UE Wonderboom 2 vs Wonderboom 1 things you need to consider before buying

Hey, guys. Welcome to the review of the UE Wonderboom 2 versus the original Wonderboom. I had some time to play with these two speakers, took them to a little beach trip this weekend, got them to pair up, so if you're concerned about that, the old Wonderboom will pair with the Wonderboom 2. You got to hit the two buttons on top together. It will make a little sound and then they connect. This is just the party mode. It's not the stereo mode. You have to buy two new Wonderboom 2s to get the stereo mode. With that, let's get started.

I read a lot of reviews saying that these two are identical. It's not really true. The Wonderboom 2 is a little bit bigger than Wonderboom, so 2 is definitely a little bit bigger, ever so slightly. You definitely notice when you put it in your hand and you hold it.

Here are a couple of new features that the Wonderboom 2 has. Of course, you've seen the new strap. It has a little rubber ring on the back with a little elastic band. Again, you can still get your carabiner going there, too. That's fine. Is it better than the original Wonderboom? I guess so. If you didn't have a carabiner, you can use the band to hook it to something. It's easier than just the little rope there, so that's a bonus. The top is different. You have a physical button on top versus just the Ultimate Ears logo. I would say, they did that because people couldn't find the button, like, where's the button? That would make it even easier to find with an actual circular button at the bottom.

Another new feature on the bottom is the Outdoor Mode, and we'll get to that later on. It just basically takes away all the bass and gives you more of the vocals, to get louder. If you're in an outdoor environment, and you want to crank the Wonderboom 2 as loud as you can to hear it, or you at least want to hear what they're saying, if you're playing a podcast or you're listening to the news, that kind of thing, the Outdoor Mode can help. Throughout this whole video of my review, I'll be playing the same music, and it's non-copyrighted.

Note: All prices mentioned here can change.

If you don't want to watch this whole review because you just want to know which one should you get or if it's worth it, the Wonderboom 2 is naturally a little bit louder with a little bit more bass. I say it's a definite improvement. I got the Wonderboom 2 for $79, I guess during the July 4th sale. Right now, I believe, it's back to around $99, unless there's a prime deal going on or whatever. The original Wonderboom was around $50. $100, when I get two or one, I get two. Anytime you double up a speaker and you can separate it, whether it's stereo or not, it's going to be a completely different sound and really pump that sound, make it fill the room. I took these guys on a boat, a Pontoon boat, stuck them in the corner of the cubbies on each boat, on each side of the boat, and filled the whole boat up with music.

One other thing that has changed is the waterproof rating. Wonderboom 2 is IP67 while Wonderboom is IPX7. It just means you can go a little bit deeper and last a bit longer underwater, which is kind of a moot point since these both float. The main thing with a lot of other speakers is if you're on by the pool or you're on your jet ski, boat, or whatever, it falls off and you need to find it, you can have a chance to find the Wonderboom. Any other speaker that I know of that doesn't float, you're not going to find it obviously. If you're by the pool and someone knocks your speaker into the water and it sinks down to 12 feet or how deep the pool is, then you might have trouble because you're going past what it's rated for. With these guys, they're going to float, so they're not going to go that deep. They'll sink 6 inches maybe and then pop back up.

Battery life has improved by 3 hours on the Wonderboom 2. I always thought the battery life on the Wonderboom was really good. 10 hours is good. If you crank it up all the way, it's not going to last 10 hours, and it'll last probably maybe 5 if you crank it up all the way. You may get another hour or so out of the Wonderboom 2 if you crank it up all the way.

Watch the Bluetooth range test from 5:00 to 7:47.

