Customer Ratings & Reviews

Overall this is a good portable unit if you wish to have a portable sound system with the convenience of Alexa/Amazon access. The unit is made very well, durable for the environment and being water proof is a nice touch. I really loved how they chose to protect the USB access point underneath with a screw and rubber cap. During my testing this was very durable and prevented any water from trying to get through. The Sound is good but not the top ranking like other portable sound units out there. However appears to last a good long time over moderate usage and charge is quick so thats a plus. My only concern is the Alexa software that you use to compliment this device, caused my Alexa to freeze to the point where I had to power cycle a few times. PROS - Good Sound Quality Plays Local Music Playlists or Streaming Music Service Waterproof Battery Quick Charging Portability Volume Keys Easily Accessible Position of the USB charge access point and durable cover CONS - Treble Sound Difficulty at High Pitches Non-Removable Battery Lack of Training Material / Learning Curve Alexa Software Can Cause Freezing, having to power cycle unit Software - When setting up Blast there is a small booklet advising to download "Ultimate Ears" on your Smartphone. Once installed you can connect via bluetooth to Blast to setup the WIFI connections. This software also allows you to check on the battery charge / status of the unit. Unfortunately that is the limit of what this software can do and there is no other guidance provided on how to use Blast. After long searching on the internet it appears Amazon has a smartphone application that compliments Alexa on Blast called "Amazon Alexa". This software is not 3rd party as the publisher is Amazon themselves. This software allows you to provide Alexa with "Skills". These skills that you set your Alexa with really helps takes full advantage of Blast. Unfortunately some skills even with being certified by Amazon can cause Alexa to stop responding. The Blast unit still plays the radio station / function you choose but is stuck at that trait. Only way to resolve is to power cycle the unit. I really enjoy using BLAST with the many "Skills" you can train your Alexa however wish there was a better quality check system in place for the approved Amazon Alexa Skills. Otherwise this is a really great product to listen to music locally from your playlist or streaming music service.

The UE Blast is quite simply one of the best sounding compact Bluetooth speakers on the market. It easily outperforms similarly priced speakers from the likes of Bose, Harman Kardon, and JBL. It produces a full range of tones without ever sounding tinny or flat. It is capable of producing impressive bass, and volume for its size. I replaced a Bluetooth speaker in my home that was nearly four times the size, without questioning whether or not the Blast could produce the same quality of sound. A unique advantage of this model is that it produces stereo sound as its speakers are multi-directionally positioned within the unit. Now as far as being a “smart” speaker, powered by Alexa...it falls short in a few areas. First and foremost, Alexa is connected through WiFi and only supports (and therefore only can control) Amazon Prime Music or Amazon Music Unlimited. That means that if you use Spotify, Apple Music, or another streaming service, you must connect through Bluetooth and therefore cannot utilize Alexa’s built-in controls. This also means that if you’re streaming music over Bluetooth, that you lose connectivity when Alexa is activated. The speaker cannot simultaneously connect to Bluetooth and WiFi, and is incapable of smartly switching between the two. Once you have activated Alexa you must manually reconnect and restart the music that you had been playing through Bluetooth. This is a huge inconvenience, and the speaker’s biggest downfall. Setup is fairly easy, but requires the Ultimate Ears app to be installed on your phone. The app itself is pretty basic, but even so still has some shortcomings. Once I set up the speaker once, I had to repair Bluetooth to my phone several times for no apparent reason, which was not easily done. Battery life is decent. Not nearly the 12 hours of playback that the materials quote though. Probably closer to 8 or 9. The unit itself is fairly attractive, made out of quality materials, and is fully dust and waterproof which is a must for a portable speaker. My only other complaint is that the charging port is on the bottom of the unit, so you cannot leave the speaker upright (its natural position) while charging. To do so, you would have to shell out $40 for the charging base for either the UE Blast or Megablast. Seems like an ill-conceived design or a way to gouge the customer on what is an already pricey product. If you’re just looking for a great Bluetooth speaker, this does a nice job, but you could probably find a cheaper non-“smart” option.

Great all around Bluetooth speaker ! R Duffey ...

