Party Animal

FOR ANY party, the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus Outdoor Bass Bluetooth Speaker is an essential invite.

- Barb Gonzalez H

As its name suggests, it's designed to keep the beat with deep bass powered by an impressive 140-watt output, thanks to the Bass Up 2.0 bass booster.

The passive radiator sides add to the party atmosphere with multi-colored lights that sync with the music.

The Soundcore Boom 2 Plus is the Boom 2's robust successor.Both feature a boombox design, but the Boom 2 Plus is significantly larger, measuring 17.4 inches long compared to the Boom 2's 11.7 inches and weighing 8.4 pounds versus 3.7 pounds. With the increased size comes increased power, the new model is almost twice as powerful as the Boom 2 which maxes out at 80 watts.

Only JBL's $500 Boombox 3 surpasses the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus with a 180-watt output, but it must be plugged in to achieve that level of power. On battery, it maxes out at 136 watts.

Designed as a party machine, the Boom 2 Plus features LED light/side panel passive radiators that vibrate, flash, and change colors in sync with the music. Whether at the beach, poolside, or indoors, the Boom 2 Plus is built to amplify the music and command attention.

During testing, the line "Nobody puts Baby (the Boom 2 Plus) in the corner," from the movie Dirty Dancing, kept coming to mind.

Other outdoor speakers in this price range include the Sony XG300 ($350, on sale for $200), which can be splashed with water but doesn't float like the Boom 2 Plus. It can handle soft ballads slightly better but doesn't have the bass presence of the Boom 2 Plus. Altec Lansing's Rockbox XL 2.0 has a 120-watt output, a light show, and can float, coming the closest to Soundcore's speaker. The Rockbox and the Sony both have microphones, so those speakers can be used as a speakerphone or accept Google and Siri voice commands to control playback.

FEATURES