May 26, 2016

JBL Charge 3 Portable Wireless Speaker Review

May 26, 2016/ Nir Schneider

The king of affordably priced portable Bluetooth speakers has returned. And it's bigger, better and more powerful than before. JBL has for a long time been the best at making portable speakers that were unbeatable. It's now about to retake that title with its latest generation of its most successful model yet. The new Charge 3 is a fully waterproof portable wireless speaker with larger drivers that produce sound that is even better than what was considered to be the portable speaker to beat. Other improvements include a much longer battery life and an upgraded design that is tougher and more durable than its predecessors – the Charge 2+ and Charge 2. We've had some time to thoroughly test out JBL's newest portable offering, which of course also means putting it up against formidable rivals. To find out if the Charge 3 really has what it takes to be crowned king of portable speakers under $300, read the full in-depth review down below!

June 26, 2015

Ultimate Ears UE Roll Portable Wireless Speaker Review

June 26, 2015/ Nir Schneider

Ultimate Ears has recently introduced a bold new portable wireless speaker to replace its cheeky little $100 UE Mini Boom that is supposedly the company's "most adventure-seeking speaker yet". The UE Roll as it's called is a small, spherically-shaped and ultra-compact portable Bluetooth speaker that blasts beats in a full 360-degrees and is designed to be used in all sorts of tasking environments thanks to its durable, shock/drop-resistant and IPX7-rated waterproof construction – including its ability to attach onto almost anything using a built-in marine-grade bungee cord feature. In other words this is a miniature UE Boom waiting to be tossed around and played with. The UE Roll borrows a lot from its larger and more expensive brother – the UE Boom, but the question is how does it stack up in the real world? More importantly, is the UE Roll an improved UE Mini Boom successor at $100? Let's find out!

January 23, 2015

Ultimate Ears UE Megaboom Review

January 23, 2015/ Nir Schneider

Portable speakers let us enjoy our music wirelessly at home and on the go. And with the smaller, more powerful and longer lasting models offered recently, it's no wonder everyone wants one. Back when Ultimate Ears introduced the UE Boom more than a year ago – the cylindrically-shaped $200 speaker most known for its durable svelte design and immersive 360-degree sound, the company really impressed us with its advanced portable speaker design. So much so that it was worthy of our Editors' Choice Award. The only thing that held us back from giving the UE Boom the highest score possible was that it didn't quite have enough bass under the hood. Despite that, the UE Boom was considered as one of the best portable speakers at $200. But since then many companies like JBL released drastically improved offerings that surpassed the UE Boom's once firm reign over the portable speaker market.

Fast forward to present day, Ultimate Ears used its legendary portable speaker design chops to craft the UE Megaboom, the step-up speaker for people who loved the UE Boom but wished it offered more oomph in the bass department. Its a strikingly familiar looking portable sound producing gadget that promises to deliver ridiculously amazing 360-degree worth of sound with deep bass and magical unicorns thrown into the mix. Okay, maybe the latter isn't true. But everything else is. Or so Ultimate Ears claims. So let's get to it, our full and in-depth review is waiting for you after the break!

May 31, 2014

Fugoo (Style, Sport & Tough) Portable Wireless Speaker Review

May 31, 2014/ Nir Schneider

Fugoo is perhaps the most impressive and intriguing portable wireless speaker system brands to be introduced into the consumer audio market. Not only does the Fugoo Wireless Speaker boast the best battery life ever to grace such a compact and hardware-rich portable speaker with an incredible 40-hours of wireless music streaming, but it also stands out with its ingenious and very much effective interchangeable "Jacket" styling concept, and impressive speaker driver "Core" design that is extremely durable in its waterproof construction, yet packs a massive punch of audio awesomeness which we did not see coming. Did we mention the shockingly good battery life and unbridled hexa (meaning six) speaker driver engineering? How about the fact that the Fugoo speaker can be mounted onto practically anything thanks to modular GoPro-esque accessories and a just do it attitude?

From unsullied chic to all-terrain extreme toughness, Fugoo's swappable exterior Jacket enclosures let you choose which way and how hard to rock out without ever losing sight of audio quality nor inner speaker core durability. Let's find out how it stacks up against the competition, if there's any to begin with. Hit that imaginary button for the full, in-depth review.