FOR THOSE COOL POOLSIDE PARTIES

The Ultimate Ears Boom speaker can withstand some serious rough play

Ultimate Ears is an American audio brand, now part of the Logitech group. It is arguably the first to create consumer speakers that paid as much attention to style as to the sound. Regular readers of this page might recall how we shared our experience with two earlier editions of the UE Roll Bluetooth speaker with their distinctive discus shape.

Now, the company has launched its latest speaker — Wonderboom — which sports the same denim- like skin, but resembles a medium- sized coconut. UE’s signature design features are there: chunky and handy ( 425 grams); starkly simplistic controls all encased in rubber: one switch to do on- off; one to pair other devices and a single press switch to play/ pause or skip to next track. The volume controls too will be familiar — large plus and minus signs on the side of the speaker.

UE speakers were always waterproof. The Wonderboom can take a lot more rough play — including dunking in one metre depth of water for up to half hour and still playing. It seems to anticipate that pool- side parties can get a bit wet- n- wild. The Lithium Ion battery when fully charged is good for about three hours and the two 40- mm drivers with two passive radiators, belt out 80 dB of sound all around. You can link the speaker to eight other device sources. But Wonderboom can pair only with another Wonderboom and not to other UE speakers like the Roll or the Boom series.

That said, this is one tough cookie of a player that will enhance any outdoor party. The Wonderboom in five splashy colour choices costs ` 6,995.