Ultimate Ears BLAST Portable Wi-Fi / Bluetooth Speaker No Aux port?

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Ultimate Ears BLAST Portable Wi-Fi / Bluetooth Speaker with hands-free Amazon Alexa voice control (waterproof) - Graphite Black


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I had been looking to get into the speak-your-command speaker game for a while but was unsure of what I would like to go with but ultimately when the opportunity came to get the UE Blast with Alexa I jumped at the chance. 

While I had some experience with issuing commands to my Xbox I knew the experience of using Alexa was much better since I had set them up as gifts for relatives in the past. 

When I received the UE Blast it was nearly fully charged and had minimal packaging.

 It was ready to go out of the box but I did have to download and configure the app which was pretty easy. After linking it to my account on Amazon and establishing a bluetooth and wifi connection I was ready to test it out.

The speaker itself is quite similar in design to another speaker that my wife and I had been using for a couple of years now, that is the UE Boom. 

It's bigger and has better sound. I knew that our experience with the UE Boom had been a positive one, the speaker held a charge a long time, was easy to pair and had excellent sound so I held high hopes for the UE Blast. 

Once everything was configured the UE Blast was very easy to use by issuing Alexa commands. 

The toughest part is remembering the best way to address the commands, although it should be noted that Alexa doesn't require rote, specific type of commands (as the Xbox does) but through practice my wife and I have found out that it does respond to certain phrasings better than others. 

You also have to learn to add a slight pause after saying "Alexa" and not just start yelling out commands but that becomes second nature in practice.

I was highly disappointed to see that Alexa could not control Spotify and that Spotify would only work when using a Bluetooth command, similar in nature to the UE Boom. 

Spotify is my primary music source and I do not like that Amazon seems to want to steer you to their Amazon Prime Music direction.

 However, it should be noted that you do not have to be a subscriber to the Amazon music service to use Alexa on this device, but it will open up more music, including your own if you have a subscription to it.

I have used the speaker twice now in long sessions and the first session I got about 7 hours out of moderate listening levels which was, in my opinion, disappointing considering the speaker promises "up to 12 hours". 

We all know "up to" is the key there but still, roughly half of the promised amount is not what I'd consider a home run. 

The second time listening from a full charge we got roughly 9 hours and that is listening at moderate listening levels so that was a bit better.

 It honestly made me wonder if the first I was not at a complete charge. 

It should be noted here that the only way to know the charge level of the speaker is through the app and you will only know two levels of charge, full charge or partial charge and that is a sincere lack of information in my opinion that needs updated with a future fix for the app.

The quality of the sound of the speaker is very high for a large room and the speaker will fill the room with sound. 

Any larger than a large room though and the speaker will struggle but for most people volume or clarity of the music will not be any issue whatsoever. 

It was disappointing that I was unable to band my UE Blast to my UE Boom to create a stereo, or mirror, effect from one source.

 I worked on this for well over an hour before looking online and determining it simply is not possible.

So word to the wise, if you already own a UE product and are considering buying this to add on as a "stereo" effect or even just a multi-room, one source solution you will be out of luck. 

It remains to be seen if this will be fixed in a future update but I sincerely doubt that it will happen based upon my research.

Ultimately I do recommend this device, it's very clear, very loud, integrates Alexa commands perfectly and has decent battery life.

 Just be aware though that it won't control Spotify via Alexa, the battery life is not what is promised (but still good overall) and it will not pair with another UE device.

Another downside of course is the price. 

I am not completely sure this is a great value for most people but I will say if you have the money the device will not disappoint. 

For most people on a budget this would be a better value purchase on sale or at a discounted rate perhaps on Black Friday. 

There are certainly more reasonably priced devices that will do many of what this speaker offers.

 But if you want a great all-in-one solution, are aware of some of the limitations of the device and its app and are willing to pay the money you cannot beat the UE Blast.