This is the review of the comparison between the original Bluetooth speaker and its updated version, those are the Ultimate Ears Megaboom and the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3. There are a day and night difference in their price range and also the difference is there in their features, To know which one is better for the price, go to the detailed review.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3	Ultimate Ears Megaboom
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Class-leading battery life. Gets incredibly loud. Punchy sound.	Solid audio quality across most of the range. Everything-proof.
CONS	CONS
Recessed mids. Bass sounds loose at high volume. Charging dock not included.	Struggles with deep sub-bass. Expensive.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

The Megaboom 3 is an updated version of one of the most popular Bluetooth speakers on the market. These speakers are retailing for around two hundred and dollars. These speakers are available in four different colors ultraviolet purple, sunset red, lagoon blue, and midnight black.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom

The Megaboom is the original model Bluetooth speaker from the Megaboom list.  This speaker is retailing for around a hundred and ten dollars currently. This speaker really has a great design, good and loud sound quality.

DESIGN: 

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

The latest incarnation is the first time that they’ve actually kind of changed the physical appearance of the Megaboom. Long gone is that silicone rubber strip right along the front, now it’s just replaced with the updated fabric. This not only looks better it helps produce better 360-degree audio. The new fabric is kind of cool, it feels great in the hand, and has a really amazing two-tone look. The red hearings have a kind of red and black and as you change your position it kind of moves in the shimmers just a little bit. The purple model is also pretty, great-looking. Getting our biggest qualms out of the way, right away is the USB port, the micro USB port has been moved from the bottom to the side which is a good choice as far as placement but it’s still micro USB.

It is incredulous that Ultimate Ears sticks with micro USB when USB-C is clearly the future. However, if you don’t want to worry about USB at all, there is a new option to use Ultimate Ears power up charging stand. Basically, it’s a proprietary wireless charger for their Boom 3, Megaboom 3, and their Megablast speakers. As far as controls, there is a Bluetooth button there on the top, the power button there on the bottom, and the brand-new magic button. This magic button acts as a play/pause, and skip button but does a lot more.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom

The Megaboom from Ultimate Ears is actually a Logitech company and it is a beast of a speaker packing 2 2 inch drivers and 2, 2 by 4-inch passive radiators, pumping out a max sound level of 90 decibels with a frequency range of 65 to 20 kilohertz. The Megaboom suited almost all my needs means my need for extreme durability which the Megaboom provides with its extremely solid build feeling and soft-touch rubber on the top, bottom, and over the volume controls. They even brag on their product page about how they break things to rebuild them even stronger.

I’m not sure what to consider the front of the speaker seeing as it’s cylindrical shaped, and you’ll see on the front we’ve got huge volume controls which are really handy. But again as mentioned before, the Megaboom almost suits all my needs with its only drawback being the lack of track controls for pausing, playing, and skipping forward, or backward. The top, however, features the power button which is sort of set in molded as part of the housing, and then right next to that is the Bluetooth pairing button which by the way pairs very quickly and features Bluetooth 4.0. If you don’t feel like pairing it manually, just use the NFC feature to quickly pair your devices. On the bottom of the covered micro USB for charging, and 3.5-millimeter auxiliary ports as well as a little loop for carabiners or whatever else you want to hang off of it.

FEATURES:

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

Getting these set up is pretty much as easy as you’d expect, hit the power button it’s immediately going to go into Bluetooth pairing mode for the first time, or you can hold on to that Bluetooth button open up your device your iPhone or your iPad go into Bluetooth settings, and you should see the Megaboom 3 right at the bottom of the list. Once you’ve added it, you can download and launch the Megaboom and Boom app. The app is not necessary you can completely use this thing as a normal speaker without downloading the app. There’s a lot of really cool features such as that magic button. You can assign four different presets to Apple music, so any playlist that you really love and can be controlled using the magic button.

There’s also EQ controls, there are several different presets that you can choose from, or you can completely customize your own in the app. There are ones for standard, cramped spaces, bass jump, and voices. It’s pretty nice to have those options there, so if you don’t really know what to change in the EQ, you have these pre-done options but otherwise, you can just turn up the bass, turn down the bass, whatever you really want to do. Also within the app, you can pair multiple speakers together actually over a hundred and fifty of these can be connected together to really amplify the sound. There’s also party block mode or block party mode where you can actually act kind of as a DJ for a bunch of people.

When you go somewhere, you’ve got your speaker with you, and it’s completely powered off and you want to be able to get it up and going as fast and easily as possible. But if you press and hold on to the magic button just for a second, it’ll completely power on turn on Bluetooth connect to the phone and start playing the first preset. Pressing and holding again will jump to the next playlist.

The UE Megaboom 3 is also completely water-resistant IP67 means, you can go about a meter down for 30 minutes but it shouldn’t be down that far because this thing floats. It’s completely water-resistant, so if you ever get this thing dirty just take it inside and you can rinse it off and you’re good as new. This is the stuff that we love to see on a rugged durable outdoor speaker.

