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LG xBoom Bounce: Two-minute review
Go to the LG website and you’ll see this Bluetooth speaker billed as the “LG xBoom Bounce by will.i.am”. Recent marketing materials are rife with mentions of the Black Eyed Peas performer who, depending on where you look on LG’s site, “crafted” the sound from the ground up, “fine-tuned” the sound of the Bounce after the fact or simply acted as… whatever an “Experiential Architect” is.
It’s a very loosely-defined partnership and I’ve no idea if the musician’s work really did involve engineering the Bounce’s sound or simply becoming a marketing figure, although a colleague at TechRadar did speak to the rapper, writer, actor, record producer and entrepreneur earlier this year on the collaboration. Anyway, the general gist is this: the LG xBoom Bounce is a new party speaker here to (hopefully) make you wanna Shake Ya Boom Boom – and thus, make its way into our best Bluetooth speakers roundup.
Its relative beefiness should have been clear from the name; LG’s busy line of xBoom speakers are all designed for room-filling sound, complete with hardy designs, high volumes and usually plenty of LED lights. The bounce was announced alongside the slightly-cheaper cylinder of the LG xBoom Grab and bigger, more expensive LG xBoom Stage 301.
I must admit that I’ve not been blown away by other xBoom devices I’ve used, and sadly the Bounce didn’t manage to change that.
The last xBoom I used was the petite Go XG2T, which is remarkable for its portability, a trait which is important for most Bluetooth speakers. Not in the Bounce, though, as it’s too big and heavy to slip in your bag and take to a picnic. It has an elastic carry band which loses form quickly, two unstable legs and a pet peeve of mine: no skip track button.
I can’t mark down the design too much though, with high-grade protections ensuring that the xBoom Bounce is safe from the hard knocks that could befall it when used in your garden (or forgotten in your garden after a few beers).
When it comes to features, LG’s nailed the basics with the LG xBoom Bounce: its battery life is pleasingly long and I’m always a fan of LED lights on speakers. However there’s not much extra if you download LG’s smart-home app (no, there’s no bespoke app), with a few of its potential features squandered.
For example there’s an on-speaker button which should, in theory, be used to quickly open a chosen playlist – however this doesn’t actually work alongside any streaming service, only with native content on your phone or LG’s own ambient songs.
The biggest issue with the Bounce is that its sound quality just doesn’t match rivals on the market. With Sonos and JBL both offering similar-priced alternatives, the bass-heavy but empty-sounding audio of the Bounce doesn’t cut it, no matter how loud it can go to impress fields of guests.
As a mid-range speaker in terms of price, LG’s rugged build quality, battery life and volume here may be enough to win over some users, including those who want a device specifically for outdoor activities and parties (and already own one or more for their home). But if you’re more of a one-and-done kind of speaker buyer, the xBoom Bounce is a lot harder to recommend.
LG xBoom Bounce review: Price and release date
- Released in April 2025
- Officially priced at $179.99 / £139 / AU$249
The LG xBoom Bounce was released in April 2025 alongside another member of its family: the xBoom Grab.
You can buy the speaker for $169 / £169 (around AU$300, though it’s the only one of its family not to be on sale in Australia at the time of writing).
That cost puts the xBoom Bounce in the shark-infested waters of a highly competitive price range: the Sonos Roam 2 is only a touch pricier, while the JBL Flip 7 is a small amount more affordable, and you don’t have to pay that much more for a close rival in the Tribit Stormbox Blast 2.
These three options are all within the top five in our round-up of the best Bluetooth speakers, so LG is entering a tough crowd. More on these competitors below.
LG xBoom Bounce review: Specs
|
Weight: |
1.32kg |
|
Dimensions: |
26.2 x 9.9 x 9.4 cm |
|
Battery life (quoted): |
30 hours |
|
Connectivity: |
Not specified |
|
Drivers: |
2x tweeter, 1x woofer |
|
Aux in: |
No |
|
Charger port: |
USB-C |
|
Microphone: |
Yes |
|
Waterproof rating: |
IP67 |
LG xBoom Bounce review: Features
- Some set-up woes
- 30-hour battery life
- Useful location calibration mode
The XBoom Bounce can be used alongside the LG ThinQ app. This is an everything-app for all LG products, and it’s quite a lengthy set-up process between creating an account, finding ‘speakers’ on the list and, in my case, repeatedly trying to get it to pair until it finally succeeded. I may have given up several attempts earlier if I wasn’t reviewing the Bounce (and you can use the device just fine without pairing it to the app anyway). Pairing to devices simply for listening was quick and painless, it’s just the app that’s the issue.
