Ultimate Ears MINI Boom Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Orange

TLDR: This speaker is very, very small. I expected it to be much bigger, but in this particular case size truly does not matter. At 70% volume it is loud enough to fill a good sized room. It's very easy to pair via bluetooth or NFC, and it sounds amazing. Now, I'd like to clear up a few things for people who look to reviews (like I do) before making a purchase. First, I read several reviews where people were upset about the volume controls on the speaker being linked to your smartphone / tablet / other source device. This seems to only be true for Apple devices. When my wife connects her iPhone 5s to the speaker and then presses the volume up/down buttons on the speaker, it also turns the volume up/down on her iPhone (and vice versa). The volumes of the two devices are linked. However, when using my Nexus 5 / Nexus 7 I am able to change the volume on the speaker and my device independently of each other. They are not linked. While this allows for much more granular control of the volume (small incremental changes rather than larger ones), it's really not a big deal. I also read a few complaints about the speaker volume being too loud at even the lowest setting for an office / work environment, and in my experience this simply isn't true. I work in an office building surrounded by many people all day long, and I am able to turn the volume down to a whisper so I don't disturb anyone. Overall I am very happy with the UE Mini Boom. It's portable enough to take anywhere, has long battery life, is built to last, and has great sound quality across the volume range. If you're looking for a small, inexpensive, high quality wireless speaker, buy this. You'll be happy you did.

Simply Blown Away! It was an International purchase, I am based in India and had to wait 2 weeks for the delivery. When I opened the package, the speaker was even smaller than I had expected. (Even after I had seen various videos on Youtube). Solid hard-plastic cover, minimal paperwork and a USB Cable, nothing fancy. I was quite skeptic just like everyone else, is this thing really that powerful as it claims to be? I had a lot of lingering questions. I powered it on to be welcomed by a small audio cue. Touched the top with the back on my Nexus 4 and it paired up with another audio confirmation almost instantly and started playing a song. But when I played the best one, one I love the most "Sugar", Oh! Boy! I was amazed, seemed like a sorcery to me, how could such a small device emit such powerful sound with such a clarity and so acceptable bass? Definitely a wonderful piece of engineering here by Logitech - UE. Even at the loudest volume, the clarity is very good and definitely you will feel the same once you try out. No online videos, or reviews can give you the real feel of the speaker, damn portable and superb audio. Though I am not a hard-core audiophile, but I listen to songs/music for like almost all the time other than while I am sleeping. My music genre ranges from Indian to Rock to jazz to electronic and I am now a very satisfied customer. The loudness is comparable to the 5.1 deck beside my room. The best part, I can carry it wherever I want, and no wires. Below I would list the Pros and Cons and complete the review. PROS: 1.Best bang for buck, what else do you expect in a portable bluetooth speaker under $100. 2. Unbelievably loud and can easily fill a mid-sized to almost a large room without any issues. It has got quite powerful drivers in such a small frame. "Impressive" 3. Bluetooth range : Haven't measured it figuratively but yes, the range was quite decent. My mid-sized apartment was fully covered and there were no disconnections. 4. Audio-Aux input option available for non-bluetooth devices like Apple iPod, etc. Get a male-to-male Aux input cable separately and connect, you won't feel a difference in quality. 5. Very portable, it fits my palm and its light weight. Can easily carry it around in a backpack. 6. Battery Life: Received it yesterday, hence haven't fully tested the battery life but I must say its good. When I received it, it was almost full and I charged a little. It lasted me almost more than 6-7 hrs till it showed Low on the App. I varied the volume from low to full during my listening hours,. 7. Build quality and finish is really good. The rubber cover provided good grip on slippery surfaces and feels good to hold. I would say "sturdy" and "premium" feel. 8. Speakerphone and Call Quality: I connected it to my basic phone and attempted a call, according to Indian standards, call quality was really good, was able to interact without any issues, complains or glitches from either side. After that, I tried a Whatsapp call using my smartphone, similar experience. No complaints here was well. Easily doubles up as a speakerphone for Conference calls. *I haven't tried Skype Calls though* 9. USB mini port : Easily chargeable, either using the laptop USB port or any standard wall charger like my Nexus Charger. 10. Bass: I experienced good bass response for most of the music I played, though I agree a little muted sounds in some kinds of music but it can definitely be ignored. I would recommend not to use bass boosters on your phone (using equalizer apps on Android for example), it distorts the bass output on the speaker and it sounds quite awful. Go with the normal settings : 3 equalizer modes on the UE Mini Boom App: Loud Out works the best for most of the cases. CONS: (Not quite significant ones that would prove a deal-breaker but worth mentioning for an informed purchase) 1. The rubber cover provided attracts a lot of dirt and dust, it got dusty the minute I put it on my desk. I haven't figured out a way to clean it and keep it clean, but soon I would. 2. Not all kinds of music sounds equally awesome. There are a few music types or certain songs that sounded a little muted or low but were acceptable. I think the difference would be minimal and won't much affect the listening experience. 3. The USB cable provided with the speaker isn't that great of a quality. It looks and feels cheap as compared to the premium quality of the speaker. 4. Do not try to put your NFC enabled phone on top of the speaker while playing songs, it will get disconnected. I guess the NFC tag inside the speaker connects or disconnects with each tap. I haven't figured out a way to turn that off though. 5. I would have liked it to have a notch to put in a strap so that it could be hanged. That's just a personal opinion. Verdict: I haven't compared it with any of the BOSE portable speakers yet, but I could say, at this price point, BOSE could never beat this little one. The quality you are getting at this price, I can bet it beats any of the JBL speakers for sure. I so hope it was available in India through direct purchase though, Logitech should launch it. Other than a minor quality difference for a few songs/music, this is near perfection. Now I undertand why its bigger brothers "UE BOOM or UE MEGABOOM" are the best bluetooth speakers in the market. In case I upgrade in future, I would go for the MEGABOOM for sure. I haven't yet tried the Double Up feature, but with the experience from the solo speaker, I can tell, hands down, it will be the best experience with stereo. Anyone in need of a cheap stereo experience, go for two MINI BOOMs, it would be the best. Thanks for reading out, thumbs up if you like it. And buy one and try it, you won't regret. :)

