As Oasis almost sang, if you’re looking for a cute portable speaker with Auracast compatibility, you gotta Miniroll with it. The new Ultimate Ears Miniroll is a go-anywhere portable Bluetooth 5.3 speaker from one of the best-known audio brands, and unlike an Oasis ticket, it’s not going to treble in price when you try to buy it.
The key selling point here is the small size and light weight: it weighs less than a pound (it’s 279g, just under 9oz) and it’s just 48 x 122 x 105mm high, long and wide, which makes it smaller than the vast majority of the options in our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers. It has a couple of hooks on the back that can attach it easily to your hiking gear, your clothing or anything else of a suitable size, including rods with diameters from 20mm to 35mm.
The speaker’s small dimensions means there’s room for just one active speaker, a 45.6mm full-range dynamic driver, but it’s teamed with a passive radiator to boost the low end for a bit of extra bass. But the most important feature may be this speaker’s sociability, because it’s made with multi-speaker sound in mind.
Ultimate Ears Miniroll: key features, availability and pricing
The most interesting bit of tech here is what Ultimate Ears calls PartyUp with Auracast. It’s a way of connecting multiple speakers together over Bluetooth, and here it enables you to connect an unlimited number of Miniroll speakers together – handy if you have multiple Minirolls or if your friends do. And with a promised 12 hours of playback between charges it’s long-lasting enough for a day at the beach, a hike in the woods or just a day under the duvet.
The Miniroll is drop-proof to 1.2 meters and it uses more recycled materials than before: it’s made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic and at least 40% recycled plastic parts.
The Ultimate Ears Miniroll is available in four colors (depending on regional availability) – Gentle Black, Majestic Blue, Revive Grey and Calming Pink – from today, 9 September. The price is $79.99 / £69.99 / AU$119.99, and that means it has stiff competition in the apparently-growing ‘speakers you can hang off your bag’ market from the excellent JBL Clip 5, which costs around the same. We look forward to putting them head to head!
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