Ultimate Ears Everboom review: the right size

The Ultimate Ears speaker lineup is getting quite crowded, having now reached six products with the recent introduction of the $249.99 Everboom. This speaker is a smaller, more portable take on the Epicboom that I reviewed late last year. And its core appeal is the same as any other UE speaker: you’re getting a rugged, waterproof speaker that’s cut out for both indoor and poolside parties. You can link the Everboom with other UE speakers in party mode to play music in sync across all of them. The controls are easy to use — especially the company’s signature oversized volume buttons.

So what makes the Everboom different? You get a fully customizable EQ, which not all of the company’s speakers offer. Like the Epicboom, there’s an outdoor mode that layers some extra volume and power onto the sound when needed. And UE includes a carabiner, which makes it easier to carry the Everboom on your bag or hang it in creative ways.

Both the Epicboom and Everboom dial up the overall audio fidelity compared to UE’s cylindrical speakers. Like those, they output 360-degree sound, so you don’t have to worry about hearing them from a certain sweet spot — in theory, anyway.

As it turns out, the Everboom is often most clear when you’ve got either the left or right side of the speaker directly facing you. Straight on, vocals can lack crispness and detail since the drivers seem to be side firing — though the stereo separation is impressive as a result. For indoor listening, I typically kept the volume level between 30 and 40 percent, and that was plenty loud. Outside, you can crank it further, though the speaker starts to strain and sound overly compressed once you’re at the 70 percent mark.

I don’t think the Everboom’s sound performance lifts it very far above established (and more affordable) competition like the JBL Charge 5, Bose SoundLink Flex, or even the recently released Beats Pill. I’d rank it higher than something like the Sonos Move for sound quality, but there are endless alternatives that are worth eyeing before you fork over $250.

That said, the Everboom met the moment when I brought it upstate for a brief lake cabin getaway. Listening to Zach Bryan’s new album, the Everboom did a good job separating John Mayer’s guitar licks on “Better Days” from the bulk of the mix. Nathaniel Rateliff’s South of Here was also a pleasant listen, though I again found myself pointing one of the speaker’s left / right sides toward me for the best clarity.

But some genres can prove a little much for it. The Hold Steady’s The Price of Progress sounded more muffled than I’d like. This is where the larger Epicboom fares better since it has larger drivers (and more bass growl) to work with. But on the flip side, the Everboom is far easier to take on the go since it’s lighter and considerably smaller. Battery life is more than adequate at 20 hours of continuous playback.

That said, I don’t know if anyone’s buying UE speakers for critical listening. The brand has a good reputation for making durable products that can last many years. (And now, mercifully, the whole lineup has finally switched to USB-C.) The Everboom has IP67 dust and water resistance, and it’ll float if you drop it in a pool — and keep the music going afterward.

But don’t expect any exciting bonus features. The Everboom does at least include multipoint, so you can pair two phones to the speaker at once. And it’s got NFC support for very quick pairing. Still, I can’t help but feel that Ultimate Ears is resting on its laurels when other companies give you more. For example, the Beats Pill offers lossless USB-C input, and JBL is starting to embrace forward-looking Bluetooth technologies like Auracast. Meanwhile, the Everboom can’t even be used as a speakerphone. UE’s app has a new megaphone feature that lets you speak into your phone and broadcast that to your Boom speakers, but how often will that be useful?

The Everboom isn’t a terrible purchase; none of UE’s products are if all you’re seeking is a decent-sounding and very dependable speaker. But we’re firmly in an era where I’m expecting more than “Yeah, that sounds pretty nice” from a $250 wireless speaker. The Everboom doesn’t deliver enough to warrant that kind of price, and I’d wager most people will stick with the company’s better-known Boom 4. It provides many of the same strengths for less money.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge