Ultimate Ears - WONDERBOOM 2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker - Concrete

The UE Wonderboom 2 is smallest entry in UE’s lineup. It replaces the outgoing Wonderboom. The overall design hasn’t changed much, but there are a few notable tweaks (see below). Design The Wonderboom 2 is a compact Bluetooth speaker that is slightly larger than some of its peers. Sound is provided via dual 40mm active drivers and dual 46.1 x 65.2mm passive radiators. The speakers and radiators are positioned around the body to provide a 360° sound stage. Only the charging port (Micro-USB) resides behind the gasket at the bottom-rear of the speaker. The cover must remain closed for the WB2 to keep its IP67 rating. The battery life receives a bump overall the original (10hr) to a 13hrs. Controls are divided up into 3 locations. The top of the speaker as the pairing, play/pause/skip/double up, and power buttons. The play/pause/skip/double up button works as follows: 1 press to play/pause, 2 presses to skip, and (with 2 WB2 units) press and hold to pair the speakers together to give you stereo sound. The signature UE oversized volume controls are located on the front body. Lastly the bottom carries the Outdoor Mode button. Activating this feature sets a custom EQ and boosts output designed for use in an outdoor acoustic setting. The entire unit fits in your hand with just under a 4” diameter. That diameter restricts you from using a cupholder to hold the speaker – i.e. in a golf cart or in a patio chair. Its small size makes it very portable, and easy to bring along in a bookbag, or purse. I like to go on camping and backpacking trips. Its size limits me on where I can store it. I cannot fit this into the mesh drink pouches on my pack. Instead I have to stuff it down in my pack (can’t use it then) or hang it off the side with a carabiner. Not ideal since I can feel it bouncing around while I'm walking. However, the speaker is light enough to hang from the canopy of my tent for some music (or white-noise) to fall asleep to. The 360° sound is really nice in this setting, and fills the tent with sound. The Wonderboom2 feels pretty rugged as well. The speaker carries an IP67 rating (submerged 1 meter, for 30 minutes), as well as some drop resistance (safe from a 5ft drop). The speaker can also float, like the original. The 2-tone cloth exterior looks great, and it feels like a nice quality exterior material. The bungie strap is well made, and it is securely attached. The rubber grip does more than just show the brand name, but it provides a decent amount of extra grip to the strap. It also helps to cup your finger a little bit and make it a more comfortable to carry. Sound The sound quality of the Wonderboom 2 is really good for such a small speaker. The 360° sound stage works well enough that you can tuck the speaker in a corner, in any orientation, and it still sounds great. As far as volume goes, it can jump up to 86 dB (as loud as a blender), which is plenty loud enough. I had no problem filling my basement (800 sqft) with the speaker at 75% volume, so I know it can keep up with even larger spaces. I never able to push the speaker to the point of clipping or distortion, so I assume the max volume cutout is doing its job. The bass had enough punch to be heard, but it wasn’t super deep or rumbling – pretty much what I would expect out of a speaker of this size. I played a decent variety of music through the WB2. Pop music sounds the best, and its apparent that the EQ is designed for that genre. However, rock, alternative, and hip hop also played well on the WB2. The bass isn’t as concentrated for hip hop, so you are going to get a deep rumble out of it. Instead the bass is a little more punchy, which is why pop sounds pretty good. Other Areas The Bluetooth connectivity works well. Reported range is up to 100ft – I have only tried it out to about 40 ft, and it was still working fine from that distance without cutting in/out. You can pair 2 different devices to it at the same time under a feature UE calls multi-host. The buoyancy of the speaker is pretty nice. About 1/3 of it floats above the waterline. Your sound is severely impacted at this point, but thanks to the 360° sound you can still hear it well enough. My kids brought the speaker into their bath, and had fun dunking it and hearing the music play under the water. That’s a cool novelty for most usage, but I can see this being a real benefit when used around a pool, or out on a float trip. Overall I think the UE Wonderboom 2 is a terrific little speaker. It has an attractive design, and a couple of nice features to have. I never had any issues with playback or pairing – it was dead simple and easy to use. The shape of the WB2 makes it difficult or impossible to stick in a cup holder, which is unfortunate for me if I want to bring it in a golf cart for a round. The extra size though allows the enclosure to house 2 speakers and 2 radiators, as well as keeping it buoyant. There are tradeoffs to consider, but this little UE unit has a number of things going for it. I truly didn’t find any issues with the speaker or its operation, and the only negative for me was not fitting in a cupholder. That’s a pretty nitpicky thing to be honest.