This smart portable WiFi speaker is one of the greatest speaker I’ve own. The sound it’s great for a small compact size of this speaker. I’m amaze how long my speaker last charge without needed to be charge. This water proof speaker it’s great to take it to the beach or the pool. The only thing that I’ve trouble with was with the Alexa voice command , it will not take my command to play the music on my phone, it only plays music from Tune in, Amazon music, also this speaker comes with 3 months of free unlimited music from Amazon. The Alexa addition it’s nice but you most download the ultimate ears app and the Alexa app to have this speaker works correctly.

I received the Ultimate Ears Blast to test and review. I really like the presentation of this piece (especially the box! included in the picture). It is solid and feels very well built and being waterproof is cool. As a standalone Bluetooth speaker, this speaker is very nice. The sound quality is great but not spectacular (does get really loud though which is nice). I really think in today’s market to be a superior Bluetooth speaker you have to standout. They tried here but came up just a bit short. The waterproofing of this speaker makes up almost all that I found unique with it. I will use it a ton this summer but not sure how much otherwise. The app needs tweaking, I am fairly smart when comes to "Tech" but just to get this one up and running was a challenge. Nevertheless, I was able to get it paired and operational in a few minutes (I am hoping that maybe they are still working on the app). I have used other like and non like assistant products such as or similar to Alexa and found the responsiveness from this speaker to be slow or not at all; which required me repeating myself quite a bit. Again though, it did work and Alexa is a fun tool to have around. All in all, I would buy for the speaker aspect and having an Alexa is a plus but not as functional as I would have liked.

Being in need of a relatively small Bluetooth speaker for casual use in my living room, I was looking forward to receiving the Blast. First thing to mention is the exceptional and artistic packaging; beautiful. Setup was quick and easy using the Ultimate Ears app. You first use the app to connect the Blast to the internet for update purposes, sign in to Amazon for Alexa, and ultimately to finalize the Bluetooth connection. Sound reproduction was of high quality with voice/vocal reproduction being exceptionally and crisp. Mids and highs were well balanced and accurate. The low end bass was present but a little weak in my opinion. However, for a speaker of this size this to be expected. In addition to the noteworthy voice, mids, and highs the Blast is able to play at a high volume without creating large amounts of distortion. Overall, the Blast is a well built high quality Bluetooth speaker that is easy to setup, connect to, and enjoy. The only small quirk becomes apparent when you charge the Blast; the charging cable plugs into the Blast’s bottom vertically. This prevents the Blast from remaining upright during charging.

Basically the Boom 2 (I own both) with Amazon's Alexa built in. The Blast has incredible sound and portability. I previously owned the Sony XB30 and Sony XB20 but had terrible Bluetooth problems with my iPhone. All is well now. I knock it a star for price, would like this around the $150-175 range. If this was the price point, it would be the only speaker to even consider..

I’m pretty impressed with this speaker. Looks and feels nice. It’s exterior has a nice soft-touch coating, with large volume up/down buttons. The audio quality is really impressive, and sounds good – even at high volumes. The Alexa voice controls are also very responsive, and seems to be able to pick up your voice very well. It’s also very easy to set up. The app walks you through the setup process, which is very quick and easy. I got a kick out of the funny phrases it had when it was updating. Add waterproof to the list, and you have a great Bluetooth speaker. Pros: Great sound, Alexa integration, waterproof, feels like a premium product, good battery life Cons: I do wish there was more support for other apps (like Spotify), though they mentioned it will be available shortly.

