Review: Ultimate Ears' Newly Announced BOOM 3 and MEGABOOM 3 Speakers Are Its Best Yet

[dantastic]

Most people don't care about usb c. I don't care about usb c. I actually prefer devices without because I have like 2 usb c cables but a tonne of micro usb cables.
Can it be used with the previous generation of booms? That's the big question. Playing from several speakers is a pretty awesome feature.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Seems like the real story is that Ultimate Ears is bi-furcating their smart speakers into two lines:

Amazon Alexa and Music/Pandora/iHeartRadio/TuneIn/SiriusXM/Spotify: Megablast and Blast

Apple Music: Megaboom 3 and Boom 3

 

[CarlJ]

I’d buy one...if it had usb-c haha!

You... have some music to play that has a data rate higher than 480 megabits per second? You're not going to be plugging any devices directly into this, you'll use a cable. And it's easy enough to get a cable with USB-C on one end and "old fashioned" USB on the other end.

 

[HacKage]

I take my UE Boom with me on every holiday, along with a few power banks and some other bits and bobs. The speaker, power banks (1 of which is Qi enabled), noise cancelling headphones all take micro USB. So I take a micro USB cable and a lightning cable, I don't need anything else. That is enough to charge 99% of all the electronics that I own. Should I have to get involved in USB-C for a speaker when nothing else I own, including my Apple products, supports it?

Travel anywhere any lost your cable? Good luck finding ANYWHERE that has an emergency USB-C cable for sale. Even in my hometown of Glasgow in the UK, one night I lost the cable for my S8 that I owned at the time. Could I find a single shop in the city centre that sold a USB-C cable at 7pm?! I'd still be waiting for one, almost a year later!

 

[MrGimper]

I really want one, they are great for the beach.
But won’t buy any devices with a micro USB port, not in 2017 and definitely not in 2018.

Should have been lightning or usc c.

Why on God’s earth would it be lightning?

 

[jclo]

This is quite a long article, and... it's a review, but it doesn't say it's a review until literally the second to last sentence (and the last sentence is just a link to the article).

This seems a little weird. It merges objective reporting on a product announcement with an opinion piece describing how much the author likes (or doesn't like) the speakers.

I think it would reflect better on MacRumors to either declare up front that it is both a product announcement and a review, or post an announcement and a review separately.

Thanks for the feedback on this post. It was meant to be a review, not an objective announcement post. At the same time, though, I wanted to make it clear in the title that these were new products.

I think that was ultimately a mistake and I apologize that the title was unclear. I'll split posts up in the future or make it clearer that it's a review. In this instance, I'm going to change the title, and I hope that helps. Sorry for the confusion!
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How do you mean it works with playlists? You can already do that, just open the Apple music app, open the desired playlist, and click play? Or am i missing something herE?

Otherwise great speakers(currently have 3 booms) and i'll be sure to snatch one Megaboom 2, since it's gotten really cheap on amazon

edit: That's a lot of booms in one post.

The new playlist feature lets you start playing one of four pre-selected playlists without needing to grab your iPhone. So you can long press the Magic Button on the top and go right to a favorite playlist if you don't have your iPhone handy.

 

[FFR]

Why on God’s earth would it be lightning?

Why not?

One cable to charge the iPhone and speaker.

 

[CarlJ]

Why not?

One cable to charge the iPhone and speaker.

And have to make two different versions (in every color and size), one for iPhone, one for everyone else. I love the iPhone, I see the wisdom in the Lightning connector, but I have no problem whatsoever using a different cable for charging this speaker vs. charging the iPhone.

 

[MrGimper]

Why not?

One cable to charge the iPhone and speaker.

You know there are devices other than Apple devices, right?

 

[3rdiguy]

Will the playlist function work with previous generation Boom(2)?

 

[n-evo]

Because no matter how much we kid ourselves on, USB-C is still years away from mainstream adoption. Why does a bluetooth speaker need USB-C? There is absolutely no benefit to UE/Logitech to put in a more expensive, high speed interface for charging and the minute possibility of an end user performing a software update through cable.

Or they could just use the USB-C connector. No need for the rest...

 

[HacKage]

Or they could just use the USB-C connector. No need for the rest...

The ports themselves are still more expensive to buy, there are also 24 pins that need to be soldered perfectly leading to more stringent QC having to be implemented. 24 pins for charging a bluetooth speaker, think about that for a second...

 

[kokako]

I really want one, they are great for the beach.
But won’t buy any devices with a micro USB port, not in 2017 and definitely not in 2018.

Should have been lightning or usc c.

I totally agree, plus manufacturers would sell a boatload more devices if they were lightning or USB-C, micro needs to go!

 

[HacKage]

I totally agree, plus manufacturers would sell a boatload more devices if they were lightning or USB-C, micro needs to go!

That's simply not true, and I can't believe that you honestly think that. The vast vast vast majority of folk who buy this will not give a hoot about what charger connection this thing has. It comes with a cable, and they purchaser more than likely has a spare from one of the millions of other micro USB devices that have been sold over the last 10 years.

 

[kokako]

That's simply not true, and I can't believe that you honestly think that. The vast vast vast majority of folk who buy this will not give a hoot about what charger connection this thing has. It comes with a cable, and they purchaser more than likely has a spare from one of the millions of other micro USB devices that have been sold over the last 10 years.

This is simply true, I can't believe you honestly think this isn't the case, people care about buying great hardware in macs and no reason the charger should be any different, microUSB and lightning are going away in 2019 that's a given and for now it's USBC time. Check out a documentary called so right you're wrong I honestly think you'll like it.

 

[Healer Flame]

Just got Boom 3 yesterday but noticed a sticker in the box "Made for iphone and ipad" . Does that mean they are not compatible with Samsung s9?