Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 – never leave home without it (BT speaker review)

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 is a cute, small Bluetooth speaker that is a product of UE’s evolving BT speaker research.

The Wonderboom 3 now has 14 hours of battery life, improved 360° bass, and is IP67 dust and water-resistant. It even withstands 1.5m drops. Oh, and it comes in cool colours like Active Black, Performance Blue, Hyper Pink and Joyous Bright. All for A$149.95.

It is hard to describe the shape. It is a squat pill-shaped cylinder 104 (H) x 95.3mm (round) by 420g. Unlike the Coke can-shaped speakers, you can’t fit it into a water bottle holder. So, cyclists – this is not for you, so buy a Boom 3.

Fast facts – Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3

• Website
• Price: $149.95
• From: JB Hi-Fi, Good Guys, Harvey Norman, Bing Lee, Big W, Target and many more
• Warranty: 2 years
• 360° sound (all around)
• 2 x 40mm active drivers and 2 x 46.1 x 65.2 passive bass radiators
• Outdoor mode boosts Bass (EQ)
• BT 5, SBC codec, range to 40 meters (tested to 30) – not a hands-free speakerphone
• Micro-USB charging for up to 14 hours of use
• IP67, and it floats
• Made from 31% recycled plastic

Tests

Battery – Pass+

The claimed 14 hours is at 50% volume with Outdoor Boost off. If you are using indoors, 50% volume is fine, but outdoors it needs 100%.

We tested at 50/100% volume and achieved 13 hours and 3 minutes/seven hours and 11 minutes. Outdoor Boost made little difference to battery life.

You can get audible tones for battery charge levels, but it does not report that to the BT host device. It will go to sleep after a few minutes of no use.

Charge time 0-100% at 5V/1A was just under 3 hours.

Durability – Exceed

As this did not have to be returned, we dunked it in the pool for 29 minutes (the claim is 1m for 30 minutes), and there was no appreciable effect. The caveat is that the Micro-USB port cover must be closed.

We dropped it ten times from 1.5 metres onto concrete.  No appreciable damage to the unit or the fabric cover. It tends to drop with the rubber bottom down.

Sound – Exceed for balanced music

How did they get so much good sound into a tiny speaker? It has a neutral signature: The audiophile standard is a flat (good) response that neither adds nor subtracts from the original music! The only issue here is garbage-in, garbage-out – the better the music quality, the better it sounds.

Mid-bass strongly kicks in from 50Hz and fills out by 80Hz. It is then flat right to 6kHz, dips to avoid harshness, and rebounds, and is flat to 18kHz before declining to 20kHz.

This is quite incredible for a sealed IP67 BT speaker. It has all the critical mid-bass that defines it, upper-bass for oomph (thump, not whump), excellent mid (for clear voice), and low/mid-treble for clear high notes and defines the sound character.

The maximum volume is 85dB (87 on Outdoor Mode). The sound stage is 360° – all around. So, place the speaker central to the action, not on a bookshelf to one side.

The outdoor mode does not make a huge difference to the sound, perhaps adding a little more bass. There is no App or EQ – not that you need either.

You can read more about sound signatures How to tell if you have good music (sound signature is the key – guide.

BT Range – Pass+

BT 5.2 allows for up to 40meters, and we had no issues with that in line-of-sight. It dropped to 30 meters through a couple of walls.

It allows for Google Fast Pair and multi-point pairing. You can also stereo pair with another Wonderboom 3 speaker.

CyberShack’s view – Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 is an excellent 360° BT speaker.

I travel a lot, so I like to take a stereo mini-speaker for TV and music reinforcement. This is mono, but it provides the volume and sound quality that makes you overlook that.

It has one of the best sound signatures for a small, IP67 sealed speaker and a handy hang loop for transit.