Review on UE BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - White by Todd Calloway

I have owned 5 other brand bluetooth speakers in the last 3 years and have been generally happy with them. However, they all had some problems. Some of them had poor battery life, and some had sub-par sound quality or unusual and impractical shapes. My last purchase, the Altec Lansing inMotion Air, was fantastic, or so I thought. A year later, the battery died and didn't hold a charge, although it worked properly when plugged into an outlet. Also, the weird Bluetooth connection setup makes it difficult to switch between devices. Basically, I had to re-pair the device I wanted to use every time as the automatic switch was buggy at best. Also, I thought the Altec Lansing sounded pretty good until I bought the UE Boom. The UE Boom is a 6.5" tall cylinder (standing on end) which is lightweight. To be honest I thought it looked pretty cool when I took it out of the case. I then took it with mine iPhone 5 connected and asked during pairing if I want to install the UE app. Wow, now I can keep an eye on the battery percentage (instead of waiting for the speaker to just turn off when the juice runs out). Me found a song or two and played them.immediately impressed.The UE Boom sound is much cleaner with great mids and a fantastic high end!Maybe the base is a bit soft on first listen but more on that later.The sound of the speaker is stunning and the device has a high sound output as it can easily fill a 300 square meter room Feet of solid and pleasant music without distortion There is no need to turn up the volume of this device to the maximum to enjoy e.g u can. Before purchasing this device I read many reviews on Revain and was almost swayed by the many complaints about the battery life. I only used the device for a week, straight out of the box for 2 hours before charging it. Then I charged it once to 100%. I've used it on duty for about 4 hours since the first charge last week and my battery is still down to 70%. So not only did it live up to the manufacturer's claims, it also spent several days in a sitting position (which often drains the battery on other devices). I will post more on the battery life in a future review when new information becomes available. Now back to the sound. I mentioned that the bass was a bit softer than my other speaker (Altec Lansing). Honestly, after a few days of listening, I find it more balanced than other devices. The base is hard when needed and soft when not needed. It seems many devices these days over-modulate the bass to make it "cool" and sacrifice the quality of the original music. I think this speaker has a fairly balanced approach and allows the musician to dial in the bass level in their recording as they intended (unlike an aftermarket speaker). For example, Pink Floyd has a lot of subtleties in music, and it sounds amazing on this device! Voices are clear even at low volume. Very clearly. Finally, the connection to the Bluetooth is fast, easy and error-free. Switching between my MacBook Pro and iPhone is very fast with very little lag. If the speaker and music devices are out of range, they'll reconnect as soon as they're back in range (unless the speaker is in auto-off mode). The speaker turns itself off after a while without a signal (presumably to save battery power). Oh yes, it has a built-in microphone if you get a call in the middle of Bluetooth music streaming. The mic picks up Siri better than the Bluetooth in my car (2013 model is the best midsize car with JBL's "top-of-the-line" sound system). I think what I mean is that this $200 speaker does "Bluetooth" better than my $1800 car audio upgrade sitting in the passenger seat in my car. Anyway, I hope this review is helpful. After owning this unit for a week, I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the $200 range for a portable speaker. I am considering buying another one so they can be paired. maybe for christmas ;-)