handy but not quite as functional as the UE Roll 2's larger, locking loop that lets you secure it to any pole or branch, or the JBL Clip 2's triangular carabiner you can snap onto any conveniently positioned, closed loop.
The sides of the Wonderboom are covered in a sturdy fabric grille with large plus and minus buttons, a UE Boom series design staple. The top of the speaker holds small power and pairing buttons, each with their own indicator LEDs, along with a membrane button under the UE logo that plays and pauses tracks. A micro USB port for charging sits on the bottom edge of the speaker, hidden behind a rubber door; there's no 3.5mm aux input like on other UE Boom speakers. There's also no speakerphone function.
The Wonderboom is IPX7 rated, which means it's waterproof to 3.3 feet for 30 minutes. It's also buoyant, so it will float if it gets tossed in the pool.
According to Ultimate Ears, the Wonderboom can last up to 10 hours between charges. Of course, the effective battery life depends on how loud you play your music.
Performance
The Wonderboom gets impressively loud for its size—it can easily fill a small apartment or a large living room with sound. At maximum volume levels, The Knife's "Silent Shout" was loud enough to disrupt the office next to our test room, through the wall. However, the kick drum hits also distort slightly at these levels, crunching and popping a bit. The UE Boom 2 suffers from a similar problem on this track, but the effect isn't quite as pronounced. It can be minimized by keeping the volume about two notches below maximum on tracks with very heavy sub-bass, a level that is still quite loud.
Test tracks with a wider sonic range demonstrate the Wonderboom's tendency to favor low-mids and mids over everything else. The opening acoustic guitar strings in Yes' "Roundabout" sound full and have a hint of texture with each pluck, though they aren't quite as crisp and clean as they are on higher-end speakers. Meanwhile, the electric slap bass is punchy and forceful, with plenty of low-end presence to bring it to the front of the track. For better clarity in the high-mids and highs, you need to look at a pricier speaker like the Harman Kardon Onyx Mini .
The Prodigy's "Firestarter" sounds energetic, with the guitar riffs and kick drum standing out in the mix. The snare hits float slightly in the background and don't cut through to really drive the beat of the track, but they can still be clearly heard. The same is true for Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," with the guitars taking center stage and the classic vocal harmony sitting a bit behind them. Neither the snares in "Firestarter" nor the voices in "Immigrant Song" are completely lost in the mix, but they don't quite get the prominence they should ideally have. This weakness is a bit disappointing, but very common among speakers in the Wonderboom's price range, including the smaller and less powerful UE Roll 2 .
Small and Strong
The UE Wonderboom is an appealing, rugged little Bluetooth speaker with a relatively pocket-friendly price. It gets impressively loud and its performance is solid, even if it suffers from the same weaknesses in the extreme lows and highs as many small speakers do. It comes within spitting distance of the excellent EcoXGear EcoCarbon , which isn't quite as powerful but doesn't distort. If you really want power and don't mind giving up a bit of portability, the JBL Charge 3 is our current Editors' Choice. For the price, though, the Wonderboom is a solid and sturdy small speaker worth considering.