Ultimate Ears makes some of the best affordable portable speakers. If you’re looking for something powerful, it has the Megaboom 4. If you want a device that balances great sound and a compact size, there’s the Wonderboom 4. And if you need a teeny tiny speaker, the UE Miniroll is its smallest option.
New for 2024, the UE Miniroll costs £69.99 and is a simple bit of kit with Bluetooth connectivity and a sturdy design.
To test it out, I took the UE Miniroll on a long weekend away with me. If you’re considering buying one, here’s what I thought about its design, setup, performance and battery.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll key specs
| Weight | 279g |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 4.82 x 10.5 x 12.27cm |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Water resistance | IP67 |
Ultimate Ears Miniroll: Design and set up
A small, round portable speaker, the Ultimate Ears Miniroll is super portable and bag-friendly. It only measures 4.82 x 10.5 x 12.27cm and weighs 279g. It’s circular in shape but relatively flat, so will be slim enough to slip into a laptop sleeve and it very easily fit into my hand luggage on a flight.
The design matches other UE devices with a fabric mesh covering the outside, silicone across the rest of the device and two large plus and minus buttons on the front. This particular speaker has a strap across the back which you can use to hang it up or attach it to tent poles, handlebars and more.
You can buy the Miniroll in equally bold colours as UE’s other gadgets. It comes in pink, blue, grey and black. I tested out the pink version, it’s bright, speckled, and has contrasting white volume controls and a light blue strap. On the left-hand side, there are two buttons, one to turn the speaker on and a pause/play button.
You can control your music without touching your smartphone thanks to the speaker’s easy-to-use controls. I’ve already mentioned the plus and minus buttons, which control the volume, and the pause button to stop or start the song, but you can also use that to skip to the next track with a double press or go back to the beginning of the track with a triple press.
IP67 rated, the UE Miniroll is waterproof, dustproof and will survive falls of up to 1.2m. It’s super sturdy so it’ll be suitable for everything from sandy beach holidays to hikes in the wilderness.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll: Performance and battery
Given how small the UE Miniroll is, you can’t expect it to deliver huge amounts of power. It won’t be able to soundtrack a big party or a bustling barbecue, it’s much better suited to listening alone or in smaller groups. I took it with me on a city break in Europe, and it was loud enough to entertain a group of three people.
If you enjoy a lot of bass, this speaker certainly delivers in that sense, although that does mean making sacrifices to the mids and treble which could both use some work — this is by no means the most detailed listen, even amongst the miniature speaker crowd.
Another sticking point is that the sound doesn’t carry as well outside as it does inside, if you’re out hiking everyone will need to be relatively close to hear the music. But if you only really intend to use it at home then that won’t be too much of a problem!
There aren’t any manual equaliser settings to tailor the sound, nor are there preset sound settings or any other app controls for that matter. Most of its rivals do have some sort of adjoining smartphone app.
You can connect the speaker to other Minirolls using PartyUp, it doubles the sound and plays music through them simultaneously. You can hook it up to an unlimited amount of Miniroll speakers but it won’t work with any other Ultimate Ears speakers which is a huge shame.
Surprisingly one feature it does have is the ability to connect two phones to it at once, so you can share DJ responsibilities with a friend.
Battery life is about 12 hours, which will be enough for a day out but won’t last an entire weekend away so you’ll need to be sure to pack a USB-C charger.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll: Verdict
There are small speakers with better sound quality and bigger battery life, neither are bad on this device but neither is amazing either. This is an affordable speaker that does what it says on the tin, playing music wirelessly through a Bluetooth connection.
The Miniroll keeps things simple, there aren’t loads of extra features packed in. There’s no app control, no microphone and you can’t tailor the sound. You can make it louder by hooking it up to other Minirolls, but not to other UE devices which seems like a missed opportunity to me.
If a small size and low price are the main criteria in your hunt for a new portable Bluetooth speaker, the Ultimate Ears Miniroll delivers in both ways. It is super portable and fairly affordable, especially if you manage to find a good deal on it.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll: Also consider
If you want something super small with great performance, take a look at the JBL Clip 5. It is so tiny it will fit in a coat pocket and has a metal clip to hang it up or attach to your bag. You can regularly buy it for a discounted price of less than £45, especially during sales like Prime Day and Black Friday.
I’ve recently tested the Marshall Willen II, an equally tiny speaker. It looks very different, opting for a more retro look, and it packs in a fair amount more battery life with 17 hours of music at a time. It is a fair amount more expensive than the Miniroll but you will get better sound quality from it.