Alright, Bluetooth test. First up, the UE Wonderboom. I'm filming on the GoPro Hero7 with HyperSmooth. I'll leave the phone in the corner of the room, and we'll take a walk. Here we go, Wonderboom here. I'm holding the ND filter that I will add once we go outside. It's a nice, hot summer day in July. I'm holding the UE Wonderboom next to my body. It's already cutting out. This is the same test I did before. Let's see how far we can go. Alright, we continue on. It's the ND16 that's on and the polarizer. We have a little skippage right here, definitely a skippage. I would say it's unusable back here. Let's see where it gets better again. It's skipping stuff. I got a full charge on the Wonderboom. That should not be an issue. Again, it's older. Maybe that's why. Who knows? On the fence line, it's pretty much where it's consistent. We'll go inside and get the Wonderboom 2 going, and we'll film that on the DJI Osmo Action.

Watch the Bluetooth range test from 7:54 to 10:27.

Here we go. One thing I did mention before, but I mentioned again, the connection for the Wonderboom 2 is a lot faster than the Wonderboom. I had a lot of trouble before with the Wonderboom. Sometimes, it just wouldn't connect. You have to turn it off and then turn it back on, go into Bluetooth settings, make it connect, and then finally, it would work. It's not a huge deal, but it is a pain. Sometimes, they go through all that. So far, the Wonderboom 2, as soon as you turn it on, it connects really quick. I'll put the ND filter on. I'm holding it exactly where I held the other one. This one is not skipping from my body.

Let me start. Let's turn it up a little bit. Again, I'm filming on the Osmo Action with RockSteady on. There's absolutely no interruption so far. There's no skipping so far. There's our first skip. All in all, it's pretty darn close to the same. It may be a little bit stronger up front. It's also a newer model. I would expect it to be a little bit better, but it's pretty much about the same distance. I didn't crack over here. It didn't crack right here. I'll maybe give the edge to the Wonderboom 2. Alright, I'll take it back. Edge to the Wonderboom 2, but not by much. That includes the Bluetooth Reachability Test. What's next?

Prior to my second update, I updated my phone to iOS 13 beta. When I did that, I went to test the speakers out to pair them up, and I could select both speakers, turn them on, and play at the same time. I could also select a totally separate speaker, like a Bose speaker, another Bluetooth speaker, and it allowed me to connect both and control the volume on both synced together. That was really cool, but beta 2 software has taken that away. I couldn't get that reproduced because I wanted to film that. Oh, well.

Watch the test from 11:13 to 15:41.

Alright, so our volume is pretty low, a quarter. Let's go 50%. The volume is at 50%. I'm shooting on the Sony A7III with the UNCLEAR mic. The Wonderboom 2 is obviously louder. I've tried to adjust the original Wonderboom here by increasing the volume. When I do that, it just increases both of them, so I can't control the Wonderboom original to match the Wonderboom 2. That's because the Wonderboom 2 is obviously louder.

Watch the test from 15:48 to 16:18.

Alright, max volume test. This will show us the difference between the two. Here's the Wonderboom 2. I'm going to give it to the Wonderboom 2. It's a hell of a lot louder, noticeably louder. Let's see what this Outdoor thing does.

Watch the test from 16:37 to 17:22.

I'm going back to the same spot where I did it before.

The main question, if you're watching this and you're trying to decide, should I spend more money and get the Wonderboom 2 or should I get the Wonderboom? That really all depends on what you are wanting. If you want the best, you like the better sound quality, pay a little bit more money, get the Wonderboom 2. I know you're going to like it. If you've been waiting for the Wonderboom for a while and you wasn't sure, and now it's really dropped in price, I'm sure you can get this thing for around $50. I wouldn't pay any more than that, brand new. I would probably pick one up that people are trying to dump on eBay because they want to get the Wonderboom 2.

There you go guys, Wonderboom 2 versus the Wonderboom. These two speakers, the way they were made, cannot be updated. There's no updates ever you're going to get out of these two speakers firmware-wise. There's no app for it. There's nothing like that. Out-of-the-box is what you get, and that's what you get to the end until it dies. You'll never have to worry that it's gonna get hurt, so you're never be going to be too concerned with the speaker at all by hurting it or getting it wet. It's pretty tough. The main question for me when I first got them was that would the old Wonderboom work with new Wonderboom? The answer is yes. They do pair together in party mode. They just do not do stereo mode. Have a good evening. Stay safe and healthy, and good night.