Ultimate Ears’ range of Bluetooth speakers has been super popular, with their chubby waterproof Wonderboom 2 a clear favourite among festival-goers and secret shower singers. The Boom 3 is a bigger, slender, more grown-up alternative, but still with the same portability and waterproofing features. It’s very much designed as a truly portable speaker that has no interest in doubling up or slotting into a home setting. With that in mind, it’s superbly built, feeling rugged and solid but still sleek, with oversized volume buttons and easy to use controls. It’s fairly weighty though still portable – build wise, the BOOM 3 would survive in the harshest of conditions.
On top, there’s one big button for power and for activating any playlists you’ve set up through the app. This is where you’ll also find the EQ with a few settings that can shape the sound depending on your surroundings or go rogue with five bands of custom tweaking. The app also lets you connect to Deezer, Apple Music or Amazon Music and you can launch a playlist directly from the device even when it’s switched off. The app also has the novelty capability of linking up to 150 different Ultimate Ears speakers together (or just two) for a huge wall of sound or to cater a very large party villa.
The sound of the Boom 3 is definitely the weakest of the bunch, sounding a lot boxier and restricted than the others. It’s heavy on the mids, with a low end that feels slightly restricted – it doesn’t vibrate like the others until it’s at very loud volumes. This is very much what you might have expected from a Bluetooth speaker a few years ago, but others seem to have leapfrogged the Boom in mini speaker tech. It’s not exactly bad though and can go very, very loud, but it won’t give you the 360 approach of the SONOS or Bose, and won’t give you the warmth either. With some EQ tweaks, it can definitely be improved from the standard-setting. But as we said, it’s not designed to be a home speaker and is very much built for the hectic, chuck-it-in-a-bag, camping, outdoor pursuits-type who are more interested in battery life and build quality than audiophile sound. If you don’t want to have to worry about your speaker being bashed around in the back of a four-by-four then it’s definitely a good option. It’s the best build quality of any of the speakers we tested.
One annoying trend that was present on previous versions too is the little indent on the charging port meaning not all micro USB cables will fit. It’s also awkward to even get the included cable to fit – there is an extra charging dock for £34. Overall, it’s hard to recommend it over the Roam at the same price unless build quality is an absolute priority.
