Wonderboom 4 review: waterproof Bluetooth speaker now under £70 on Amazon
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Sturdy, floatable, and surprisingly powerful, the Wonderboom 4 isn’t perfect — but with Amazon’s deal dropping it under £70, it’s hard to ignore
With so many compact Bluetooth speakers out there, it's hard to choose the best one. Most offer decent sound, they're usually waterproof, and they might as well be a bit stylish.
The Wonderboom 4 ticks all those boxes. And it's on offer at the moment. Depending on the colour you choose, you can save up to 26% on Amazon at the moment. So it's definitely caught our attention. The cheapest one on offer right now is £66.33.
Firstly, for a compact Bluetooth speaker, it's not all that compact. It's quite bulbous and weighty, but it's worth remembering, weight and size means depth of sound in the speaker world, so don't be put off by this, unless you're after something truly small, light, and lacking in punch.
It's got a lot of features to justify the price and size, though. The battery can last for up to 14 hours, it has a trick multi-point connection system that lets you pair more than one together, and it can connect up to a Bluetooth source from up to 40 metres away.
There's 360-degree sound, a powerful driver for the bass, and even a podcast mode, which lifts the vocals for listening to spoken audio.
One of the first things you notice about the Wonderboom 4 is its build quality. It feels incredibly robust, like you could lob it at a wall and it'd come back fighting. You can also submerge it in water for up to half an hour - although you'd struggle to do this, because, remarkably, it floats.
There's a really solid loop on the top, which lets you hang it from backpacks, or trees, or just from a belt clip, and the buttons are few and far between - the huge plus and minus buttons on one side are quite obvious, but everything else is far more subtle.
There's no microphone, so there's no way of using it for phone calls or conference calls, and no app support like some of its rivals have, but the sound quality is excellent.
It sports an 8.5-watt output, which is pretty hefty, but you will notice some loss of quality right at the top end.
A system cuts in to reduce the power of the bass, which cleverly cuts out on any distortion, but you'll sacrifice some clarity at the top end.
In general, you probably won't notice this, and as a punchy speaker to have by your side at a barbecue, or for some background music in a house party, it'll do a really good job. There's plenty of genuinely usable volume.
And it's worth remembering, that this is a speaker you can currently buy for less than £70. Compare it to something like the JBL Flip 6, which you should be able to find for a similar price, and you'll notice it has better battery life, better Bluetooth, and it's much smaller and neater.
It can't quite match the JBL on sound capacity, but that won't bother everyone. It's also far more attractive, and easier to carry.
So it's not perfect, but it's well worth a look. And if size, durability, and value for money are high on your agenda, then it's actually hard to ignore.