First of all, I would like to say that this review is being written in exchange for a paltry 25 Best Buy Rewards points. That is not why this product is getting a PRELIMINARY 4 star review. The points only influenced me TO WRITE the review. I hope that's clear. There is no way that the points are influentialin my review. [If anyone is still reading this, and needs me to draw a chart, please request one in the comments box.] ;-) The original MSRP of $99.99 would have prevented me from purchasing this speaker; I was on the fence for it at the sale price of $66.99. Once I applied the $10 (total) Best Buy Rewards certificates, I left the store with a $100 speaker for just under $62, with tax. Now that's a bargain! The sound on this speaker is great! I work on a factory floor, where hearing protection is required, and the speaker will be used most often in this environment. I will update this review if I find the noise level drowns the speaker out, but I don't think that will be a problem. Speaking of environment, I suppose this would be a good place to inform you that the speaker is IP67 Rated, which essentially means it's impervious to damage from inert liquids. I would not recommend submersion in sulfuric (or any other caustic) acid. However, if you drop it in a pool, a pond, or an ocean, you (and it) should be fine. It also floats, and has a nice little elastic hoop firmly attached to the top, so it should be easy to retrieve from said bodies of water. **Do not attempt to use this speaker as a floatation device.** It only takes a couple of hours to charge the battery from dead. There was enough charge out of the box to get in a few hours of listening at high volumes. I haven't run it completely down from a full charge, yet. I'll update this once that's happened. The packaging of this speaker was really nice. I took my time, and enjoyed the well-thought-out design. As I stated earlier, I work in a factory, and some of the packaging is atrocious, to say the least. There are pictures. Feast your eyes! The instructions were sparse, but there is an online manual/tutorial that I have yet to view. Update later... I'm still getting used to the controls, so (once again) I'll update later. These are woefully understated, but mercifully few in quantity. A giant (by comparison to the size of the speaker) '+' and '-' sign are on the face (see the pictures) but the minus is placed vertically, so something of the visual cue is lost. What we're actually left with is a '+' and a '|' which is just dumb; especially when the one considers the cylindric nature of the speaker's design. There's no flat spot or 'weighting' to cause the speaker to orient any particular way when put on its side, which seems contrary, somehow. So when it's put (as designed) on its bottom, it kind of leaves you with a cross motif. I mean, I'm not stupid, so I get it - I just can't help thinking someone who put so much thought into the design of their BOX would give the PRODUCT as much consideration... Another thing I noticed that was a (minor) annoyance: this speaker features an 'outdoor' mode, which does make the speaker noticeably louder, but it seems to sacrifice the bass to accomplish the task. Maybe an electronics engineer or an audiophile can help us understand how/why this is the case? Anyway, I doubt it will directly affect my enjoyment. Like this one (the black one) being cheaper than the red, blue, or gray models; makes no sense, but that won't stop me from enjoying the music!