I had been looking to get into the speak-your-command speaker game for a while but was unsure of what I would like to go with but ultimately when the opportunity came to get the UE Blast with Alexa I jumped at the chance. While I had some experience with issuing commands to my Xbox I knew the experience of using Alexa was much better since I had set them up as gifts for relatives in the past. When I received the UE Blast it was nearly fully charged and had minimal packaging. It was ready to go out of the box but I did have to download and configure the app which was pretty easy. After linking it to my account on Amazon and establishing a bluetooth and wifi connection I was ready to test it out. The speaker itself is quite similar in design to another speaker that my wife and I had been using for a couple of years now, that is the UE Boom. It's bigger and has better sound. I knew that our experience with the UE Boom had been a positive one, the speaker held a charge a long time, was easy to pair and had excellent sound so I held high hopes for the UE Blast. Once everything was configured the UE Blast was very easy to use by issuing Alexa commands. The toughest part is remembering the best way to address the commands, although it should be noted that Alexa doesn't require rote, specific type of commands (as the Xbox does) but through practice my wife and I have found out that it does respond to certain phrasings better than others. You also have to learn to add a slight pause after saying "Alexa" and not just start yelling out commands but that becomes second nature in practice. I was highly disappointed to see that Alexa could not control Spotify and that Spotify would only work when using a Bluetooth command, similar in nature to the UE Boom. Spotify is my primary music source and I do not like that Amazon seems to want to steer you to their Amazon Prime Music direction. However, it should be noted that you do not have to be a subscriber to the Amazon music service to use Alexa on this device, but it will open up more music, including your own if you have a subscription to it. I have used the speaker twice now in long sessions and the first session I got about 7 hours out of moderate listening levels which was, in my opinion, disappointing considering the speaker promises "up to 14 hours". We all know "up to" is the key there but still, half of the promised amount is not what I'd consider a home run. The second time listening from a full charge we got roughly 9 hours and that is listening at moderate listening levels so that was a bit better. It honestly made me wonder if the first I was not at a complete charge. It should be noted here that the only way to know the charge level of the speaker is through the app and you will only know two levels of charge, full charge or partial charge and that is a sincere lack of information in my opinion that needs updated with a future fix for the app. The quality of the sound of the speaker is very high for a large room and the speaker will fill the room with sound. Any larger than a large room though and the speaker will struggle but for most people volume or clarity of the music will not be any issue whatsoever. It was disappointing that I was unable to band my UE Blast to my UE Boom to create a stereo, or mirror, effect from one source. I worked on this for well over an hour before looking online and determining it simply is not possible. So word to the wise, if you already own a UE product and are considering buying this to add on as a "stereo" effect or even just a multi-room, one source solution you will be out of luck. It remains to be seen if this will be fixed in a future update but I sincerely doubt that it will happen based upon my research. Ultimately I do recommend this device, it's very clear, very loud, integrates Alexa commands perfectly and has decent battery life. Just be aware though that it won't control Spotify via Alexa, the battery life is not what is promised (but still good overall) and it will not pair with another UE device. Another downside of course is the price. I am not completely sure this is a great value for most people but I will say if you have the money the device will not disappoint. For most people on a budget this would be a better value purchase on sale or at a discounted rate perhaps on Black Friday. There are certainly more reasonably priced devices that will do many of what this speaker offers. But if you want a great all-in-one solution, are aware of some of the limitations of the device and its app and are willing to pay the money you cannot beat the UE Blast.

This speaker is pretty good. I love that it is water resistant and plan on using it when floating down the river this summer. The battery life is decent to good. It takes a couple hours to charge but will last close to the 12 hours it advertises - less if you use the Alexa/wifi feature. Speaking of which, it is awesome being able to tell Alexa to play a certain band or song or to turn the music up or down. While this feature is handy, the mic is not the greatest and I find myself having to yell (my fiance will say scream) at the unit to get it to register I am talking to it. The sound is decent but not the best on the market. I got it on sale for $100 and cannot imagine being happy if I had paid any more. For the retail price, you can get a much better unit.

The goal with any speaker should be quality sound before anything else. I have another, smaller UE bluetooth speaker that delivers better all-around sound than the Blast. The Blast gets plenty loud but the sound is not very full. Very little bass and the higher end sounds are a bit tinny. The app seemed easy enough to setup...until it kept failing to complete the mandatory software update for my UE Blast out of the box. There was no skip option so in order to connect it to the wifi I had to muscle through the update. It took 3 tries. Even though it warned me not to turn off the device during the update, I had no choice. Nonetheless, eventually it updated and I was able to use Alexa. If you are a heavy "Alexa do this and that" person then the Blast is pretty cool even if the sound isn't great. I paired the Blast with my phone and my laptop. It continued to play music as long as I left my music player open on the laptop. I paused music and left the office for a while and the device shut off (likely when my computer went into standby mode). When I wanted to ask Alexa something I had to hit the on button and let it connect to wifi again. I had planned on keeping this unit in my kitchen. Having to tap the Blast to turn it on and wait for the wifi might get old fast. It is not as fast asking Google or Siri on your phone. And if you want to play music by speaking a command, for now you have to rely on the Amazon music system ("Alexa play some hiphop" will play music from Amazon while "Alexa play my mellow jazz Spotify mix" will do nothing--but you can launch Spotify and bluetooth the stream to the speaker). The design is very stylish. It is basically an oversized pop can. Imagine a 16oz beverage can and you pretty much have the Blast in size and weight. I like the stylish lines, oversized buttons, and fabric mesh wrap. HOWEVER...the device needs to be set upside down if you want to charge it and keep it vertical. The USB (micro, not C) cable is included in the box as well as a wall charger but because of the design, you cannot plug the cable into the bottom and stand the Blast upright unless you flip it upside down--essentially charging from the top. The hook is also on the bottom of the speaker. To recap, sound quality less than spectacular, average at best. Loud enough. Stylish design with some flaws. Alexa is cool. I had some app setup issues but that may be a one-time thing. Either way it was resolved after some restarts. This product is just "meh" for me.

