Review: Ultimate Ears' EVERBOOM Bluetooth Speaker Packs a Punch With a Rugged Design

Logitech subsidiary Ultimate Ears has been in the portable wireless speaker market for over a decade now, gradually building a full set of models across a range of sizes, power, and price points. The most recent addition to the lineup is the EVERBOOM, a mid-range speaker that debuted a few months ago. I've been testing one out and I've found it to be a handy and capable speaker in a variety of settings.

Priced at $249.99, the EVERBOOM sits in the middle of the Ultimate Ears lineup, which currently ranges from the WONDERBOOM 4 at $99.99 all the way up to the HYPERBOOM at $399.99. Like many of Ultimate Ears' speakers, the EVERBOOM is designed for an active lifestyle, offering IP67 water and dust resistance to stand up to not just splashes but full dunks in water. The speaker even floats, and it's been drop tested from a height of one meter.

The EVERBOOM is more or less an elliptic cylinder, measuring a little over 8 inches (200 mm) high, 4.3 inches (110 mm) wide, and 3.25 inches (85 mm) deep. Aside from plastic toward the top and bottom of the speaker, it is wrapped entirely in a speaker mesh, with Ultimate Ears touting 360-degree sound. In reality, the audio largely comes from the two sides of the speaker, but with them firing in opposite directions, you do indeed get pretty solid sound projection all around. The EVERBOOM includes a pair of full-range transducers paired with two customized passive radiators to help deliver full sound from the relatively small form factor.

I found sound quality to be quite good, with the 360-degree sound easily filling even a fairly large room and remaining quite audible and well-balanced outdoors. It can get quite loud if you turn it up, although distortion becomes a bit of an issue as you start to max it out in more enclosed environments.

Volume is easily controlled right from the speaker with the huge iconic plus and minus buttons on the front. They're a bold design decision, but they make an Ultimate Ears speaker pretty much instantly recognizable. Pressing both of them simultaneously while the speaker is powered on gives you a general sense of battery level with some lights hidden behind the mesh up at the top.

An Outdoor Boost mode can be activated with a button on the speaker or from within the UE | BOOM app, offering a bit more punch with the sound output optimized for outdoor spaces. The increase in bass is definitely noticeable when it's turned on.

Speaking of the UE | BOOM app, it offers an array of functionality for managing one or more speakers from the Utimate Ears lineup. You can of course use the EVERBOOM as a standalone Bluetooth speaker right from the options on your iPhone or other device, but the app includes features like an equalizer, the ability to link multiple speakers, and more. With PARTYUP mode, you can sync up to 150 speakers from the UE lineup to maximize your sound. The app also offers convenient controls for changing tracks and volumes, turning the speaker on and off, activating Outdoor Boost, and activating a Microphone mode that lets you broadcast your voice over the speaker via your phone.

The equalizer panel offers five preset configurations: a flat Signature curve, a Bass Boost setting that does just what you'd expect, a Cramped Spaces option that drops the mids a bit, a Deep Relaxation mode that drops the treble way down, and a Podcast/Vocal setting that drops the bass. Any of these presets can be customized via five sliders spanning the various frequencies.

Another handy aspect of the UE | BOOM app is management of the Magic Button, which is a function of the play/pause hardware button on the speaker itself. The play/pause button offers the usual functionality with a single press playing or pausing music, a double press skipping forward, and a triple press skipping backward. But there's also a fourth function, and that's a long press to activate the Magic Button.

In the app, you can configure the Magic Button to activate a playlist from either Apple Music or Amazon Music. It requires connecting the UE | BOOM app to those services, at which point you'll be able to see all of your saved playlists and select up to four of them to link to the Magic Button. A long press on the button on the speaker immediately starts the first playlist you've configured, and subsequent long presses will cycle through your selected playlists.

Overall, the app only gets middling reviews from users, with some citing Bluetooth connection problems and ads covering important controls, but I haven't experienced any of those issues in my testing, so hopefully they've been resolved.

Beneath the buttons on the top of the EVERBOOM is an NFC chip that allows for quick pairing and switching with Android devices. It doesn't currently work with iOS devices, but perhaps it will at some point in the future as Apple gradually opens up the NFC capabilities of its devices.

The EVERBOOM offers up to 20 hours of battery life and a Bluetooth range of up to 55 meters (180 feet), offering solid flexibility while on the go. A small loop on the back of the speaker and an included carabiner make it easy to hang the EVERBOOM from a backpack, tent, or other convenient spot. It recharges over USB-C, with the device's port located at the bottom rear behind a flap that helps prevent water intrusion.

The EVERBOOM is available now for $249.99 from Ultimate Ears and Amazon in Azure Blue or Charcoal Black. Lilac and Raspberry color options are currently sold out. Alongside the EVERBOOM launch in June, Ultimate Ears also refreshed its WONDERBOOM, BOOM, and MEGABOOM speakers with USB-C ports and new colors in 100% post-consumer recycled fabric. The BOOM and MEGABOOM also received enhanced deep bass radiators while the WONDERBOOM added an audio mode optimized for podcasts.

Note: Ultimate Ears provided MacRumors with the EVERBOOM for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received. MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Ultimate Ears and Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.Tag: Ultimate EarsThis article, "Review: Ultimate Ears' EVERBOOM Bluetooth Speaker Packs a Punch With a Rugged Design" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums