If there’s one thing we can nitpick about the UE Megaboom 3 it’s that, while it’s sound is good, it could be improved. On top of it all, UE lowered the price, making the Megaboom 3 excellent value for money. The speaker features a rugged drop and waterproof design, all-day battery life, and gets incredibly loud. The UE Megaboom 3 is an iteration on an already great speaker, with small refinements across the board making it the best waterproof speaker UE has made to date. Crank it up and expect the battery life to drop several hours. Speaking of battery life, the UE Megaboom 3 offers a staggering 20-hours of playtime and we found that number to be accurate if you’re playing music around 25% volume. However, the Megaboom 3 wins out in terms of durability and battery life (20 hours here vs the JBL’s 12).

Compared to the similarly priced JBL Pulse 3, the JBL manages to project sound much wider, punch harder at the low-end, and makes vocals stand out. That said, however, we found the mids to be more recessed than we’d like, letting vocals take a back seat to the speaker’s bass and highs. Thankfully, it not only gets loud, but the sound quality is good as well with boosted bass that has good impact and highs that never sound harsh. Crank the speaker to 100%, and you’d better be outdoors where you have to compensate for ambient noise. The first thing that you notice about the UE Megaboom 3’s performance is just how incredibly loud the speaker gets – half volume is enough to fill a medium-sized room. It's a gimmick, sure, but certainly a clever way to allow your friends to control the music. This utilizes the speaker’s multipoint Bluetooth pairing and it can all be controlled via the Megaboom app. The other new feature UE added is DJ mode, which lets you invite up to two other friends to help you take turns controlling the mix. If you don’t want to deal with cables at all, you can purchase the optional $40 (£35, AU$50) Power Up wireless charging dock that also serves as a docking station when you bring the speaker home for the day. UE moved the charging port to the bottom base of the speaker for easier access – and, unfortunately, you still have to use the dated microUSB connector for charging the speaker. This means you can get your music nearly instantly if you use either service, however, the button doesn’t support one-touch playlist support for Spotify, nor does it activate your phone’s voice assistant. There’s also the addition of the “Magic Button” at the top which allows you to control music playback and launch one-touch playlists from Apple Music or Deezer. The stiff buttons of previous models are gone and replaced with more tactile ones.

The design of the Megaboom line of speakers hasn’t changed much over the years - but why mess with something that works? The UE Megaboom 3 is the same cylindrical shape we know and love, but feels more refined overall.

Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 (Red) at Amazon for $249.

Which ue megaboom app should i download