Sounds great, sounds much bigger than it's size, has a good quality feel, seems very durable, good battery life and Alexa is very responsive.

With the Ultimate Ears Blast, UE have created a great portable speaker with some Alexa integration now with more features to come later. The speaker sounds great. Portable speakers are everywhere these days, but this speaker produces some of the best sound I have heard from a speaker this size. I tested the Blast with my iPhone and the set up was easy and within a few seconds I was playing music from my Apple library. In addition to Bluetooth, UE have included Alexa integration over WiFi. In my testing, the Alexa has worked well. I tell the speaker to play Christmas music and it works. The mic can hear me and the voice commands are pretty intuitive. The Blast responds to many basic commands and plays music from Amazon, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. If you don’t have Amazon Music, a 3 month subscription is included. To get the most out of your Blast, you need the Ultimate Ears App and the Amazon Alexa app. I wish the Blast had built in Pandora support, but Ultimate Ears claim that support is coming soon. The entire package would be better if there was a 3.5mm jack on the Blast and if the charging base had been included with the speaker, but beyond that, I really can’t think of anything wrong with this speaker. The UE Blast works great and I highly recommend it.

This is a good speaker for outdoor use. As a delivery driver, this speaker has been great aside from one big issue: this speaker turns off on it's own randomly. I'm not sure if I have a faulty unit but it will disconnect some days 5-10 times in a given day, but aside from that, this speaker is very durable and has a great battery. Lasts me about 9-10 hours with the volume a little more than halfway up.

I own Sonos One speakers and my expectations were probably unrealistic for this smaller speaker. While it doesn’t reach the Sonos level keep in mind it is $100 less. This speaker is simply awesome! Volume is loud and clear and bass is thumping good. It’s waterproof and durable. With Alexa built in this is an amazing deal. I was so impressed I bought the optional Power Up charger. For the money you can’t beat this!

I would give it 5 stars but it cuts out randomly. Great sound! Like the Alexa feature. Nice size.

Best Buy ran a killer sale for this speaker a few weeks ago so I couldnt pass it up. I researched consumer reviews and unboxing reviews. Great for taking to beach, boating skiing, house parties, and other loud venues. Outside out great sound, easy pairing, and very light to carry around. Have yet to charge it since buying. Bass isnt the most powerful, but definitely should buy if you want a nice speaker for a good price

Great 360 sound hits all of the notes. Also has Alexa. Perfect companion while traveling.

It's waterproof meaning that if I take it out to the pool I don't have to worry about it falling in. It can be submerged for up to half an hour. It's loud enough to hear even while my neighbor's AC is blasting. It is Alexa compatible and I can ask for a specific song, artist or just say, "Alexa, play Motown. It makes swimming so much more fun. And dancing in the pool. The only rough spot is that sometimes it takes Alexa too long to connect to the wifi. But it's pretty hands free, so that helps. You can say, "Alexa, raise volume "or "skip this song." You can ask questions too. Sometimes, she won't know the answer. This is why I don't believe in driverless cars. Computers can do only so much. Oh! And when I get out of the pool and fo take a shower, the Blast goes with me and keeps me entertained.

I've had this speaker a few weeks now and love it. I have a Bose SoundLink Speaker and I love this one over my Bose. I love that it's portable and battery lasts long. I take it with me around the house. I'm figuring out how to use Alexa but so far I like it. Sound is great, I like it even better than my Bose.