The Wonderboom 2 is surprisingly small, about the size of a softball, and probably one of the smallest speakers that I own, but is also quite dense, weighing just under 1 pound. However, the sound it outputs is full and well-balanced with a decent amount of bass, and the volume can be turned up quite loud, more than enough to fill a small to medium sized room and for use outdoors. That being said, when paired with my phone, pushing the speaker to the max volume results in a bit of distortion, particularly in the upper ranges where cymbal crashes and female vocals can start to clash and sound a bit muddy. But even with the volume backed down a couple steps, the speaker is still plenty loud, and I really like how clearly voices and individual instrumentation are reproduced in general. With the speaker being a single-point source, it’s no surprise that left and right track separation is difficult to distinguish if not absent completely, but that can be resolved by pairing a second Wonderboom 2 speaker for true stereo output using its “Double Up” feature, which can be activated via a simple button press and doesn’t require a mobile app. I have to disagree somewhat that the speaker has full 360-degree projection though, because the sound isn’t exactly uniform depending where it’s facing. There’s definitely a difference listening from each “side” but thankfully, no clear dead zones; so even though you might hear a little more treble or bass from one angle to another, you can still enjoy the music no matter where you’re oriented in relation to the speaker. There’s a small pine tree shaped symbol on the button on the bottom for “outdoor mode” which boosts the levels, so the bass can travel farther in outdoor settings, but in my opinion throws off the balance and manages to make it sound “boxy” up close, though this is less noticeable from a distance. Even so I much prefer this setting off, and I think it sounds just fine outdoors without it. The speaker is pretty minimalist in terms of design and outside of the power button, Bluetooth pairing button, center button for playback control and button for outdoor mode, the only other functions you’ll find are the large plus and minus on the front for volume adjustments. The center button can play/pause a track, skip to the next track, or activate Double Up mode. As a travel speaker its compact form and lightness make it easy to pack. It also has a small rubber loop for hanging to a backpack or belt loop with a carabiner (not included). The best feature though is that the speaker is fully waterproof and floats in water with an IP67 rating. I tested this out in a swimming pool and it surely does float (though it doesn’t sound great while floating). It certainly isn’t afraid of getting wet! This means you can feel secure about using it by the pool, at the beach, or even in the shower/bath. The rubber and fabric wrapped exterior is also fairly durable making it rugged enough to survive an accidental fall to the ground, and it dries surprisingly quickly. A bit disappointing though, is that at its price point, it doesn’t have some more advanced features like built-in smart assistant support (e.g. Alexa/Google), NFC pairing, or even wireless charging for that matter. You’ll still need to open a rubber door to access the microUSB port for charging and make sure that door is fully closed before it makes contact with water, making this a potential failure point in terms of its water resistance. Interestingly, the speaker is able to pair with two mobile devices simultaneously, and is able to switch between the two, allowing two DJs the opportunity to share and take turns playing music. It also automatically shuts off after 15 minutes of inactivity, to save battery, though I found that a full charge is more than capable of lasting a full 12 hours at a moderate volume level. Overall, though, I think it’s a solid Bluetooth speaker with excellent sound performance, durability, and design.

Works well. Has a setting for “outside”. Can be paired with multiple for surround sound. Bought it for my boyfriend to play his music at work in the kitchen. Has proved durability. He says only complaint is charger cord is awkward. A LITTLE difficult to plug in cord to speaker. Charges perfectly fine tho. Medium length cord. See photo for size reference . I don’t have a photo for the cord because he threw it away ._.