This mighty little speaker was a far better purchase than I realized. Roughly the size of 3 stacked decks of cards, it is highly portable and can easily find a spot to sit on the most crowded surface. The design is simple and sleek, and probably my greatest concern would be misplacing it, as it is so understated and unobtrusive. But it's the sound that's so impressive - I am not by any stretch an audiophile, but I was so pleased with the depth and clarity of sound from this little speaker, and the absence of vibration with bass. It is very easy to use, and turns off automatically when idle for 15 minutes, saving battery life. It will pair with up to 8 devices, and search for the closest device when turned on. I readily paired it with my iPhone and my Dell laptop, as well as my ancient iPod which still holds much of my music. I happily discarded my large, clunky laptop speakers that took up far too much real estate on my small desk. Viewing videos on the laptop is now accompanied by great sound. The best bonus, however, was realizing I could utilize the speaker for my work conference calls. The calls are clear and crisp, with the added benefit of keeping my radioactive cell phone comfortably away from my head during my longest calls. Headsets and desktop microphone have also joined the thrift store box, so I have inadvertently cleared off my entire desk just because I wanted better quality music. When I consider how much I spent on wired speakers, microphones, headsets, etc., it's hard to believe they were all quickly obsoleted with one economical speaker. It has also expanded my range tenfold: clear and quality music outside on the deck, and even at the beach. I am sure I have yet to discover more uses and applications for this great little device. So much bang for the buck! This has been a win all the way around. One tip for those (like me) who don't like reading manuals: the Mini Boom pairs so readily when you first use it, you may not be aware that subsequent pairings require an additional step beyond turning the unit on. In order to pair with your second through eighth devices, the Mini Boom's Bluetooth button must be pressed for at least 3 seconds, until you hear a signal, at which point it will search for a device to pair with. I forgot this step a few times, and didn't understand why it wouldn't pair. I guess manuals come in handy sometimes.

