What makes the ideal Bluetooth speaker for outdoor garden parties this summer? It needs to be portable, with long-lasting battery life, simple controls, easy connectivity, reliable outdoor performance and ruggedness — and of course, it should have terrific sound without costing too much. Depending on the size of your gathering, you’ll also want to be able to pair multiple speakers together for a bigger soundstage or a stereo setup.
I’ve tested loads of portable speakers and I must say that finding the specific blend of these features can be a little challenging. By their nature, smaller speakers can struggle to generate a big sound or long battery life. On the other hand, bigger models can sound fantastic and last a long time, but be too tricky to carry around.
I tend to recommend models that weigh around 600g, like the JBL Flip 6 and Bose SoundLink Flex. However, if your budget can stretch a bit more and you want more features and a bigger sound, you really can’t go wrong with the new Everboom from Ultimate Ears.
It’s weatherproof, under a kilo, as simple as it gets to use with a 20-hour battery and brilliant 360-degree sound that you’ll swear shouldn’t be as loud and engaging as it is from this reasonably compact package.
There’s a very good argument that it could be the only speaker you’d need, with the only slight downside being that its £249 price tag is a little expensive, although it is more affordable than the new Bose SoundLink Max.
Ultimate Ears Everboom: At a glance
Pros
- Excellent 360-degree sound quality
- Outdoor Boost mode
- Weighs under 1kg
- Dust-sealed and waterproof
Cons
- Still pricey
- Not as compact as some
Key specifications
| Dimensions | 11 x 8.5 x 20.5cm |
|---|---|
| Weight | 960g |
| IP rating | IP67 |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth |
| Battery life | Up to 20 hours |
Ultimate Ear Everboom review
The key selling points for the Everboom are its powerful and clear audio from a 360-degree design (that’ll sound good no matter where you are in relation to it), its impressive battery life, its portable and outdoor-ready form factor, its 55-metre Bluetooth range and its convincing “Outdoor Boost” mode that makes your music sound its best in the open air.
Until recently, Ultimate Ears speakers didn’t have USB-C ports and that’s resolved with the launch of the Everboom and updates across the brand’s entire lineup, making all of these speakers easier to charge. They’re also easy to connect to numerous speakers via the companion app, boosting the sound with the addition of other speakers including the Boom 4, Megaboom 4, Hyperboom, Epicboom and, of course, another Everboom.
In fact, if you or your friends happen to have two Everboom models, they can stereo pair together, to make one the left channel and the other the right. I’ve heard this demonstrated and it levels up what’s already great sound quality (more on that later).
Ultimate Ears Everboom: Connectivity and features
In addition to its 55-metre range and Outdoor Boost to enhance the audio projection for better sound outdoors, the Everboom also has an interesting “Megaphone” feature allowing you to speak into your phone’s microphone and project your voice through the speaker. I can see this being a powerful feature for the DJ at the party in charge of the playlist, or if you wanted to make an announcement to everyone at your gathering.
I’ve tried this through the Ultimate Ears app and it’s super easy and intuitive to use. The Outdoor Boost is something you’re likely to use a lot more, though. During the weeks of testing the speaker, I’ve routinely switched this on when I bring the Everboom out onto the balcony, and it makes the 360-degree audio even better in open spaces.
In general, controlling the speaker is incredibly straightforward. You’ve got the two big volume buttons on the front (press both of these at the same time and the battery level lights illuminate) and on the top, you can see buttons for powering it on and off, Bluetooth pairing, the Outdoor Boost and a play/pause button for playback (press this twice quickly to skip forward, and three times to go back).
A long press on this button can be set to launch your favourite playlist, but it only works with Apple Music and Amazon at the moment, and Spotify support would make it much more handy.
Ultimate Ears Everboom: Sound quality
The sound quality from this speaker handily beats more compact competitors like the JBL Flip 6, Soundcore Motion 300 and Bose SoundLink Flex. It’s a rich and dynamic sound profile that’s designed for clarity in the mid-range, detailed vocals and punchy bass.
One of the biggest benefits here is that its 360-degree design means it’ll sound great no matter which direction the speaker is facing from you. It’s not fussed about where you are positioned relative to the speaker or where you place it, whether it’s in the centre of the room or tucked away in a corner. Either way, it’s capable of pumping out a lively and engaging rendering of your favourite music.
