Gadgets
New Wonderboom 3 speaker lasts longer and improves connectivity
Sadly, the new speaker still use micro-USB for charging.
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Ultimate Ears has refreshed its best Bluetooth speaker, the $99.99 Wonderboom 3. It’s the same design, now with longer battery life and better connectivity.
You’ll still get the high-quality, outdoor-filling sound the previous model produced. You also get the same float-on-water, IP67-rated design, bright colors, and oversized, colorful volume controls. The rated battery life is now 14 hours.
Ultimate Ears has improved the Bluetooth range, so it’s now 131 feet instead of the 100 feet range of the Wonderboom 2. That means you don’t have to keep them quite as close together if you’re pairing two together for stereo sound.
They’ve even improved the green factor by using a minimum of 31 percent post-consumer recycled plastic in every unit. Do you know what else they recycled? The charging port.
The Wonderboom 3 still uses a micro-USB port to recharge. It’s 2022, and we’re still saddled with the unreliable port of yesteryear.
Look, even Apple is putting USB-C into everything, so there’s no excuse for any consumer device not to use the newer port.
At launch, it looks like there are four Wonderboom 3 colors. Active Black, Performance Blue, Hyper Pink, and Joyous Bright.
Ultimate Ears’ marketing images show at least two more colors, a green and a purple, so expect to see those released at some point.
Preorders are open direct from Ultimate Ears, where you can get the black, blue, pink, and white colorways for $99.99. Shipping starts on August 31, and you can expect other retail outlets to carry them soon.
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Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.