So the soundcore boom 3i is a super durable bluetooth speaker that gives you a very big bang for your buck. Its soundcore’s first small sized speaker that has a woofer and tweeter set up, it has a built in light feature, its super durable, and it doesn’t just float in water… it floats right side up so you can still hear your music. I think the Soundcore Boom 3i is a very imrepssive speaker, but today we’re going to compare it with both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3, lets see how well this speaker can keep up.
Regarding pricing, both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3 retail for $200, which is the current standard for a mid sized speaker, but these speakers do like to go on sale on a regular basis. But then theres the Soundcore Boom 3i which has a retail price of $140 and this speaker also likes to go on sale on a regular basis. Nonetheless I think all of these speakers are solid pick ups, so if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping, and if you want to further support the channel then you can always watch the related videos in the description.
Now firs there’s the design of these speakers, both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3 are mid sized speakers where as the Boom 3i is noticeably smaller and lighter than these other two speakers. But something that I really like about the Boom 3i is that this speaker comes included with a shoulder strap just like the Sony ULT Field 3. Now this shoulder strap isn’t as premium feeling as the one that comes with the sony… but it still makes it very easy to carry this speaker around and you can hang it from something if you need to. Where as with the JBL charge 6, this speaker has a carrying handle that can be used in two different positions. It certainly works, but shoulder straps are more useful I feel.
But more importantly, all of these speakers are super durable so you can take them on the go with you, however with both the JBL and Sony, both of these speakers have fabric wrapped bodies where as the Soundcore Boom 3i has a mostly hard plastic body. Now the Soundcore doesn’t feel as premium… but it does feel more durable. Now all of these speakers are water proof, which is great, but the thing that really makes the soundcore boom 3i special here is that this speaker always floats right side up… which means if you were to use this speaker in the pool or in a calm lake… you’re actually still going to be able to hear your music. Now your music isn’t going to sound perfect… but its still usable.
But also, the Soundcore Boom 3i has a built in light feature, but more importantly, this light feature actually looks good and it has a decent flooding affect. And this is something that these other two speakers just dont have. So if you want a light feature for some reason, then the Boom 3i has one thats actually worth using. However if you do decide to use this light feature, that is going to take it toll on the battery life.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Soundcore Boom 3i has an advertised battery life of 16 hours, which is good given its size, however, this advertised battery life of 16 hours on the Soundcore is with it playing at 50% Volume and with the light feature turned off and with its bass up feature turned off as well. But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% Volume and with the light feature turned on and with the bass up feature turned on… its good for about 6 hours of playback time. But if you were to use it with its light feature turned off, then its good for about 8 hours of playback time
Where as with both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT Field 3, both of these speaker have an advertised battery life of 24 hours and real world use, these speakers are also going to have a longer lasting battery life than the Boom 3i, and that is to be expected given these speakers’s larger sizes and heavier weights. But the important thing here is, the battery life to size ratio of these speakers are good, unlike lets say the Bose Soudnlink Plus which is larger and heavier, but has a shorter battery life.
And all of these speaker charge via a USB C port as they should. However with both the Sony and JBL you can use these USB C ports to charge your own devices which is something the soundcore cant do. And with the JBL you can also use this USB C port as a wired connection with your phone, where as with both the Soundcore and Sony, you can only use these speakers wirelessly. But when it comes to wireless conencivty, all of these speakers can be connected to two devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ and latency is not an issue for any of theses speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone.
But with all of that out of the way lets talk about sound. When it comes to speaker set up, all of these speakers have a frontward firing woofer a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And this is a big deal for the Soundcore Boom 3i cause this is the first small sized speaker from soundcore that has this set up. Cause for the past 3 or so years, this type of speaker set up has been reserved for your more premium speaker brands like Sony and JBL. And this tweeter and woofer set up is a big deal cause this helps with overall instrument separation, like this.
Tweeter demo
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, so this just helps with overall instrument separation and openness. And like I said, I expect this type of speaker setup for sony and JBL, but this is new for soundcore. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test, all of these speakers are playing at 75% volume with their stock EQ’s.
Sound test
So when it comes to sound quality, I think all of these speakers sound good, however they do sound different from one another. With the Soundcore Boom 3i, the instrument separation isn’t as good as these other two speakers and the bass doesn’t hit as hard as these other two speakers. The JBL Charge 6 does sound better than the Soundcore Boom 3i… but the JBL Charge 6 does lean towards a brighter sound signature, where as the Sony ULT Field 3 sounds the most balanced here cause the highs aren’t as empshised, and the bass hits a little harder than the JBL as well. So overall, the soundcore boom 3i does a great job of keeping up with these other twos speakers, but both the JBL and Sony sound more open, and I feel that the Sony is the best sounding speaker here. And when it comes to max volume performance, just as you’d expect, these larger speakers get louder than the Soundcore Boom 3i, I feel that the Boom 3i is good for like a 5 person get together, where as both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3 are good for like an 8 to 10 person get together.
And finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers, if you have two of the exact same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode. But they have to be two of the exact same speakers.
Or with the Soudncore Boom 3i, this speaker is using Partycast 2.0 so you can pair it up with other speakers that are also using Partycast 2.0 like either the Soundcore Boom 2 or Soundcore Boom 2 Plus and get them to play in sync.
Where as with the Sony, this speaker is using wireless party chain, so you can pair it up to other wireless party chain speakers like lets say an ULT filed 7, ULT Field 5, ULT field 3, XG500, XG300, XE300, XE200, or to an XB43, XB33 or XB23 and get them to all play in sync. The only thing is, you can not connect your ULT Field 3 to an ULT field 1 cause this speaker does not have wireless party chain.
But if you want you can also connect your Sony ULT Field 3 to any of Sony’s larger box speakers like lets say the Sony ULT Tower 10 to Sony ULT Tower 9 and get them to play in sync as well. And you can pair up to 100 speakers together.
But then theres the JBL which is using aura cast, so you can pair it up to other aura cast speakers like lets say the JBL Charge 6, Xtreme 4, JBL Boombox 4, Flip 7, Clip 5 or Go 4 and get them to play in sync as well. But you can also pair it up to any of JBL’s Partybox’es that are also using Aura Cast like the Partybox Encore 2, Partybox 120, 320, 520, 720 or ultimate and get them to play in sync as well.
Just keep in mind that you cant connect this JBL speaker to any of JBL’s older speakers that are using Partyboost like lets say the JBL Boombox 3, Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4 or to a flip 6 or Flip 5. But overall, if you’re planning on growing your collection of speakers, then Bose is super limited compared to both JBL and Sony.
But with all of that being said, I really like the Soundcore Boom 3i and this is a very easy speaker to recommend if you’re looking for something durable and portable. The included shoulder strap is a very nice plus the makes this speaker more versatile. That fact that this speaker always floats up right is very neat, and it has a decent looking light feature. This speaker gives you a very big bang for your buck. However when it comes to sound quality, both the JBL Charge 6 and Sony ULT field 3 do sound better than the Soundcore Boom 3i cause they sound more open, but also they do get louder and they have more bass, which is to be expected for their increased price and size.