In addition to the power of the Outdoor Boost, you get a lot of audio customisation through the Ultimate Ears app. By default, it’s on a “Signature” equaliser mode, but you can change it to one of the optimised presets available, including “Bass Boost”, “Cramped Space”, “Deep Relaxation” and a dedicated mode for podcasts that makes spoken-word content and vocals sound clear and distinct. If you like to tinker, you can also make a customised equaliser setting for yourself.
Ultimate Ears Everboom: Design and durability
Ultimate Ears is quite eager to promote the recycled materials at use in the Everboom, which contains at least 58% certified post-consumer recycled plastic, and 100% recycled polyester speaker fabric. I like the soft materials at use here and you can buy it in either blue or black colours with contrasting volume button colours.
A major appeal to the design is how lightweight it is. Of course, it’s not among the lightest speakers I’ve tried but it’s rare to get its kind of capabilities in a model that weighs well under a kilogram. It’s made to float, it’s easy to hold one-handed, it comes with a carabiner to attach it to a bag and it feels like a speaker you could throw over to somebody else at a get-together without having to worry about how fragile it is.
Of course, that’s because it’s not fragile at all. It’s drop-tested to survive falls from the height of a metre. It comes with the expected IP67 rating to assure you of its waterproof and dustproof performance. As mentioned, it’ll float in water (I tested this) so you could use it next to a pool. And even if you did manage to submerge it, it’s rated to keep working after being in a metre-deep of water for half an hour.
Ultimate Ears Everboom: Battery life
Ultimate Ears has just added USB-C charging across its entire range, making it available on the revamped Boom 4, Megaboom 4 and Wonderboom 4. Much like Apple with the iPhone 15, it’s a little late to adopt the convenient USB-C charging standard but that doesn’t make this any less welcome.
Overall, it’s going to make it super easy to replenish the battery on the Everboom from any compatible cable when it runs dry. However, that’s not something that should happen often with its potential for 20 hours of battery life. Ultimate Ears tested this battery life with the speaker playing at its default volume of 42%, and during testing, I’ve often used it at a lower volume. That means it may be able to eke out just a little more life than 20 hours. Alternatively, if played on full blast it won’t keep going for quite as long.
Good Housekeeping’s verdict on the Ultimate Ears Everboom portable speaker
If you’re after the ideal outdoor speaker for garden parties, camping trips, and much more, I’d struggle to find faults with the Ultimate Ears Everboom if it’s within your budget. If £249.99 is over what you’re prepared to pay and you’re not ready to wait for deals during Black Friday, then it’s going to be a little harder to recommend.
The Everboom is a tremendous speaker that offers a sound that defies its compact size, tonnes of battery life, a suite of great features for parties and outdoor use, as well as lots of customisation via its companion app (I haven’t even mentioned that Android users can easily connect by just tapping their phones on the speaker, perfect for sharing the DJ duties).
You can get many of these features within more affordable models like the Bose SoundLink Flex, Beats Pill and JBL Flip 6, but you’re not going to get the clarity, bass performance and distortion-free volume from those speakers. And, if better sound is a priority, it costs a lot more to level up to the likes of the Ultimate Ears Epicboom (£329), Bose SoundLink Max (£399) or Sonos Move 2 (£449).
Simon Cocks is Good Housekeeping UK’s Technology Editor, overseeing tech shopping content and strategy for the title. He previously also worked across other titles including Esquire UK, Digital Spy, Men’s Health UK and Women’s Health UK.
Simon specialises in testing the latest smart gadgets, home entertainment gear, headphones, speakers, portable chargers, radios, e-book readers and smartphones. He's reviewed top tech products from brands including Google, Apple, Amazon, JBL and Bose.
A magazine journalism graduate from Kingston University in 2014, Simon also worked on the Discovery and Silkroad inflight magazines. He then gained experience writing about entertainment at SFX and Total Film. He also contributed reviews and interviews to TwitchFilm (later ScreenAnarchy), CultBox and Frame Rated.
He joined Good Housekeeping UK as the Editorial Assistant for Special Projects and was part of Good Housekeeping’s Consumer Affairs Team between 2014 and 2019. In this role, he conducted price comparison research, wrote detailed household and money-saving advice guides and edited thousands of in-depth reviews for the Good Housekeeping Institute.
He has focused on technology and gadgets since 2020, where he started by testing out power banks and instant cameras. He writes reviews, roundups, news articles and deals updates, and also covers top tech deals during sales like Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
When not testing out the latest gizmos, you’ll find Simon either catching up with the newest releases at his local cinema or out shooting with his beloved compact camera.
You can follow Simon on Instagram, on Bluesky, on LinkedIn and on Threads.
