Create With Mom: The Adventurous UE MEGABOOM

Say Hello to Logitech Ultimate Ears’ latest addition to its award winning line of portable wireless speakers, the UE MEGABOOM. It is designed to be a premium portable Bluetooth speaker in every way. If product packaging is an indicator of brand quality, the UE Megaboom’s packaging certainly makes its case. The speaker is enclosed in a large plastic cylinder with a carry on handle. Pulling the tab open from the side reveals the speaker and the bright yellow Micro-USB Wall charger. Since the UE MEGABOOM comes in different colours such as charcoal black, lava red, electric blue, and plum UE could have matched the colour of the wall charger with the speaker instead of standard yellow for all.

Holding the UE Megaboom gives a solid, premium feel. The cylindrical speaker is wrapped in a hard meshed rubberized acoustic skin all around. This layer that surrounds the speaker is stain and IPX7 water resistant, which allows this speaker to be immersed in water for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. The UE Megaboom has 2 large noticeable volume buttons on its side. The top of the speaker has a small power button and a Bluetooth pairing indicator. The recessed bottom is home to the power and Aux ports. These ports are cleverly concealed in a stiff watertight rubber peel.

There is also a UE branded metal clip that can be used to hang the speaker or be unscrewed and attached to a tripod. It is shaped like a cylinder similar to a water bottle so it can be packed on the side of your backpack. The all round meshed speaker gives 360-degree sound at any angle, even when I kept it upright and rolled it, the device produced the same volume and quality of sound.

My experience with most Bluetooth devices has been somewhat disappointing connection wise. They either connect intermittently or in the case of Bluetooth audio sound can be distorted when there isn’t a reliable connection. The connectivity in the UE Megaboom is outstanding. The reliability and the range are amazing. UE advertises a 100-foot wireless Bluetooth range, which is impressive. I tried it from different corners and levels of the house and from the backyard and it did not have any issues with disconnection.

The UE Megaboom features a 20-hour rechargeable battery which charges in about 2.5 hours, which means long lasting entertainment. It is also designed to turn off after 15 minutes without an active stream. Pressing both the volume buttons simultaneously brings up a voice indicating battery level.

To go along with the speaker, UE has created the UE Megaboom app available on the Appstore and Google Play. This app has everything to manage the speaker via Bluetooth. Imagine turning on your speaker with your phone. Yes! This app handles that. After initially pairing the speaker with my phone the app prompted for a firmware update. UE promises app updates to add new features and performance enhancements with regular updates. The app also includes a customizable equalizer. The presets include Standard, Bass jump, Cramped spaces, and voices. There is also a custom option. The speaker also has an alarm feature, which can be set via the app. You can set your song library to be played at a certain time or hear a set of beeps as an alarm. If you can afford 2 UE Megaboom speakers there is also a “Double Up” feature to set up both to play from the same music source.

The UE Megaboom lives up to its name with rich, clear, and well-balanced sound. At a lower volume with the standard EQ setting, pop music sounded boomy with a little too much bass. I was able to correct this using the equalizer to listen in a small space. Other than that sound quality is excellent. It really feels like you are listening to music from a dedicated stereo receiver.

Great sound, excellent battery life, and unique design make the UE Megaboom a clear choice if you are investing in a premium, rugged and long lasting Bluetooth speaker. Overall, the UE Megaboom feels solid as a rock and can be put through a lot of adventurous fun.