I threw the Loudest Outdoor Part I’ve Ever Had With This Speaker

Key Takeaways

• The Ultimate Ears Everboom offer loud volume and crisp sound quality.
• A 20-hour battery life keeps this speaker going almost all day.
• It also includes an easy tap-to-connect function and quick charging.

Music could help get any party going, whether in your backyard or in the wilderness. However, you need a loud wireless Bluetooth speaker to do that—and the Ultimate Ears Everboom will do just that for you. So, is this rugged portable speaker something you should carry with you on your next camping trip?

Price and Availability

The Ultimate Ears Everboom is available for $249.99 on Amazon and the Ultimate Ears website. It is available in four colors: Charcoal Black, Azure Blue, Raspberry Red, and Enchanting Lilac. I prefer Charcoal Black, but you might want the bright-colored options to make it easier to spot if you plan to take the speaker on your adventures.

Tap to Connect

One of the best quality-of-life features of the Ultimate Ears Everboom is its tap-to-pair function that allows you to connect any Android phone with an NFC reader by just tapping it to the top of the speaker. In fact, I can switch between my Samsung Note10+ and Vivo X90 Pro by just tapping them to the Everboom with the screen unlocked (and NFC activated).

Unfortunately, this function does not work with my iPhone 14 Pro Max, even if I already have iOS 18 installed, so Apple users beware. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty easy to connect—just press and hold the Bluetooth button at the top of the speaker, go to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings, and tap on EVERBOOM.

Sound Quality Is in the Name

Ultimate Ears is known for its great sound quality, and the Everboom does not disappoint. When placed at maximum volume, I recorded the Everboom hitting up to 110dB in my office, which makes it as loud as a subway train or food blender going on full tilt. Despite that, the speaker delivered rich audio quality at up to 80% of my Samsung’s volume, rendering every tiny detail of all the tracks I played with sharpness and clarity.

When I push the volume up to 100%, the quality starts to break a little bit, but you probably won’t notice it when you’re listening outside. You could also activate Outdoor mode, which pushes the bass slightly to make you feel the music more.

I compared the Ultimate Ears Everboom with my far larger Edifier D12 desktop speaker, and I can say that they have comparable sound quality despite the former being smaller than the latter. Nevertheless, the speaker I’m testing isn’t audiophile-grade, so don’t expect a cinema-like experience.

Long Battery Life, Fast Charging

The Everboom claims a 20-hour battery life on a single charge, which is more than enough for a few days of listening. I haven’t been able to drain the speaker by using it for 20 hours straight, but it lasted me about two to three weeks of intermittent use as it served as my laptop speaker whenever I worked outside my house.

But what I appreciate about the Everboom is how quickly it can charge—it took me less than half an hour to juice it from empty to about 80%. So, even if it’s low, you can just plug it into a USB-C power source, and you’ll be good to go in less than an hour.

Aside from the sound quality and ease of connection, the Ultimate Ears Everboom also has a few other tricks up its sleeve when you use the Ultimate Ears app, which is available for Android and iPhone. The first feature is the Megaphone, where your phone can act as a wireless microphone, and then you can use the Everboom as a loudspeaker.

You can also change the speaker’s equalizer settings in the app. It offers five presets: Signature, Bass Boost, Cramped Spaces, Deep Relaxation, and Podcast/Vocal. But if you have your own preferences, you can use the app to create a custom profile.

Finally, you can connect several wireless Ultimate Ears speakers under the ‘Boom’ line, including the Boom, Boom 2, Boom 3, Megaboom, Megaboom 3, and Hyperboom speakers with the Partyup feature. You can use this to pair two compatible wireless speakers for a stereo effect or combine 150 different speakers and turn them into one giant loudspeaker for the ultimate beach party.

Aside from that, the Ultimate Ears app lets you change the speaker’s name if you dig into the settings menu. It also lets you set an alarm so you can wake up to your own tunes playing on the speaker. However, we recommend keeping the speaker charged and connected to your phone, as it tends to go to sleep after a few minutes when no music is playing to save the battery.

Of course, I cannot forget the speaker’s toughness. It has an IP67 rating, meaning it’s both dustproof and water-resistant. It also floats on water, so you don’t lose the speaker if you drop it in the pool. Furthermore, Ultimate Ears claims that the Everboom is drop-proof, saying that it was tested from a height of one meter. And, to highlight its rugged capabilities, it comes with a loop and carabiner so you can easily hang it in different places.

Should You Buy the Ultimate Ears Everboom?

The Ultimate Ears Everboom is an excellent package for those who want to party in large open spaces. It offers great sound quality while delivering the volume you need to entertain a large audience. Furthermore, it has great battery life, so you can use it for hours at a time without needing to find a USB-C outlet for charging.

It has a few other quality-of-life features that make it easy to use with multiple devices, like tap-to-connect, Partyup, and even the custom equalizer. It’s a shame that it’s purely a Bluetooth speaker and you don’t get other connection options like Aux. Nevertheless, it’s still a great piece of sound equipment that will help you get the mood going wherever you are. So, if you want to get the party started with your own mix of tunes, the Ultimate Ears Everboom will give you just that.