I did quite a bit of research and read a lot of reviews before purchasing a portable Bluetooth speaker; I didn't want to spend over $100 and I didn't want a product that sounded like a cheap set of computer speakers. My main use for a portable speaker was to listen to music while working in the kitchen, outside, in the garage, or in the shower. This product has met all my my criteria and then some. When you first take this product out of the packaging you will be shocked at how small it actually is; this speaker can sit in the palm of your hand and pump out some serious sound. Syncing with Bluetooth is fool proof, and the app from UE connects to the speaker without issue(as long as you are synced via BT first). The outside of the housing is coated in a soft rubber feeling material and the construction is top notch. The coating on the housing seems to make this product minor scratch and scuff resistant. My unit has already survived two four foot falls from a window seal onto concrete and has no signs of scratches or scuffs to prove it, unlike my phone which now has a shattered screen. The battery life on this speaker is without doubt a strong feature of this speaker. After an initial charge I used the speaker around the house in the evenings for an entire week, sometimes for 3-4 hours a night without the battery dying. The product information claims 10 hours, but I observed well over 10 hours of use on a single charge. Pros: - Lightweight and tough outer housing make this an ideal throw in your bag and go portable speaker. - Great sound for a small product, can fill a large room with sound without turning the volume up past 50%. Volume controls on the speaker are independent of the volume on your phone or audio device. - Unit appears to go into a sleep mode if no music is playing to conserve battery life. You have to hold down the bluetooth button for 3 seconds to get the unit to sync up again. - Battery will last for an entire day of continuous use or moderate use over several days and possibly up to a full week period. Cons: - When the volume on the device is turned up near max the device vibrates with lower frequency notes. This can cause issues if your placing the speaker near the edge of a surface that has any slope to it. Overall, if you are looking for an ultra portable, great sounding, tough as nails Bluetooth speaker without breaking the bank then this is your product.

I have an original Jawbone mini jambox and was immediately impressed with the sound and bass that came from that small device. I read every review and watched every video review there was for this device before I finally bought one for my wife for Christmas. (she was always stealing my jambox) The two features that actually got me off the bat was the fact that you could connect this with another device and make it a "stereo" experience, and that it used NFC (near field communication) [...] Every review I watched and read said that this was a new era in wireless speakers, since the jambox made its debut, sound has gotten better, crisper, louder without distortion. I have to say that I noticed none of these things with my jambox, but I decided to give the UE mini boom a try and hope that if it sounded that good it would blow me away. The connection to the device was stupid simple (if you actually have an NFC device) even on bluetooth though, it was still straight forward. For NFC you just turn the device on (indicated by the green light there on the front) and place your NFC enabled device on top of the UE mini Boom, it will ask if you want to connect and that's it. Build: The build is definitely solid, it's very sturdy and just has a good "weight" feel to it. The outside is made from a thick silicone rubber and is pretty rugged. The speaker grille is a standard medium weight metal that doesn't seem like it would break easily at all. (I don't know exactly what you are doing with your devices but for me it was sturdy enough) Sound: As I mentioned, the sound didn't impress me. Yes it does have great sound for a small device, but the bass just wasn't there for me. Example: again my jambox, at full volume with a "bassy" song will literally bounce across the table (not necessarily ideal but it's just an example) this device just didn't leave me feeling that there was any bass in the song, more like it was lacking there. On the flip side the voices, and mids were very clear and crisp. In comparison the UE Mini Boom didn't have the volume compared to my jambox mini, but that could be because at that range you would start to lose clarity. Battery: The battery is supposed to last 10 hours. I would say we got about that much use out of it before we had to charge again. Normally this probably would be good enough for me, but in comparison to my jambox it seemed just shy of what it advertised, where as with my jambox I would go several days of use and just sitting out for weeks without a charge. The standby time doesn't seem to be that long for the UE mini Boom. Ultimately it's your choice, but if you are reading reviews for a helpful decision here ya go. The UE Mini Boom failed to impress me, in both sound and battery life. (essentially the two things that are most important in a wireless speaker) If you don't have the money to drop on a jambox (expensive I know) or one of the better rated wireless speakers, then this is a great choice, it will certainly do what it's supposed to do. However if you are just trying to decide on sound save the money and go with a more expensive device. If this review helped you at all please let me know, and if you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks. 4/20/2014: So now I've been using this for about four months now, and I'm actually enjoying this product. This will just be a touch up on things that have changed my mind since my last review. Rugged: this thing takes a beating, I've tossed it in my backpack and taken it to the beach with me, fell from countertop height a few times, although I'd not suggest doing that on purpose. Sound still is great, battery has shown no signs of degradation, and it has no real scratches on the grille or dents. My jambox on the other hand succumbed to the bane of it's existence and stopped working. Bluetooth and audio cable just gave up the ghost. So I'd say it gave me about a year and half worth of use, only really sitting on my bathroom shelf, bedroom dresser, and kitchen island, and then it gave up. I'm disappointed in it, in the customer service and the half life of the device and hoping this one will carry on longer than the jambox did.