The ThinQ app may make sense if you have lots of other LG products (or if this speaker boasted wi-fi streaming support, which to be clear, it does not), but if you don’t it’s a bit of a faff. Honestly, it feels like a bloated set-up process and some of the features just don’t make sense – why am I being asked where the speaker is located when, by definition, it’s a portable one?
Using the app you can change the speaker’s volume, switch the lighting pattern on it, set up the MY button (more on this imminently) and set up a few other features like Auracast for daisy-chaining more speakers for multi-room audio, a turn-off timer and a small playlist of ambient background music called Healing Therapy. There’s also a calibration mode which works out the speaker’s location (after a brief test) and adjusts the sound quality, which is admittedly quite neat – until you move it.
Once you’ve set up the MY button, pressing it on the speaker auto-plays from a playlist you’ve selected. However you can only use this for audio files on your device, or the Healing Therapy playlist on the app – no Spotify, no Apple Music, no Tidal. In addition, it’s staggeringly hard to browse the Healing Therapy library to find sounds – go to the page in the app and you’ll be shown a single song, with the options to download it, as well as a list of your downloaded songs. The only way I figured out to see all Healing Therapy options is to literally download everything you’re presented with.
There are a few preset Sound Effects you can use to modify your sound: Standard, Bass Boost and Voice Enhance are all pretty obvious and there’s a custom option to bring up a six-band equalizer. The other option is AI Sound which balances audio based on your chosen genre.
I tested the speaker for about 10 hours before going through the set-up process and if I could turn back time, I probably wouldn’t bother with the app. The only thing I ended up needing it for is to turn on Bass Boost mode. I mentioned above that I had trouble connecting to the app; this was never an issue connecting the speaker to my phone via Bluetooth, which was flawless.
Let’s clear our minds with a really positive feature: the battery life. According to LG this can stretch to 30 hours and in my testing I saw no reason to doubt that figure (as long as you’re playing at 50% volume, which is a reasonable figure indoors). That figure trumps lots of the competition with many rivals hovering between the 10-15 hour mark. Charging is done via the USB-C port on the back and takes three hours.
LG xBoom Bounce review: Design
- IP67 and military-grade protection
- Heavy and long body
- Wobbly legs and elastic strap
The LG xBoom Bounce is a big and heavy speaker – while all Bluetooth speakers are ostensibly portable, the heft of the Bounce means you probably won’t want to bring this to the park for a picnic or barbeque given that you’ll have to jettison half your food to fit it in your bag. At home I left it on the same shelf for the bulk of my testing, right by a wall outlet, completely offsetting any need for it to be wireless in the first place. The issue is, I don’t think the audio is good enough for a dedicated indoor ‘main’ speaker… but again, I’m getting ahead of myself.
To be precise, the xBoom Bounce is 316.5mm long, 142.5mm tall and 136mm wide, taking a rough oval shape. It weighs 1.32kg which is heavy for a Bluetooth speaker like this – some other party speakers are a whole kilo lighter.
On top of the speaker are its two tweeters as well as buttons: power, volume up, volume down, pay/pause, Bluetooth pairing, multipoint and MY (the latter we’ll describe in the Features section). So far, so standard. The back of the speaker has a USB-C port for charging but no 3.5mm jack, so you can’t plug-and-play with your old iPod here.
A large feature on the back of the xBoom is the stretchy fabric band you can see in pictures. This has a little ‘pull’ to it so you can get your hand behind it to carry it, but its size and positioning means you can’t really use it to attach the Bounce to anything (not least of all because 1.4kg means this thing is prone to pulling over things you attach it to). The elastic also deformed pretty quickly in my testing, having a noticeable upward arc after just a few days of testing, and so I wasn’t keen to rely on it as a way to transport the thing in case it snapped.
The front of the speaker has an LED strip which flickers to music, and you can choose the color or pattern through the app. It’s not a huge feature, but if you like having flashing LEDs to accompany your music, it’s a nice touch.
On the bottom of the xBoom are two circular ‘legs’ that it stands on, elevating the main body a touch off the ground. There’s probably a good reason for them but they resulted in the device wobbling an undue amount when on flat surfaces.
You’ll probably realise I have mixed feelings on the xBoom Bounce’s design, but one undeniable boon is its protection. Not only does the Bounce have an IP67 rating against dust ingress and limited immersion in water, but also the military-grade MIL-STD-810H certification. This ensures it can withstand vibrations, impacts, spray from salt water, high temperatures and a few other fairly-specific types of assault. This is perhaps the first truly rugged Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever tested, and I’m always a fan of gadgets that are designed for longevity.
