Expert review of the Ultimate Ears BOOM 3
First impression: compact size
The Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 speaker comes in a useful compact box. Unpacking this speaker is already fun. The speaker itself is also compact and easy to hold. The casing looks soft, but feels sturdy. It's a good size for you to take it with you, because it easily fits in your bag.
Setup: done in no time
The setup of the Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 is pretty simple. With 1 touch of the button, I turn on the speaker. I press and hold the Bluetooth button until the light starts flashing. I also switch on Bluetooth on my smartphone and connect my smartphone to the BOOM 3 in the Bluetooth menu. That's it, it's now ready for use.
Design: waterproof
The BOOM 3 is waterproof and floats. When you drop it in the water, it'll come up to the surface. You have 30 minutes to take the speaker out of the water, that's how long the speaker stays waterproof. The battery lasts 15 hours, which is nice if you're going on a weekend trip or if you're going to the beach.
Controls: on the casing or via the app
The plus and minus icons on the casing are hard to miss, and I can use them to turn the volume up or down. The on/off and Bluetooth connection buttons are on the top of the speaker. In the UE BOOM app, I can easily control the speaker via my smartphone. The app also has the option to set up multiple users, which allows you to control the speaker with up to 3 smartphones. That's useful for a party. In the app, I also have options to adjust the sound.
Sound: range up to 45m
For a speaker of this size, it produces quite a lot of volume. I think it's definitely enough for e medium-sized room. The built-in bass really adds something to it. I wouldn't call it a powerful bass, but the sound does have a 45m range. And both the bass and treble sound clear and audible. To create a stereo sound or increase the volume, you can connect multiple Ultimate Ears speakers to each other via the app.
Conclusion
The Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 is a nice speaker for a day or weekend trip and for a party. You can easily take the compact speaker with you in your hand, on the loop, or in a bag. It's very easy to control via the casing and via the app on your smartphone. Another advantage of the BOOM 3 is that you can connect multiple speakers to each other and that you can control it with multiple users at the same time.