Bluetooth speakers have become a bit too similar in recent years. Walk into an electronics store, and you will probably find an assortment of black, fabric-covered cylinders and pill-shaped speakers that you can barely tell apart, regardless of the big corporation behind them. The new LG Xboom Bounce takes a rather different route. Developed in collaboration with musician and tech entrepreneur will.i.am, the Bluetooth speaker has enough visual flair to make you look at it twice.
The LG Xboom Bounce is priced at Rs. 9,999 in India. But is it as interesting to listen to as it is to look at? Here’s our review.
LG Xboom Bounce Design: Finally, Some Personality
- Dimensions – 272 x 103 x 88mm
- Weight – 1.42kg
- Water and dust resistance – IP67
- Colours – Black
The Xboom Bounce does not look like most Bluetooth speakers, and that is probably the nicest thing I can say about it before even talking about how it sounds. It has an elongated, almost racetrack-like body with rounded edges. This is a refreshing take compared to the same pill-shaped formula we’ve seen in recent years. The front of the speaker features a mesh sporting the Xboom branding in lowercase. Meanwhile, the controls sit on top.
LG and will.i.am have taken a fairly unconventional route with the Bounce, especially with the two passive radiators sitting on top of the speaker. They aren’t hidden behind a grille or buried inside the enclosure like they usually are on most Bluetooth speakers. Here, you can actually see them in all their glory, and when the bass kicks in, you can see them move. I actually like it, and it gives the speaker some life.
The red accents also deserve a mention, since they add a touch of personality to what could otherwise be a fairly ordinary black box. When placed next to a few other speakers in its segment, such as the JBL Flip 4 or even Apple’s famous Beats Pill, LG Xboom Bounce is the one you will probably notice first.
There is one thing I don’t particularly like, though — the carrying strap. LG has provided an elastic strap that feels flimsy for a speaker that weighs over a kilogram. I used it to move the Bounce around the house, but I wouldn’t happily carry it long distances with the speaker dangling from it.
On durability, the LG Xboom Bounce has an IP67 rating and MIL-STD-810H certification. Now, I obviously wasn’t going to throw a review unit into a swimming pool just to verify the claim, but the protection is still reassuring if you plan to use it outdoors. However, the exposed passive radiators mean I would be a little careful about throwing the Bounce into a backpack with keys and other objects.
LG Xboom Bounce Specifications and Features: Plenty to Play With
- Bluetooth – Version 5.4
- Codecs – SBC, AAC
- Companion App – LG ThinQ
While the design is indeed one of the highlights of the LG Xboom Bounce, it isn’t short on features, either. The company has put its ThinQ app at the centre of the experience; there is quite a lot you can do with it once you get past the frankly painful setup.
The speaker supports several EQ modes, including Standard, AI Sound and Bass Boost, as well as a custom EQ. It also has AI Lighting, which changes the speaker’s lighting effects in response to the music. Now I am usually sceptical of features like this because they can quickly turn into gimmicks. However, LG’s implementation is well thought out, and it can even match the frequency of the audio that is being played, which is a nice touch.
You also get Auracast support, which is another useful addition since you can use it to link compatible xboom speakers together.
The LG ThinQ app itself, however, is a different story. Setting up the speaker is more tedious than it needs to be. You need to pair the speaker not only through the LG ThinQ app, but also manually through the phone’s Bluetooth settings. It might not be an ordeal, but the process is unnecessarily convoluted for a Bluetooth speaker. I would have liked it if it were as simple as turning on the speaker, pairing it via Bluetooth, and pressing play.
The permissions during setup also left me scratching my head. The app asked for access to find devices on my local network even though I hadn’t selected anything that, from my understanding, should require that permission. Perhaps there is a legitimate reason for this, but the app doesn’t explain it particularly well.
And once you are inside the app, things don’t get much cleaner. LG designed the ThinQ app with its wider ecosystem in mind. So the Xboom controls effectively sit inside a much larger app. While the options are plenty, navigating through them can feel like looking for the right drawer in a cabinet where someone has put everything.
LG Xboom Bounce Performance and Battery Life: A Properly Fun Listen
- Audio configuration – 2.1-channel stereo
- Output power – 30W + 5W x 2
- Battery life – Up to 30 hours
The most important part of any Bluetooth speaker is, obviously, what it outputs. I’ve been putting the LG Xboom Bounce through its paces, and I think LG has nailed the sound profile.
I started with Tom Misch’s Disco Yes. The track usually has enough bass and groove to expose a speaker that gets carried away by its low end. The Bounce, however, didn’t bury the guitar or vocals under the bass. The track sounded energetic but not bloated.
I then moved to Sam Smith’s Unholy (Orchestral Version) to test if the speaker is only interested in bass. Fortunately, it was not. The track has several layers of instrumentation that average-quality speakers can struggle with. The LG one does a respectable job keeping them apart, while also maintaining a useful sense of separation.
I spent considerably more time with Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, though, which is also one of my favourite albums. Tracks such as Giorgio by Moroder and Lose Yourself to Dance play nicely into the Xboom Bounce’s strengths. You can still hear the electronic elements, but the speaker does a good job of keeping the vocals at the centre, too.
Overall, the LG Xboom Bounce has a warm profile that is punchy and fun. LG has also provided a Bass Boost mode that pushes the low end further if that’s more up your alley, although it does mess up the balance a bit. At very high volumes, though, the speaker started to lose some of its composure. This, however, isn’t unusual for something this size and isn’t unheard of among its rivals.
Battery life is a strong point of the Xboom Bounce. LG claims up to 30 hours of playback. In everyday use, I never had to keep a constant eye on it. Play it a couple of hours a day at a reasonable volume, and the Bluetooth speaker can last you a week. Playing music loudly and keeping the lighting on will naturally bring that number down.
The speaker takes around three and a half hours to charge fully, which isn’t too bad.
LG Xboom Bounce Verdict
The Xboom Bounce feels like LG trying something a little different with its speaker lineup. The collaboration with will.i.am gives it an unusual identity, and the result is a product that feels deliberately designed rather than being more than just another portable speaker.
The unusual design, lively sound and dependable battery life are the biggest reasons to consider it. The warm tuning works well across different genres, while the IP67 rating makes it easier to take outdoors. There are a few rough edges, though. The flimsy strap and messy ThinQ app, however, take away some of the shine.
At Rs. 9,999, it makes the most sense for someone who wants a Bluetooth speaker that doesn’t disappear into the background. The design alone makes it more interesting than most of its similarly priced rivals, but thankfully, you aren’t paying for looks alone. The LG Xboom Bounce is an easy recommendation if you want a speaker with some personality and sound to match.