Absolutely excellent speaker. Logitech makes great products and this is a prime example of that! Look/construction - Looks great and is built great. Small enough to throw in any bag to take with you, but without concern you might break it. Battery life - Battery life shows up in the top bar on iOS which helps you keep track of when you actually need to charge it (instead of hurting the battery by charging it too much). On that note battery life is great. I use it 15-30 minutes a day, and it has probably been close to a month since I've charged it. Software - Works excellently. Never had any issues with connecting or playing music. It ties its volume to your devices volume (at least with iOS) which makes it easier to manage the sound level since there is only one variable. On iOS they do ask you if you want to download the boom app when you first connect. Personally there is no reason you need it unless you have two and want to combine them. I haven't tried that so I can't comment on how well it works, but with how great this is I would suspect that works great as well. Sound quality - Probably about the best sound quality you can get out of a speaker this size. It gets pretty loud for how small it is, and drives about as much bass as you could ask it too. Anything larger will obviously have better lows and probably get louder, (like the UE not mini boom) but this thing sounds great. Only possible drawback I could say is that the sound is somewhat directed since the speaker is one sided, but generally that shouldn't be an issue (put it in a corner/against a wall).

Before you read, this would be the "regular guy" review. Nothing is in it for me, I'm just trying to help you... Here we go: So, so glad that I read the reviews on LOTS of speakers. The number one reason that I chose these are because they can be separated and play in stereo 1 left and 1 right OR set up to play stereo individually but placed in separate rooms playing the same content. Cool for sure... On delivery to be honest, I was really disappointed in their super small size and was thinking that I got ripped... Just FYI First set up was simple after downloading the mini boom app from the App Store. Using an IPAD and iPhone by the way if that matters. Then with first initial play, the kids came out and said "Dad those sound awesome!" Then we used the stereo setting on the app and ""WHOA!" Hook up your seatbelt, these things are incredible. Sound reproduction is really VERY good. So then I decided to really put them to the test. Went to the App Store looking for a quality EQ and found it inside an "in app" download within the Denon Headphone audio app. The Denon app is free but the in App eq is 1.99 and worth it. Then spent the next hour putting these 2 little champs to work. What I found is that obviously the lower that you place these, the deeper the bass response. Which is pretty good for their size. Everyone's ears are different, but to me, overall quality of sound is really good. And you can pump them up to pretty loud. These are really better than what I expected to find when I when I went searching, so I'm really pleased. They are very well built with rubber covering the outside, so that's a plus for me. Battery life is phenomenal, roughly 10+ hrs. I chose the red simply to not be boring, And appearance is a +10 in the "major coolness" category (which we all know is high on the list when it comes to cars, guitars and gadgets) 😃 Of course it's all based on personality, and when it comes to things like this I'm pretty critical, But if your looking for a sound cannon to knock them dead at 100 yards outdoors, just go big! Or another option is to set these each in the bottom of an empty open 5 gallon bucket. But, for indoors and small outdoor occasions, you'll probably like these just the way they are. I'm thinking that if you decide to adopt a pair of these into your family, they'll serve you well and most likely you won't be dissapointed. Oh, what the heck, go ahead and order them, you'll be glad you did. Then turn them up and enjoy!

A Bluetooth speaker that cannot keep its Bluetooth connection!!! Read all the 1-stars on here, do a google search. It's a common problem with this speaker! Really too bad, because it sounds good. Nice size. Can get really loud if you want it too (and this was the main reason I bought it to replace my jambox mini). All wonderful things.... But, there is no way to measure battery life unless you have it hooked up to an iPhone or Android phone, so as a computer speaker, you go until the LED turns red. Not great, but not bad. I could live with that. Software update, I have latest firmware, but hit a problem (more on that later) so I tried to download the latest. But the software kept giving me a an error that it wasn't connected with the factory USB cable (even though it was), so it couldn't find the speaker. Saw lots of posts on this online and very few were able to work around it. Most people have un-answered posts on their forums on how get past this. Luckily I found out that my firmware was the latest, so no need to update anyway. BUT... The biggest problem and why I had to return it is because it constantly disconnects from its source if there is any significant pause in the audio out. For example, streaming a movie over Netflix and you pause it for a 10 or more seconds, the speaker disconnects and won't reconnect until you power-cycle it. Same for songs over a phone or anything other device. This is another issue that is all over UE's forums and very few people have been able to resolve it by updating to the latest firmware. No good for me and most of the others that reported this problem (and there seems to be quite a few....) To bad. I really really like the size, the sound and even the look of it. But really crappy software and testing of their Bluetooth connection (and you think that would be a super high priority for a "bluetooth speaker") has ruined it for many of us. Way to cut corners on your testing guys!!!