We have yet to see another Bluetooth speaker that so confidently combines style and ruggedness. In the Boom 3, Ultimate Ears has refined its superb cylindrical, super-tough design even further. The IP67 rating indicates that it is dustproof and waterproof (up to 1m in water for 30 minutes), and the high-density fabric has been reworked to make it fairly indestructible in any environment. It’s a tough piece of equipment, but it’s small and light enough to throw in your bag when going camping or on a trip. It also floats, so you can have it bobbing along with you in the pool while blasting music. The design appears to be more sophisticated than before. The long strip containing the signature volume buttons has been relocated to the back of the speaker, giving the Boom 3 a cleaner appearance and allowing the 360-degree sound to spread more freely. The shimmery sheen of the new dual-tone fabric covering appeals to us. The Boom 3 is available in six different colors: Night (black), Sunset (red), Lagoon (blue), and Ultraviolet (purple), as well as two Apple-exclusive finishes: Denim (deep blue) and Cloud (white) (light blue). The top panel is flatter and features a new multi-function ‘Magic Button,’ as well as the power and Bluetooth pairing buttons, which are much easier to press than before. The charging port is now housed under a waterproof door at the back of the speaker (rather than the underside, which made positioning difficult if a cable was plugged in), allowing it to stand upright while charging. The Boom 3 will last 15 hours on a single charge, just like its predecessor. Ultimate Ears has a few new tricks as well. The Magic Button allows you to pause, play, and skip tracks, and a long press brings up playlists imported from a music streaming service. That playlist feature is currently limited to Apple Music on iOS and Deezer Premium on Android, but Ultimate Ears hopes to add more streaming services in the near future. On the updated Boom app, you can add and queue up your favorite playlists from those streaming services, then long-press the top button to play them and cycle through to the next list of tunes. It may appear to be a gimmick, but it’s surprising how quickly this useful feature becomes second nature. It beats swiping through multiple playlists on your music app. The new Boom app allows you to connect two Boom 3s for stereo sound. If you want even more volume, you can daisychain up to 150 Boom and Megaboom speakers (current and previous generations) for a truly epic party. Last but not least, the Bluetooth range of the Boom 3 has been increased to 45 meters from 30 meters previously.
