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- Wonderboom 3 is a compact Bluetooth speaker that delivers a ton of value for $100.
- It’s waterproof and has a 360-degree soundstage, which makes it perfect for outdoor listening.
- The speaker’s Micro USB charger isn’t ideal, but it offers great sound for its size.
For $100, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 is an excellent Bluetooth speaker for anyone who wants to listen to music on the go. It’s built with travel in mind, and performs well both indoors and outdoors thanks to its 360-degree soundstage.
The new speaker improves upon the battery life and Bluetooth range of the older Wonderboom 2, while keeping that model’s compact, waterproof design. The Wonderboom 3 is rated for up to 14 hours of playback, but it lasted even longer during our testing, giving it a key edge over similar Bluetooth speakers that are rated for 10-12 hours of use.
After weeks of hands-on time with the Wonderboom 3, it’s emerged as one of our favorite portable speakers. Though it lacks a few extra features you’ll find on bigger, pricier models, it’s a fantastic travel companion for the money.
The newest ultra-portable speaker from Ultimate Ears, the Wonderboom 3, is a 360-degree speaker that’s ideal for travel and outdoor listening. It’s waterproof and can last for over 14 hours on a single charge.
Wonderboom 3 is built for travel with a waterproof design and impressive battery life
Wonderboom 3 stands less than four inches tall with a cylindrical shape, and weighs just under one pound, making it easy to pack in a beach bag or suitcase for travel. There’s even a loop you can use to carry it with a hook or carabiner.
The speaker is made from recycled plastic and wrapped with a fabric that covers most of its body. The fabric doesn’t collect much dust and prevents the speaker from getting scratched during outdoor activities. Available colors include black, blue, gray, lavender, green, and pink; the large volume buttons on the front of the speaker are always a contrasting color.
In addition to volume controls, Wonderboom 3 has smaller buttons for power, play/pause, and Bluetooth pairing on top. A single button on the bottom shifts the speaker into outdoor mode, which offers increased volume.
Wonderboom 3 is water resistant as well, with an IP67 rating that makes the speaker safe to float in a pool for up to 30 minutes. This also means you can easily clean the speaker’s fabric cover with water if it gets dirty.
To complement its travel-friendly design, the Wonderboom delivers excellent battery life. Ultimate Ears lists an estimated playtime of 14 hours, but the speaker actually lasted longer in our testing, reaching about 20 hours on a single charge. With two to three hours of playback each day during regular use, we only found ourselves needing to charge it about once during the week.
The Wonderboom 3 sounds great for its size, but it lacks the deep bass you’d get from a bigger speaker
Wonderboom 3 has a great sound profile for a portable speaker, offering generally balanced audio. It can handle both music and spoken-word playback well, though fans of bass-heavy EDM or trap music may prefer a bigger speaker with deeper bass.
For example, listening to the low frequency bass in Benny Benassi’s EDM hit “Satisfaction” or Outkast’s “Aquemini” lacks the satisfying thump you’d get from a speaker with more range. But, more traditional pop music like Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and rock tracks like White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ’65” sound appropriately balanced. Podcasts and audiobooks come through with satisfying clarity as well.
The speaker covers a wide range with a 360-degree soundstage that remains consistent despite your listening angle. The benefit of the speaker’s soundstage is especially noticeable outdoors, since you don’t have to worry about properly positioning it while you’re moving around.
While the speaker’s maximum volume isn’t extremely loud, Wonderboom 3 still packs enough power to fill an indoor room. It also does a great job of avoiding distortion at high levels, so you can listen at louder volumes without sacrificing quality. An outdoor mode is included as well, which can be toggled to help sound carry over a wider range. Just keep in mind, this mode seems to sacrifice bass and increase treble at a higher volume, which hurts the overall sound quality.
In our testing, Wonderboom 3 proved to be plenty loud for a park picnic with friends, even at 50% volume in its regular mode. The outdoor mode might be useful if you’re doing something more active, like playing a sport or swimming around a pool, but we didn’t feel the need to sacrifice sound quality for more range.
That said, you might struggle to hear Wonderboom 3 during a more crowded party or event, which is to be expected for a small travel speaker. For example, at a Super Bowl party with about 25 people, the speaker struggled to compete with the sound of the TV and conversation in the room.
The speaker has a wide Bluetooth range, but there’s no microphone or wired port
The only way to use Wonderboom 3 is with a Bluetooth connection. The speaker has a reported range of 130 feet, which is consistent with our testing.
There’s also a feature that lets you pair two Wonderboom speakers together as a stereo set. We only had a single review unit so we were unable to test this mode, but it’s a nice option to have for buyers who want to upgrade to a true stereo pair.
On the downside, the Wonderboom lacks any ports for wired audio, and there’s no Wi-Fi support to control the speaker with apps like Spotify. There’s also no built-in microphone, which would allow the speaker to receive calls or take commands from a virtual assistant like Siri or Alexa when paired with a phone. Having more options for hands-free control would be ideal during outdoor activities.
Wonderboom 3 vs. the competition
Wonderboom 3 is considered a budget Bluetooth speaker and generally sounds better than other similarly sized options in the same price range. The battery performance is also best in class compared to popular competitors like the JBL Flip 6 and JBL Clip 4, though we would prefer their USB-C charger over Wonderboom 3’s older Micro USB port.
Unlike some competitors, Wonderboom 3 is also missing a customizable EQ option. It isn’t compatible with the Ultimate Ears companion app to adjust settings, so you’re stuck with the default sound unless you use a music service that has its own EQ feature.
The speaker sounds good using its default tuning, but the lack of native app support is disappointing since Ultimate Ears supports this function on a lot of its other models.
UltimateEars Wonderboom 3 specs at glance
Should you buy the Wonderboom 3 Bluetooth speaker?
The Wonderboom 3 has nearly every feature you’d want from a portable Bluetooth speaker in the $100 price range. The 360-degree soundscape delivers good audio quality whether you’re listening on-the-go or in the shower, and the outdoor boost mode can add a bit more range for larger areas.
The lack of a microphone, deeper bass, and other connectivity features keep Wonderboom 3 from outperforming more expensive home speakers, but these extra perks aren’t expected in a $100 portable model. We do we wish it used USB-C charging rather than Micro USB, but its sound quality and battery life beat out similar portable speakers in this price range.
For the money, The Wonderboom 3 is an ideal buy for anyone who wants a compact, durable Bluetooth speaker that can serve as a convenient travel companion for listening to music outside.
