UE Boom 2 - Review

Don't be fooled by its size, the UE Boom 2 can fill a room with music without breaking a sweat

THE UE Boom 2 has a loud colour scheme - and a speaker to match.

• Pros – Fun, Colourful Design. Loud and Clear Sound. Portable, with Great Bluetooth Range. Completely Waterproof.
• Cons – Gestures to Control Music Don't Work Very Well. Rudimentary iOS Companion App.

The UE Boom 2 stands out from the sea of portable Bluetooth speakers thanks to its lively and bright personality.

Part of this personality comes from the six vibrant colour combinations available for the cylindrical speaker, which is about the width of a can of beer.

Turn on the UE Boom 2 and you are greeted by the sound of a drum roll, and extra tap on the snare drum lets you know that it has found a paired bluetooth device and successfully connected.

It's a nice touch. Plus, it makes a nice change from the incomprehensible and endless R2D2 beeps and whoops some speakers use to try and communicate.  

 

Ultimate Ears have packed the slim cylindrical frame of the Boom 2 with an impressive speaker that blasts out music 360-degrees around the speaker.

Up to eight different devices can pair with the UE Boom, with two connected and putting together a playlist at any one time. 

The speakers can also be linked and music playback can be synced across multiple portable speakers.

Ultimate Ears claims the speaker has a 15 hour battery life. In our experience, the UE Boom did not quite live up to that claim, but it is very fast to recharge.

 

The UE Boom 2 is some 25 per cent louder than the first generation speaker

The top of the Bluetooth speaker houses the Power and Bluetooth switch

 

UE says the Boom 2 is 25 per cent more powerful than its predecessor and, having tested out the speaker, we can confirm that that's definitely not marketing mumbo-jumbo.

The UE Boom 2 is loud. Very loud.

That sound is powered by two 45mm active drivers and two 45mm by 80mm passive radiators that can blast at a maximum sound level of some 90dBA.

But more impressive than its volume, is the Boom 2's ability to withstand water.

The speaker is rated IPX7, which means there's no need to worry if your summer BBQ gets caught out by the Great British weather, or if your speaker gets a little too close to the swimming pool.

Not that there’s any reason to place the UE Boom 2 by the side of the pool - the portable speaker boasts a staggering 30 metre Bluetooth range.

 

UE have built a couple of gesture controls into its portable speaker, including a tap-to-pause

The clip, microUSB charging port and 3.5mm AUX port are found on the bottom of the Boom 2

The speaker is rated IPX7 and can withstand 30 minutes in a metre of water

And in our tests, the speaker lived up to its manufacturers’ lofty claims.

You can leave your paired iPhone charging in a room on the other side of the house and carry the UE Boom 2 speaker around with you.

And should you need to pause, or skip a song - Ultimate Ears have built a few handy gesture controls into the speaker.

Tap a flat palm on the top of the speaker to pause the current song. Tap twice to skip ahead.

 

Unfortunately, we found the speaker wasn't as responsive to these gestures as we hoped.

In fact, we'd often find ourselves hammering the top of the Boom 2 like an almost-empty Ketchup bottle as we desperately tried to skip a track.

But that's a small complaint for an otherwise staggeringly impressive speaker.

Do not be fooled by the UE Boom 2’s portable size, it can fill a room with music without breaking a sweat.

And with a two-year hardware warranty and its waterproof casing – its an easy choice if you are looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker.

However, the UE Boom 2's build quality and waterproof design come at a price. At £169.99, the speaker is hardly an impulse buy.

But when compared to the seven-hour battery and dry-land-only Beats Pill 2, which retails for £149.99, it seems worth every penny.

• UE Boom 2 is on-sale now for £169.99