After the success of its Boom series of Bluetooth speakers, Ultimate Ears (UE) will be bringing its latest Alexa-enabled smart speakers Down Under – the Blast and Megablast.
Most of the playful aesthetics and rugged durability of the UE Boom 2 and its larger UE Megaboom sibling return with the Blast and Megablast, but with the addition of on-board Wi-Fi and built-in Alexa.
Street party or house party?
Naturally, the addition of Alexa to the UE speakers turns them into a smart hub, allowing you to control your connected devices at home over the wireless network and access any of the thousands of Alexa Skills.
The pair of speakers will be accompanied at launch by the Power Up charging dock (sold separately) that you can leave plugged in at home, allowing you to quickly transform your rugged Bluetooth speaker into a powered smart home hub by simply plonking it down.
Amazon Prime, iHeartRadio, TuneIn and Deezer are all compatible at launch, as is Amazon Music Unlimited, of which you can get a free three-month subscription when first signing up for the service. While you won’t be able to use Alexa to play music from Spotify straightaway, this feature is officially "coming soon".
Crank that
While the regular-sized Blast speaker won’t differ too drastically from the Boom 2 in the acoustics department, the Megablast is UE’s loudest speaker, with two extra tweeters and extensively tweaked drivers giving it an extra 40% loudness edge on the Megaboom.
The UE Blast and UE Megablast will be on shelves from May 8 for $279 and $379 respectively, available in Graphite Black, Blizzard White, Blue Steel, Merlot Red, Mojito Green, and Lemonade Yellow. The Power Up charging dock will launch on the same date, purchasable separately for $49.
