Update April 2, 2024: this story has been updated to following new information on the product and to remove mentions of a contributing sound engineer.
Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in the street a brand new Bluetooth speaker. But what if the Sonos Roam is a little too rich for your blood, given the current cost of living situation? Earfun gets it.
Meet the all-new Earfun UBoom L. It won't launch officially on Amazon until July 11 (and will start shipping on July 12) but the company just put an early-bird offer live: sign up to the mailing list beforehand and you'll receive a 25% discount code, slashing the price from an already-reasonable $80 to just $60 (around £67 or AU$116).
And it won't be a case of clicking 'buy' and hoping for the best when it comes to performance either – the dual 55mm dynamic drivers, 16 hours of playback (for quick reference, you'll only get 12 hours from the JBL Flip 6, still one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can currently buy), stereo pairing, speakerphone functionality and three sound modes for indoor, outdoor or video duties, so it already sounds pretty good on paper.
Analysis: Earfun is now a proven name in audio and for this money, its UBoom L speaker is a no-brainer
At this point, Earfun (a little-known brand until 2019) has proven its merit – see our reviews of the Earfun Air and Earfun Air Pro for reference. Did we mention the thing is IPX7 rated, which means it can be submerged in water at a depth of up to one metre for 30 minutes and survive? That puts it up there with some of the best waterproof speakers on the market.
Perhaps the most interesting feature in the Earfun UBoom L is the option to select from three different sound modes, something we first saw in the splendid-though-ageing Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2, released in summer 2019. In fact, where is Ultimate Ears these days? In its seeming absence, other audio manufacturers are certainly picking up the slack…
Remember though that in UE's mug-sized speaker, you had just one outdoor boost mode (a little tree button on the underside) whereas here, there's also the option of a video boost mode.
Naturally, the bass weight of any portable Bluetooth speaker will be limited given its relatively bijou dimensions, but given what I've seen and heard already, for this money, I'll be first in line to snap one up…
