Historically, portable boomboxes served a lot of purposes, from catering to a big group at the same time, providing music at places such as the lakeside or the beach, or have an impromptu dance-off. Whatever the case be, the point of making them portable (relatively, because they ran on heavy D-cells) was to let the boomboxes be carried outside. Why am I ranting on about the old boomboxes when I’m supposed to tell you about the new Logitech UE Boombox? Well, I have a point. I’ll just make it towards the end.

So, coming back to the new Logitech UE Boombox – it’s a portable Bluetooth audio system. With curved edges and an integrated handle, it reminds you of the old portable cassette players. I personally loved the build quality of the UE Boombox – it’s been crafted out of stainless steel, die-cast aluminium, and toughened rubber. While the overall design is visually great, there are two major flaws. The rubber part is all white – take it outdoors a few times, and it picks up dirt really fast. Problem number two lies with the handle. There’s hardly any space between the body and the handle, and the grip has slightly sharp edges – you can’t carry this around in your hand for a long time. Either, the space should’ve been more, or a rubber or foam grip should’ve been added to the handle.

The UE Boombox is a bit heavy, weighing in nearly 2 kilos. By portable speaker standards, that’s a bit too much, but then the UE Boombox has this kind of weight for good reason. There are a total of eight drivers that deliver bass rich sound. Two 0.5 inch tweeters produce really nice and crisp high notes, and the two 3-inch woofers give really nice and clean mid-range notes. There are four 2.75 inch pass radiators (two each for every woofer), and they provide some serious boom. The bass is so deep that it actually overpowers the high notes if you use the Boombox indoors. But, it actually performs brilliantly in open spaces.

I could wrangle some serious thump out of the UE Boombox across all genres on the rooftop. But the moment I got it indoors, the bass muffled things up. That said, the bass actually holds out without the slightest distortion at even the highest volume levels, which is quite high. You can connect multiple devices, and switching between devices is easy too.

The UE Boombox lasted for up to 6 hours on a single charge, which is quite good for a big, bassy speaker. If you intend on using a speaker system mostly indoors, you’re better off with a Bose Soundlink Mini or a JBL Pulse. But if you like shaking things up outside, UE Boombox is your thing. Because well, that’s what boomboxes are made for, aren’t they?

Rs 21,995

Love – Deep, rich bass; clear at loud volumes

Hate – Bass is overwhelming when used indoors

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