The UE Blast very much has the Ultimate Ears sound signature. READ NEXT: UE Wonderboom review: Portable, stylish and pool-friendly Ultimate Ears Blast review: Sound quality When you’re out of the house, the smart features are essentially useless. The catch is that the speaker needs to be set up and used on a Wi-Fi network for this to work. You can ask about the weather and or the football scores and it can also be used to play a specific song from a streaming service, such as Spotify or Amazon Music. I needed to shout at it in before it was able to pick up my voice.įor those new to Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant allows users to ask questions and control various services and devices with your voice. However, it struggled when music was blazing through it. I found the far-field microphones on the speaker (similar to what’s found on the Amazon Echo speakers) to be able to accurately pick up my voice in a quiet room from over ten to 15 metres away. And the speaker’s Alexa feature is similarly middling in its performance. That’s fine, but hardly earth-shattering. If you aren’t interested in smart features, Ultimate Ears has the waterproof UE Wonderboom at £58, down from £90 and the UE Boom 2 at £100, which looks just like the UE Blast but doesn’t have Amazon Alexa built-in.Īs for battery life, Ultimate Ears quotes a 12 hours battery life, which in a real-world scenario might be a little less depending on how much you interact with the speaker. Keeping all things Amazon, there’s the 2nd generation Amazon Echo costing £90 and its larger, more capable sibling, the Echo Plus at £140. If portability isn’t important to you then the impressive Sonos One speaker can be yours for £200 it has Alexa built-in and a powerful set of drivers that deliver excellent sound quality. The UE Megablast is a brilliant deal right now at £180, and does all the same stuff as the Blast but sounds better. There’s the JBL Link 10 and Link 20, which cost £149 and £179 respectively, and the Sony LF-S50G at £129, too, all of which have Google Assistant built-in, are splashproof and portable. That’s significantly lower than its 2017 launch price of £200 but even at this reduced price, the UE Blast faces a lot of competition. It’s not only a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi based smart speaker but also one that’s waterproof and offers 360-degree audio.Īt the time of writing, the Blast costs £109. Look at the specifications, though, and something rather special begins to emerge. In fact, it looks very similar to the venerable UE Boom 2, which has been around for ages. On the outside, the UE Blast looks fairly unremarkable. READ NEXT: Best Bluetooth speakers – our favourite wireless speakers Ultimate Ears Blast review: What you need to know It’s very similar to the UE Megablast, a speaker we rather liked when we reviewed it last year, but a touch smaller and a little cheaper. Thankfully, there’s a small handful of speakers beginning to buck this trend and the UE Blast is one of them. Smart speakers are everywhere these days but, unfortunately, most cannot be taken out and about as they require power from the wall. I originally reviewed it at its lowest price, but even at £120, the speaker is still the best smart speaker money can buy. So, be sure to keep a close eye on it on Amazon, as you can grab yourself a good deal if you shop at the right time. It’s noticeably worse in this department than the larger Megaboom 3, which is able to extend down to 60Hz.UPDATE: The Ultimate Ears Blast fluctuates in price – I’ve seen it as low as £109 and as high as £200. It isn’t overpowering, so the speaker doesn’t sound like a bassy mess but it doesn’t reach right down into the very lowest notes either. The Boom 3 has a pronounced mid-bass slam, which is both controlled and precise. Sonically, it’s identical to the Boom 2 so if you loved the fun sound signature of its predecessor, you’ll love the sound of the Boom 3, too. Producing this audio are two 2in drivers and a pair of 4in passive radiators. READ NEXT: UE Wonderboom review: Portable, stylish and pool-friendly UE Boom 3 review: Sound qualityĪs far as sound quality goes, the speaker has the same frequency range as before (90Hz to 20kHz) and a maximum sound level of 90dBA. I’m glad to see it included on the Boom 3. This was a key selling point on the Wonderboom, a beer-can shaped Bluetooth speaker, which could do the same. There’s another new addition here and that’s the fact that the speaker can float. It’s rated at IP67, which means it’s both dust- and water-resistant, the latter to a depth of up to a metre in fresh water for up to 30 minutes. READ NEXT: Ultimate Ears Blast review: The best Bluetooth smart speaker money can buy UE Boom 3 review: Waterproofing and floatingĪll of Ultimate Ears’ products have some form of weather resistance and the Boom 3 is no different.
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