This is my new favorite bluetooth speaker. It doesn’t have a lot of things that other speakers have, but it nails everything a great Bluetooth speaker should be. It sounds great, it’s infinitely portable, and it can go pretty much anywhere you can. I’ve used it in so many more situations where I would usually not even bother to cart out one of my other speakers. I’m going to start off by listing things the Wonderboom 2 does NOT have: An aux input NFC A microphone An app Bluetooth 5 or any high resolution audio codecs I’d normally have something to say about most of these things, but using the Wonderboom has made me realize that I just don’t care about them. I’ve had NFC Bluetooth speakers in the past and I’ve maybe used it one time to pair something, but it doesn’t really add much convenience. I’ve never used any Bluetooth speaker to take a phone call. It’s getting to the point that almost everything has its own app now and it’s refreshing that I don’t need to download anything on my phone to unlock functionality or download a firmware update every few months. The aux input may be a big miss for some, but it’s another feature that I never really used on my speakers that have it. There’s no mention of what Bluetooth version is on this speaker - I have to assume it’s a 4.something variety based on the fact that it isn’t listed, but the Bluetooth version and audio codecs don’t mean a thing if the sound isn’t good in the first place and there’s no issues with that here. Going to what the Wonderboom 2 DOES have: A great design that’s compact, dust/waterproof, and durable Great sound, especially for its size A reliable connection and nice easy to press buttons Long battery life I love the design of the speaker. It’s got this stark simple look with the 2 giant volume buttons on the front of it. It reminds of something from IKEA. The main body of the speaker is covered in a fabric all the way around and the tops and bottoms are a rubberized plastic material. It’s about as tall as a soda can, but a bit fatter. The small size makes it easy to hold and easy to pick up and move around. It also feels like it could take a drop or two, but I did not test that firsthand. There’s a small loop for hanging the speaker; it can stretch a little, but you probably don’t want to hang it off anything much larger than its neutral size. The speaker is IP67 dust and waterproof - I took it in the shower with me and even sprayed it directly and it kept going, which is a nice peace of mind if you’re going to be at the beach or the pool (it also floats). The buttons are all easy to find and press, though the giant volume buttons on the front really aren’t all that giant as the actual pressable areas are more towards the center of each button. The sound quality was much better than I was expecting it to be. Lots of small speakers can get loud, but most of them don’t have that ‘big’ sound the larger speakers have and that always gravitates me back to larger less portable options. The Wonderboom doesn’t have that problem; the sound is crystal clear even at very high volumes and the bass is excellent, though certain surfaces you set it on can mute the base a little bit. It’s loud enough to fill most any room easily and there’s an “Outdoor Boost” mode that gets it even louder - it seems to sacrifice a little bit of audio clarity to get there, but it’s not a difference that I really noticed when I was outside with it. I generally kept my phone well within the 100ft stated range, but I didn’t notice any skips or dropouts as I carried my phone around with me. Battery life is also excellent. I’ve yet to run it down below 50% since I initially charged it and have had about 3 or 4 longer listening sessions lasting 1-2 hours each. It seems ontrack to make it’s 13 hour rated battery life, though I have not found a way to check the actual percentage battery left on it - you can check the battery on the speaker itself by pressing the up and down volume buttons at the same time, but it just gives you a single or two tone sound to indicate whether the batter is below or above 50%. My phone will often tell me the battery level of other devices connected to it, but it doesn’t show me one for the Wonderboom. If I had any real gripes with this speaker this would be it since you never really know where you’re at on the battery. This is what a Bluetooth speaker should be. It’s something I’m now using in my everyday life, not just when I’ve got people over. Even if you’ve got a little more to spend, I'd still recommend this one.

Love it. I used it at the beach and it was loud enough. Very resistant. My teeage daughter stole it from me, so I plan to get another one.

THE BREAKDOWN: This is easily one of my favorite bluetooth speakers. It doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles some of the other bluetooth speakers have. It really doesn’t need it. It has a simple and easy to use design. The packaging was very well done. It was just enough packaging to get the product delivered. In the box was everything needed to get this product up and running. The initial setup was simple I had it connected to my phone in just seconds. I really like the design of the speaker, the big plus and minus volume buttons, very simple yet effective. The body was covered in a waterproof fabric and the top and bottom of speaker had a rubbery feel. I feel the size if perfect especially if you like being in the outdoors. There is also rubbery loop handle on the top. The sound is very good. This speaker can get really loud and had an outdoor boost feature that makes it even louder without distorting the sound. I did however feel that when the volume was around 75% the bass was a little distorted. I use it daily in my workout room and it is more than loud enough. I tried it outside as well and it yielded the same results, very nice and loud. The range was very good I could go all over my house with my phone and the speaker never missed a beat. The battery life is excellent as it states. I believe they stated 13 hour battery life and I use this everyday for at least 2 hours and only charged it 6 days and it still had battery life. Another negative item with this speaker would be there is no way to tell the exact battery level. PRO’s: -Very well built and stylish -Super easy to get setup -Simple to use -Very portable -It is waterproof -Has Outdoor Boost -Sound is very good CON’s: -Sound gets distorted at louder levels -No way to tell the actual battery level SUMMARY: Overall, I feel that this product is really good for the price. Very simple and very portable. I would recommend this to a friend if they are in the market for something like this.

Speaker is doing great, actually should get a case for it cuz it's got a little dirty. I plug it in overnight if you wait until the light turns off that way it's fully charged and you don't have it a high-volume it will last you the recommended 12 hours