UE Everboom review: does Ultimate Ears’ new speaker deliver on its promises?
2/8/2024
Translation: Katherine Martin
The Everboom is the highlight of Ultimate Ears’ new product line. It’s the Logitech subsidiary’s golden opportunity to show off its strengths in designing products that fare well outside, even in water. I put the speaker through its paces to see how it’d perform in both the great outdoors and other settings.
Ultimate Ears is pursuing a particular strategy with its Bluetooth portfolio: mixing lots of tried-and-tested elements with a little novelty. Whether that’s to keep its customers happy or simply to stave off strong competition – primarily from JBL – is anyone’s guess.
Source: Florian Bodoky
However, there’s one striking thing about UE’s approach. While its trusty, long-serving models are regularly replaced with successor devices, its more exotic models are almost always standalone releases. Or they undergo minor redesigns. Their latest exotic product, the UE Everboom, is a hit with me. However, it also demonstrates why UE keeps taking the same approach.
Powerful, but lacking finesse
Bluetooth speakers above a certain price point usually have good bass. Where the Everboom stands out, however, is in bass quality. Not only is it powerful, but it also retains its details as the music gets a little louder.
During bass-heavy hyperpop songs (that’s almost a pleonasm) like Hollywood Baby by 100 gecs, I can feel every pulse of bass trembling from all directions.
In slightly more melodic tracks, the Everboom manages to keep the vocals in the mix despite the bass. By comparison, a classic problem with other Bluetooth speakers is that voices are drowned out by a dominant bass.
The Everboom also copes well with higher frequencies, such as the ones you hear in acoustic folk songs. It even maintains its sound quality when you crank up the volume. There’s barely any distortion, and the sound’s far from shrill.
I’ve pinpointed the Everboom’s weaknesses in two other places. First of all, for a speaker of this size, it doesn’t get that loud. I’m talking loud loud. Sure, it reaches a decent level, but if you put a similarly sized JBL Xtreme 4 next to it, the Everboom comes off worse.
Its second weakness lies in the richness of detail when it comes to musical instruments. Tested on songs containing numerous instruments (think ska, big band or classical), the components seem like they all blend together – especially the mids. To a certain extent, the bass also swallows up the brilliance of more delicate instruments, such as violins or clarinets. Depending on the sound, lowering the bass in the EQ can help with that. Unfortunately, you can only create one user-defined EQ profile. Besides that, there are only presets.
Swanky appearance
There’s no doubt that the Everboom is the Epicboom’s little brother. You can see it as soon as you put them next to each other. It has the same flat, cylindrical shape, and the structure’s similar too. The base is encased in silicone, while the mesh fabric on top protects the drivers from water and dust. On the top, you’ll find the control panel with buttons for pairing, power, play/pause and Outdoor Boost mode.
Source: Florian Bodoky
In typical UE fashion, iconic, giant plus and minus icons, which serve as volume control buttons, have been placed on the front. Cynics would say this isn’t so much a creative decision as it is a necessary evil – one that means boozy barbecue-goers can still find the buttons when they’re eight beers deep. If you press the plus and minus buttons at the same time, the Everboom tells you its current battery status. Alternatively, if you’d rather not hear the voice output, it can show you via LED lights.
There’s also a strap on the back so you can carry the speaker around. UE includes a snap hook in the speaker box so that you can attach the Everboom to a rucksack, for example. It could technically go on your trousers too, but it does weigh 960 grammes, measuring in at a considerable 20.5 centimetres tall, 8.5 centimetres wide and 11 centimetres long.
Source: Florian Bodoky
The Everboom is charged via USB-C; the port’s located behind a silicone flap near the bottom of the rear side. UE includes the necessary cable, but not an adapter. Incidentally, the connector’s designed exclusively for charging. You can’t hook another device up to the speaker via USB. What you can do is connect your phone via NFC – but only if it’s an Android.
I like the design. In this aspect, UE is miles ahead of its big competitor JBL. I also prefer the way it feels – the speaker appears to be flawless in that respect. There’s also an azure-blue model, which gives the place a nice summer vibe.
The Everboom has an array of outdoor skills
One thing that strikes you immediately about the new speaker is that it could take a beating. It’s got a solid finish, a certain weight to it and a good feel. As it’s also IP67-certified, it’ll keep on playing even if it falls into the pool. In fact, it actually floats. Sure, water muffles the sound. But on the flip side, it’d spread lower frequencies in particular more quickly. Mind you, that’s not really what the Everboom’s intended for. If you do take it for a swim, make sure you wipe down the control panel afterwards – water doesn’t roll off it as easily as it does down the sides.
Source: Florian Bodoky
As for the features, they’re built for the odd outdoor adventure too. It’s definitely worth downloading the UE app. UE has kitted out the Everboom, like the Epicboom before it, with an Outdoor Burst button. This projects high and medium frequencies even more strongly in all directions, meaning you can still hear the music from afar. The speaker does have a 55-metre Bluetooth range, after all.
One thing I really like that could also come in handy at parties, is the megaphone feature. If you want to gather your fellow hikers or party guests, you can activate the megaphone in the app before simply speaking into your phone’s microphone. After a short delay, your voice booms out of the speaker. Of course, you can adjust the volume if necessary.
What’s more, you have the option to link multiple UE speakers. The app finds other UE speakers automatically and you can add them with a swipe of your finger. Even my practically prehistoric UE Boom 2 supports the feature. There’s also a remote shutdown feature in the app, which is cool.
Source: Florian Bodoky
Overall, the app gets several thumbs up from me. It’s simple, intuitive and clearly laid out, and I find it easy to navigate despite the numerous features.
THIS would be my favourite feature if…
Something I’d been looking forward to using was the Everboom’s Magic button. Pushing it prompts the speaker to save your playlist so that you can pull it up and play songs from it on demand. All you do is open the app and search for songs.
Source: Florian Bodoky
It’s just a shame that there’s no Spotify access (at least in Switzerland). For me, that’s a pretty crucial omission. It’s evidently a different story in other countries, so I hope the streaming platform will eventually find its way into the Swiss UE app too.
In a nutshell
A pretty good speaker – but why should you buy it?
There’s no question that the UE Everboom is a decent Bluetooth speaker. It shines as a result of its array of features. So much so that you could almost forget it’s for listening to music. Given its size, it produces a powerful sound, and maintains it at high volumes too. I can forgive the fact that some of the richness in sound detail is lost. It’s a portable, slightly slimmed-down version of the Epicboom.
However, this speaker has one big problem. There are comparable Bluetooth models out there that cost significantly less. Take the Xtreme 4, for example. Alternatively, if you’re willing to go for a speaker that doesn’t perform quite as well outdoors, there’s the considerably cheaper JBL Charge 4. The Everboom’s biggest rival, however, is produced by the very same manufacturer: the UE Megaboom 4, the Everboom’s «brother» from the same generation.
The latest Megaboom also features the omnidirectional sound typical of UE. Both have a similar finish, the same battery life and an IP67 certification. Not only that, but the Megaboom’s lighter and easier to carry around, even though it doesn’t come with a carabiner. Both models sound quite similar, although I’d say the Megaboom 4 actually has the edge when it comes to volume. Where the speakers differ is in bells and whistles such as the megaphone and Outdoor Boost mode, as well as the fact that the Megaboom 4 has slightly weaker (but still enough) bass. It’s up to you whether these features are worth spending almost 100 francs extra.
Pro
- bass
- playlist-saving function
- megaphone
- Outdoor Boost mode
Contra
- lack of finesse with instruments
- no advantage over cheaper speakers
Header image: Florian Bodoky
I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