The range is also pretty solid and battery life is rated up to 20 hours. We love the little touches like the big buttons in the front to control the volume the new loop on the back to hang this over a backpack, of the side of a boat, wherever you are that you really just kinda want to hang this thing up and get that great 360 degrees sound.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom

I also wanted something waterproof for when I’m doing outdoor activities which the Megaboom has covered with its IPX7 rating, giving it the ability to stay submerged underwater for up to 30 minutes at about one to one and a half meters. I also needed a good distance connection range because I’m tired of walking 10 to 20 feet away from other speakers and having it start to cut out, which the mega boom solves with its 100-foot range. That said I did test this out and as long as there are no obstructions like walls and so on, I’m happy to mention that 100 feet are a pretty darn accurate distance claim.

One very important factor in any Bluetooth speaker is the battery life, and the Megaboom has that covered to what they claimed battery life of 20 hours. Though unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find out how many milliamp hours of battery has I can tell you that based on my usage which was pumping it at pretty much max volume every time they turn it on, I was able to get a total of about 17 hours of battery life.

You can download the Megaboom app for your Android or Apple devices you launch it, and simply tap on the image of the speaker, and it’ll give you the percentage of battery life or you can press or you can hold the volume up and down buttons at the same time and it’ll speak to you telling you the percentage. When it is time to charge it, just plug it in using the included hot yellow ultra-fast charger and USB cable and you’ll be back up and jamming in about two and a half hours.

But that’s not all the app can do, you can power the speaker on or off, you can set an alarm to use with the speaker, you can also pair and chain a second Ultimate Ears Megaboom or Ultimate Ears Boom speaker and then pick between stereo or double up the sound. Last but certainly not least, tweaking the equalizer was one of the four presets or create your own custom sound EQ. What’s really cool is that Ultimate Ears is constantly updating and adding to the app with new features to give your speaker even more function.

SOUND QUALITY:

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3

The Megaboom 3 sounded pretty amazing with really impressive bass. It’s no wonder that these are one of the most popular lines of speakers out there on the market. The Megaboom 3 is larger than the Boom by about 2 inches and has a much deeper bass and improved frequency response. Best yet, their price has dropped $50 from the last model.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom

I’ve listened to almost every other premium branded Bluetooth speakers in this price range, and there’s just nothing else out there with a waterproof IPX7 rating, 100-foot distance high durability, and 20-hour battery life that can produce the sound clarity, bass, and volume, that the mega boom is capable of. Adding to the listening experience, it’s 360-degree audio projection meaning you can face the speaker any direction you want and the volume and sound quality don’t change one bit which is just awesome, considering other speakers with the same shape, sound dramatically different, depending on which way you face the built-in speaker drivers.

WHICH ONE IS BETTER FOR THE PRICE?

Even though it’s lacking track control buttons in my opinion, for a Bluetooth speaker with an IPX7 waterproof rating, a 100-foot range, a claimed 20-hour battery life that I was able to get 17 out of, super-tough construction, the ability to chain two of these together, and the insane quality of sound and volume for something so small, the Megaboom is the best Bluetooth speaker for its price on the market. 

Expert Reviews of Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3:

By Tech Radar
The UE Megaboom 3 doesn’t stray from the company’s tried and true formula but it doesn’t have to. The Megaboom 3 is one of the best waterproof speakers you can buy thanks to its rugged design, long battery life, and audio performance, plus the new DJ feature is a clever way to get your friends on the action.

By What Hi-Fi?
Punchy, exciting, and full of fun, the Megaboom 3’s design tweaks, and new features make it even more exciting to use than before.

By PCMag
The wireless Ultimate Ears UE Megaboom 3 speaker improves upon its predecessor with a sleeker, more rugged design and a lower price tag.

By Tom’s Guide
The UE Megaboom 3 has what you want in a portable Bluetooth speaker: good sound quality, long battery life, ruggedness, and more.

By Forbes
The Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 isn’t a smart speaker. If you want Alexa to get involved without using your smartphone, the company has that covered with the Megablast (reviewed here). But if you’re looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker…

Expert Reviews of Ultimate Ears Megaboom:

By Macworld
Ultimate Ears slammed down the gauntlet with its Megaboom portable Bluetooth speaker. This loud-and-proud, thoroughly weatherized speaker produces enough sound to fill the average backyard, and it comes with a richly featured app that will make it the…

By GoodHouseKeeping
This speaker provides big, high-quality sound from a compact, lightweight unit. It comes in some funky, colorful designs and is waterproof, and will float on water. Using the Ultimate Ears app you can access the added features like “Block Party,” which…

By TechRadar
The UE Megaboom is easy to recommend based on its sound and battery improvements over its smaller Boom brethren. But, at $299 (£249, AU$379), this speaker is in need of a killer app to best the…

By MacNN
Ultimate Ears (now owned by Logitech) has found great success in the marketplace with its “Boom” series of Bluetooth speakers, a modest tube about the size of your typical energy-drink can, that puts out sufficient volume to provide a wireless…

By TechPowerUp
The MEGABOOM covers most listening scenarios better, but it is slightly worse off when it comes to portability, so if your primary concerns are sound quality and volume, the MEGABOOM will fit the bill better, but if you want something to reside in your backpack, you will find yourself wanting the BOOM instead.