Why You Can Trust CNET UE Wonderboom review: A waterproof mini Bluetooth speaker that packs a punch
Water-resistant and affordable, the UE Wonderboom is one of the fullest sounding mini Bluetooth speakers.
- Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column/Consumer
Update, June 4, 2019: Ultimate Ears has announced a sequel to this product. The UE Wonderboom 2 is slightly larger, adds longer battery life and offers stereo pairing.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Meet the Wonderboom, the newest family member in Ultimate Ears' line of popular portable Bluetooth speakers. Available in six colors, the Wonderboom looks like the UE Boom 2's shorter, fatter sibling -- and like that model, it's also water-resistant. It carries a list price of $100, £80 or AU$130.
The idea behind this product was to create a compact speaker that produced big sound with a good amount of bass. That's what a lot of small speakers promise, but the Wonderboom really does sound great for its size. It's also got some nice heft to it, weighing a little under a pound (425 grams), and overall it feels solid and well built.
The Wonderboom comes in six color options.
Alas, while it floats, it's not designed to play music while hanging out in your pool (the identically priced UE Roll 2 comes with an accessory blow-up floatie), but at least it won't sink if it falls into the water. And if it gets dirty, you can rinse it off. It also has an integrated loop that allows you to attach the speaker to anything the loop can fit around -- perhaps a hook in your shower. Sadly, no carabiner is included but you could pick one up for a few bucks.
As for buttons, the UE button on the top of the speaker lets you play, pause, skip tracks and double up with a second Wonderboom speaker to augment the sound. You can't, however, turn two speakers into left/right stereo pairs. There's also no integrated microphone -- so no speakerphone capabilities -- nor is there an auxiliary input option for a wired connection.
Battery life is rated at 10 hours, which is decent for a speaker this size. The Wonderboom is shock resistant. It can be dropped from up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) and has an extended wireless range of up to 100 feet (30 meters) under the right conditions. I accidentally dropped it on a carpeted floor from about about 4 feet on a couple of occasions and it survived without a problem.
While the speaker does have its sound limitations -- for example, it does distort with certain bass frequencies at higher volumes -- it is one of the better sounding micro Bluetooth speakers you'll come across.
I compared it to the JBL FLip 4, which retails for the same price. The Wonderboom plays bigger and sounds fuller overall. That said, I thought the Flip 4 was a little stronger in the midrange (the Wonderboom has a touch of sibilance there) and with certain tracks the JBL was the more likable speaker.
However, the Wonderboom outperformed it on most bass-heavy tracks and given the choice between the two speakers -- for sound anyway -- I'd take the Wonderboom. As with all these small speakers, their performance varies from track to track and you'll go from saying to yourself, "Wow, that's sounds good for such a small speaker," to cringing a little and saying, "Well, that's a little rough."
The speaker is fully submersible and can be washed out if it it gets dirty.
That unevenness is par for the mini Bluetooth speaker course, but to its credit, the Wonderboom sounds consistently better than many of its competitors, and its bass is arguably better than the UE Boom 2's. That speaker sounds a little more natural in the midrange -- and has superior battery life -- but the Wonderboom may be the better value.
Hopefully, the Wonderboom will come down in price a bit because the UE Boom 2 is being discounted and is an appealing option. Ultimate Ears says that the slimmer and more travel-friendly Roll 2, meanwhile, will stay in the lineup, and is already being discounted for almost half off.
With the pricing still shaking out, it's hard to tell you exactly which UE speaker to buy, but the Wonderboom is certainly a strong new addition to the line.
Key specs
- IPX7-rated water resistance (can be immersed in water up to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes) and able to float on its own
- 10 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels
- Connect two Wonderboom speakers together to augment the sound
- UE button on the top of the speaker lets you play, pause and skip your music.
- Drop-tested to 5 feet
- Up to 100-foot wireless range
- Height: 102mm
- Diameter: 93.5mm
- Weight: 15 ounces (425 grams)
- Two-year limited hardware warranty