If you're looking at $200 Bluetooth speakers, your research has probably brought you to this speaker and the Bose Mini. I spent a long time comparing the two speakers, because like you I wanted to ditch the tiny bluetooth speakers and get something with REAL sound quality. Here's the deal on the UE Boom, and why I chose it:

Powerful Volume - This thing gets LOUD.
Good sound quality - Bright, clear, great sounding audio.
USB charging - The mini has a dock, which is nice around the house, but this travels easier, meaning less room in your beach bag or your luggage.
Battery Life - 15 hours is incredible. It's a big enough battery that you don't ever worry about how much charge is left.
Rugged - Water and life resistant. Go watch some of the torture tests on YouTube, you won't believe what this thing shrugs off. Your idiot buddies can spill a beer on this climbing out of the golf cart, and it'll keep right on playing.
Shape - The UE fits easily into a boat cupholder, backpack water bottle holder, and even the bottle cage of my bike (a bit loosely, I tied it down so it wouldn't bounce around too much). For taking your music with you, the form factor is a definite plus.

BASS: I agree with others that the mini has better bass response than the boom. The mini is genuinely surprising in how much bass it can pump out. The UE does have good bass for the size though. And no speaker in this form factor is going to put out massive bass, they're just not moving air. If you need 2 MUCH BASS 4 THIS PLACE, you need bigger speakers. For what if does, I'm more than happy with the UE's sound profile.

Conclusions: If you're looking for a $200 speaker, I'd recommend either the mini or the Boom. You really can't go wrong with either - I really like both, these are very good products. It comes down to what matters to you. The sound quality of the mini is marginally better, and the Boom gives better battery life and a handy form factor while being more outdoor friendly. If this is for listening to music on your Lanai (porch to those of you who don't live in Florida) or in your office, I'd probably say Bose. But the portability and battery life of the Boom are better, so if you're planning on "taking it with you", then meet the UE Boom.

Went to Best Buy and purchased the Bose Soundlink Mini, the UE Boom, Beats Pill, and the JBL Flip. Quickly narrowed it down to the Bose Soundlink Mini and the UE Boom. The UE Boom's bass is just a tad under the Bose Soundlink Mini, but the UE Boom's volume and overall clarity was much better in my opinion. The 360 degree listening area of the UE Boom and its 15 hour battery life versus 7 for the Bose Soundlink Mini was ultimately what sold me. Oh, not to mention the UE Boom has an app with an equalizer that can do minor adjustments and you can see battery percentage from your phone or hear it by holding down both the volume up and down buttons on the unit. Nice to know UE Boom will do software updates with the app that you can then adjust your speaker for - (on a side note, the reason why I chose the Parrot Zik headphones over the Bose QC15s - customization and future firmware updates to make the product better). I feel bad for anyone that bought the Bose Soundlink Mini and didn't test out the UE Boom first. If you're debating, try them both out and you will go with the UE Boom hands down.

Ok - so I am not the most up to date kind of fellow but when my buddy brought a little 25 dollar speaker onto the golf course I was like, "yeah, I like that, I need something like that."

So I started with the HMDX Jam...hmmm 50 bux, fits in the cupholder. Sound was decent, about hole 15, bluetooth streaming - DEAD

Next up - JBL flip - better sound, 100 bux, Hole 16 dead.

So after all that money(got some back from Ebay), I order this for 200 bucks plus shipping so I spent about 230 total.

I got it yesterday at 3 pm. I took it straight out of the box. Charged it for the 10 minute drive to the course and played 18.

This bad boy was still playing while I loaded up my clubs!!

Sound is spectacular. It goes too loud really for a golf course which would turn into a bonus for say a pool party or garage buddy.

The GOOD NEWS?

I am DONE looking for a bluetooth speaker that lasts, sounds good and gets loud enough. Do I wish it was a 130 or 140$? Sure, was I willing to pay a little more to not have to keep looking?

WELL WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY!

60 of 71 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, durable, high-quality sound. I'm impressed!!, November 22, 2013

S. Martin "gadget geek" (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ultimate Ears BOOM Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Moss (Personal Computers)

Let's get one thing out there right away: to me, a bluetooth speaker is all about portability. I see a lot of reviewers comparing this to the Bose Soundlink. I'm sure the Bose sounds great, but I'm not taking the Bose with me to the beach, camping or by a campfire (I'm certain I'll forget to bring this inside from time-to-time, but it's weather-resistant), boating, in the shower, or anywhere, because the Bose would be ruined. If you're buying a speaker only for indoors and/or mostly for use in the same area, I don't see why you'd buy a portable bluetooth speaker.

Since I started with portability and durability, let's talk about that:
This thing is well-built. I've owned many electronics of all kinds, and I know a well-built device when I see and feel it. It's heavy for its size, and with speakers that's always a good thing in my experience. Light speakers never sound good. That said, it's only 1.2 lbs, which is still very portable and could even be clipped to a belt loop on the little clasp with a carbiner clip. There's even a hole for a camera tripod to mount it on, should you need to (outdoors at a party?) It has a great feel to it with a rubberized, durable, matte/flat finish. The mesh is awesome (the yellow part on this speaker--I got the moss/green speaker). It should hold up very well.

I'm not going to submerge it just to tell you if it survived ;-) I can say, though, that I watched a YouTube review where the person ran it under the kitchen faucet and it kept playing fine. So, at a minimum, it's highly splash-proof.

Size:
It's about the size of 1 1/2 soda cans. About the same diameter, and about 1.5 cans tall. I was surprised by how compact it actually is. Additionally, the round shape makes it easy to carry around.

Set-up:
Piece of cake. A few seconds and you're up and running. There's also an (optional) app you can download for Android (Apple too) which gives additional options, and you can pair it with another speaker. I think the best part of the app is that it tells you exact battery percentage (you can also make the speaker itself tell you that!)

Range: I have a 2,000 sq. ft. house, and I can walk around anywhere, even down to the basement, and the signal stays solid. It has at least a 30 ft. + range (probably more.)

Sound: (tested with rock music, Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, 30 Seconds, Shinedown, etc.)
I'm ly stunned by the quality of the sound that comes out of this Boom. I put it at full volume to test it for this review, and I had to turn it down shortly thereafter. Unless you're outside partying, you won't need full volume. Additionally, at full volume, there was ly no distortion at all.

Bass: Ok, so everyone apparently wants to talk about bass. I know Bose is known for its bass, and I am always impressed with what they can pump out, but I'm telling you that this UE Boom handles bass very well. I think it sounds excellent. Are you going to feel the bass like you do in a car with an amp? Not really, but I'm nevertheless really surprised by the bass quality of this little speaker.

Vocals: Impressive!! Crisp and clean. The vocals sounded better than on my Onkyo home stereo in terms of quality, not volume, obviously.

Mids/Highs: I think the sound quality is excellent.

All-around, I can't see anyone being disappointed with the sound of this device. I'm amazed at what small speakers are now capable of. The 360 degree sound is excellent, too. It doesn't really matter where you place the speaker or which way it's facing; it sounds the same.