Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 review

Blasting music through smartphone speakers to your entire gathering of friends is unacceptable these days. The quality is always abysmal, with the sound grating and heavily distorted. Luckily, Bluetooth speakers are mature now, making it easy for everyone to play music with a decent speaker that fits inside a purse or backpack. The Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 is one such device, and it’s excellent for playing music at house parties or on deep wilderness camping trips. But does it have an Achilles’ heel?

Editor’s note: This WONDERBOOM 3 review was updated on October 30th, 2024, to update the formatting and add the UE WONDERBOOM 4 and JBL Clip 5 as alternatives. 

What you need to know about the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3

The Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 is a portable Bluetooth speaker that focuses on being small and easy to use on the go. It has two active drivers and two passive radiators, which make it pretty good at delivering a full-range sound. It’s IP67 rated, meaning it’s dust resistant and water resistant enough to handle submersion in a meter of water, so it’s perfect for outside (it also includes an “Outdoors Boost” button, which changes the sound accordingly).

The speaker uses Bluetooth to receive audio, and there’s no option for a wired connection. It can be paired with a second WONDERBOOM 3 to deliver sound in stereo. There’s also support for Bluetooth multipoint, which works with up to two source devices simultaneously. The controls are extensive, with physical buttons available for every included feature, and the speaker charges are made using Micro-USB.

What’s good about the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3?

Overall, the audio quality is good. It’s loud for its size, and the frequency response seems fairly even, with nothing being excessively exaggerated. Of course, it lacks the more powerful bass of larger speakers or a setup with a subwoofer. Additionally, if you’re using the WONDERBOOM 3 in the great outdoors, you’ll want to enable the Outdoor Boost button on the bottom of the speaker. This adjusts the sound slightly to better suit the outdoors, taking into account the lack of walls and corners for sound waves to bounce off of. It’s a pretty nifty feature.

If you’re using the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 outdoors, you’ll also appreciate the IP67 rating. This means it’s waterproof for up to thirty minutes of submersion and dust resistant. Ultimate Ears also claims the speaker can handle drops from up to five feet. We’re not keen to test that ourselves, but our general impression is that this unit is relatively sturdy and well-built.

I like the general design of the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3. Its focus on physical buttons for controlling every single feature is something that isn’t found on many Bluetooth devices. This also means that it can be paired to almost any device that supports Bluetooth audio without having to worry about having an app to configure it, including laptops, game consoles, newer Bluetooth turntables, and Bluetooth-enabled media players.

It’s nice that the speaker attempts to deliver rudimentary stereo audio. Unlike cheaper portable speaker options, the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 has two drivers, allowing it to represent both audio channels when listening to music without down-mixing the input to a monophonic track. However, it can only do so much with a closely spaced pair of drivers. Good stereo audio typically relies on space between the two speakers, so pairing a second WONDERBOOM 3 will yield better results.

What’s not so good about the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3?

The older charging standard is the most immediately apparent issue with the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3. For a product released in 2022, it seems pretty egregious not to ship with USB-C. The micro-USB means you’ll have to carry another charging cable, and the speaker won’t charge as fast as USB-C devices with the newer Fast Charging standard. Considering that the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 targets portable users (hikers especially), adding an extra cable puts a bit of a damper on things. Backpackers who want a speaker that uses the same charger as their phone and laptop if space will have to look elsewhere.

Beyond that, the issues are minimal—some may even be a positive to you. The Ultimate Ears app doesn’t support the WONDERBOOM 3, but this just means that it’s easy to set up for any Bluetooth device; any configuration can be handled by the physical buttons on the speaker, and no app is required. It’s also not a large speaker, so you may want to pick something more substantial if you’re looking for a speaker for your bookshelf. It’s great for throwing in a backpack or using when out and about, but I wouldn’t recommend treating this as your only home speaker.

Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 specs

There’s a lot to consider when looking at the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3, so we’ve put together a full specifications sheet for your convenience.

Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 review: Should you buy it?

Regarding portable Bluetooth speakers, the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 is pretty solid. It has enjoyable sound quality, is well-priced, and is quite durable. The most glaring issue is the micro-USB charging connector, which makes it less convenient compared to some of the other USB-C options on the market. Ultimate Ears knows its customers, however, as the Outdoor Boost mode, the IP67 rating, and the WONDERBOOM 3’s overall design generally make it an excellent option for anyone who wants a portable Bluetooth speaker for small gatherings, long hikes, and parties.

What should you get instead of the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3?

The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 ($85.99 at Amazon) is now available, and we’re happy to report it now charges via USB-C. It still provides stereo playback and sports an IP67 protection rating against the elements, but aside from a “podcast” EQ setting, not much else is new. The UE app still doesn’t support it.

The JBL Clip 5 ($79.95 at Amazon) is also now available, with significant upgrades over the outgoing Clip 4. The Clip 5 now provides 7W of output compared to the 5W provided by the Clip 4, offers Auracast, and, more importantly, the JBL Portable app now supports it. The app offers EQ options, including a 5-band customizable EQ, something the Clip 4 or the Wonderboom 3 and Wonderboom 4 don’t provide.

Frequently asked questions about the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3