LG xBoom Bounce review: Sound quality
- High max volume
- Low-end focus
- Songs often sound ’empty’
Let’s unpack what you’re getting with the Bounce: there are two tweeters and a woofer for 2.1 stereo audio.
The LG xBoom Bounce doesn’t lack for power, with a high maximum volume; I generally listened at volume 10 at home but it goes all the way up to 30, so this will be suitable for fairly large gatherings. But what LG offers in volume, it lacks in quality.
The focus of the sound is clearly in the low-end, with songs’ bass lines being the first thing you’ll notice when you put on any track. But then, as is the issue with most ‘bass overload’ cases, it means mid- and high-end instruments sound compressed. Here, these frequencies seem almost squeezed into an oddly dull ooze of ‘noise’, stripping counter harmonies and detail from songs in favor of the ever insatiable god: bass.
Even vocals were often muddied and nonspecific in songs I listened to, and there were times when I simply couldn’t make out the lyrics of lead or backing singers due to how low they were in the box.
Let’s take a listen: Phosphorescent’s New Birth in New England usually offers a rich mix of rhythmic instruments but listening on the Bounce, all I can hear is the bass, vocal and some assorted ‘soup’ of everything else. The next song on my playlist is Letter to Lady J by Dispatch which starts with acoustic guitar and vocals, but the latter sounds muted and the former quickly loses any form of strumming pattern and timbre. Changing playlists for some variety, Morgan Wallen’s Thought You Should Know was listened to – just the intro, three times, to try to list the instruments we’ve got here. Sadly, I simply couldn’t make them out and throughout the song, Wallen sounds like he’s frantically waving his hand to the mixing desk and pointing upwards to indicate ‘turn me up!’.
The effect of all of this is that music seems a lot less complex and nuanced, and therefore lacking a little bit of the ‘soul’ that comes from the interplay and cohesion of different instruments. It made rock and pop less enjoyable and classical almost impossible to appreciate; I most enjoyed using the speaker when it was for dance-focused tracks with instrumental simplicity. Which, of course, is what certain users will be looking for, so don’t let me put you off if that’s you.
A focus on the low-end and a high max volume make the LG xBoom Bounce suited as a party speaker, but it’s not for audiophiles, who’ll find a few things missing from their music.
LG xBoom Bounce review: Value
If you’re simply looking at the xBoom Bounce for a personal loudspeaker for your home, you can find other options at a similar (or cheaper) price that offer better sound quality.
For party speakers, the question is a bit different, as the Bounce matches most of its close rivals in terms of price. However you may be swayed by the various protections on offer, which could ensure that it keeps serving you for a lot longer than one of its alternatives.
In the grand scheme of things, you’re pretty much getting what you pay for though.
Should I buy the LG xBoom Bounce?
|
Attributes |
Notes |
Rating |
|---|---|---|
|
Features |
A long battery life and equalizer offset an annoying app experience. |
3.5/5 |
|
Design |
It’s not quite ‘portable’ but it’s well-protected. |
3.5/5 |
|
Sound quality |
The high max volume and focus on low-end will please some, but it’s not for audiophiles. |
3/5 |
|
Value |
You get what you pay for, and it’ll last you longer than some rivals. |
3.5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
LG xBoom Bounce review: Also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
LG xBoom Bounce |
Tribit Stormbox Blast 2 |
JBL Flip 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Weight: |
1.32kg |
8.7g |
560g |
|
Dimensions: |
26.2 x 9.9 x 9.4 cm |
47.6 x 25.9 x 19.3 cm |
7 x 18.3 x 7.2 cm |
|
Battery life (quoted): |
30 hours |
30 hours |
16 hours |
|
Connectivity: |
Bluetooth 5.3 |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
Bluetooth 5.4 |
|
Drivers: |
2x tweeter, 1x woofer |
1x subwoofer, 2x drivers, 2x tweeters |
1x driver, 1x tweeter |
|
Aux-in: |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
Charger port: |
USB-C |
AC 100-240V |
USB-C |
|
Microphone: |
Yes |
No (mic ports) |
No |
|
Waterproof rating: |
IP67 |
IP67 |
IP68 |
How I tested the LG XBoom Bounce
I used the LG xBoom Bounce for two weeks in order to write this review, which is the standard testing period.
I used the Bounce alongside two separate Android smartphones, one a Realme and another a Moto, and did most of the testing split between two different rooms in my house. Most of the playback was music from Spotify and the ThinQ app but I watched a few videos, listened to spoken-word content and played a game with the speaker attached.
I’ve been writing tech reviews for TechRadar for over six years now, including speakers as well as other LG products.
First tested: June 2025
Read more on how we test at TechRadar.
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tom.bedford@futurenet.com (Tom Bedford)
