Review on 🔊 Anker Soundcore Mini 3 Bluetooth Speaker: Enhanced Bass, PartyCast Technology, USB-C & Waterproof IPX7 - a Customizable EQ Speaker by Kyle Rock

Bought this speaker for discreet listening at home and to take outside on my next hike. I'm by no means a music lover, my only other Bluetooth speaker is the Bose Soundlink Mini II, which isn't a fair comparison - the Bose has a lot deeper bass and gets a lot louder, but it's also a lot bigger. In general I am satisfied with the majority. product aspects. Bass is decent for its size and gets pretty loud for indoor use. Haven't seen it outdoors yet, but given its indoor performance, I think it will be good outdoors as well. Waterproofing is comfortable, build quality is good, and USB-C charging is a must-have in 2021. The dedicated app also has some nice options for tweaking the equalizer and connecting multiple speakers, although I don't have a second one. one to check it. Battery life seems good too; I didn't test it thoroughly but the device arrived half charged and I played for hours without plugging it in. The only thing that bothers me is that I've encountered some problems with the Bluetooth connection: 1) When I'm connected to my iPhone, it sometimes turns the volume up too high. It's quite annoying because the music suddenly explodes when I press the play button. This doesn't happen with any other Bluetooth speakers or headphones I have, so I'm assuming it's not a phone issue. I haven't reproduced this consistently, so I'm not 100% sure when it will happen. 2) Sound delay is noticeable. It doesn't matter if I'm just streaming music, but it's very annoying when I'm watching videos and it doesn't match the audio output from the speaker. It doesn't seem limited to a single device as I can play it on my Macbook Pro, M1 Macbook Air and iPhone. The lag on the iPhone is a little less noticeable compared to the MacBooks, but it's still there. This lag makes it unsuitable for watching videos. If it weren't for these issues I would give this speaker 5 stars. I haven't seen this in any of the other reviews so I'm not sure if it applies to my device. I hope that both problems can be fixed with a simple firmware update. The Soundcore app says I'm using firmware version 01.26 which appears to be the latest version. Pros: - Waterproof, could be rinsed with water and still worked well - Small, compact form factor is handy and portable - Good build quality, doesn't feel cheap - The app lets you adjust the EQ and connect multiple speakers - The bass is for decent size, speaker sounds pretty loud - USB-C charging cons - bluetooth issues mentioned above - no 3.5mm audio jack input - built-in wrist strap in speaker so not possible to replace if he is worn out. I would have preferred a lanyard opening that would allow me to replace it when worn.