Key Takeaways

  • The Final Ears Miniroll is nice for private use indoors however much less efficient in outside settings.
  • Sturdy strap for hanging or carrying, customizable and detachable.
  • A number of speaker connectivity for UE solely and lacks a microphone.

Final Ears has (form of) resurrected its Roll audio system within the type of the brand new UE Miniroll. The brand new Bluetooth speaker is petite with 12 hours of battery, a strap, and PartyUp mode for a number of speaker connections. It’s a superbly transportable speaker; simply don’t anticipate the world from it.


UE Miniroll
Final Ears Miniroll

The UE Miniroll is a sturdy, compact speaker with a crisp sound. A strap allows you to take your music alongside for the experience.

Execs
  • Small transportable measurement
  • Loud quantity
  • Versatile strap
Cons
  • Auracast not cross-brand suitable
  • Quantity buttons simple to unintentionally press when grabbing it


Worth and Availability

The UE Miniroll retails for $79.99 and is available in a number of totally different colour choices.

How Does a Hockey Puck-Sized Speaker Sound?

holding Ultimate Ears Miniroll in a hand
Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek


The first inquiry about this product and its final destiny rests on the way it sounds. It’s nice that the Miniroll is tiny sufficient to slot in the palm of most individuals’s palms, but it surely’s not price shopping for if it doesn’t produce respectable audio high quality.

Fortunately, the Miniroll is an ideal, intimate Bluetooth speaker. Which means it really works nice in cozy environments. Locations like a bed room, workplace cubicle, on a patio, or areas with just a few persons are perfect. The corporate recommends it for one to 5 individuals.

The speaker can omit a reasonably loud quantity, particularly after I in contrast it to the equally small Sony XB100, however that’s not when it’s at its greatest. That is possible due to its 45.6mm energetic driver plus passive radiator. Nonetheless, protecting the amount at or below 50% helps it have the richest sound.

Past utilizing it on a rest room counter when you prepare within the morning or on a nightstand for sleeping sounds, the Miniroll is a perfect measurement for journey. So how does it sound exterior whereas climbing or enjoying on the park?


Briefly, my outside outcomes have been combined. It was loud sufficient to make use of when my son and I performed wiffle ball on the park, however the audio high quality was stretched to its limits exterior. There wasn’t a lot low-end bass to talk of. The speaker additionally didn’t sound as wealthy and full because it did when utilizing it inside, in a smaller house.

To be clear, that is what it’s best to anticipate from smaller-sized audio system. In comparison with the newest LG XBoom Go, the Miniroll held its personal. Actually the UE Miniroll sounds higher than I’d have guessed, strictly based mostly on its measurement, but it surely nonetheless has well-defined capabilities.

If the perfect digital camera is the one you may have with you, then the identical is perhaps true for a Bluetooth speaker as nicely. If the selection is between blasting music immediately out of your cellphone’s speaker or the Miniroll, I will take this speaker each time.

As a heads-up, there’s no microphone; it’s only a small speaker. I doubt most individuals would anticipate that function, but it surely’s undoubtedly not a transportable speakerphone. That is primarily made for music.


A Small Measurement and a Strap Make it Versatile

The UE Miniroll is the smallest speaker the corporate at present sells, undercutting the Wonderboom 4 (or Wonderboom 3) by only a bit. Talking of measurement, the Miniroll may be very a lot a religious successor to the UE Roll product line. Whereas these merchandise had a bungee twine attachment, the Miniroll has a rubber strap. However in any other case, it’s very comparable simply much more compact.

The strap is linked on the backside through a metallic screw and slots right into a gap on the high of the speaker. It might probably stretch from 20mm to 35mm, so round a motorcycle deal with or a skinny iron rod fence quantity of distance. It couldn’t match round my wrist although, to provide you an thought of its elasticity.


The strap doesn’t need to fully wrap round one thing, nonetheless. It might probably swivel and cling from a hook too. For those who don’t need the strap in any respect that’s detachable too. Though I hardly discovered locations I needed to make use of the strap naturally, I by no means discovered myself desirous to do away with it. However it may be eliminated if it does get in the way in which.

back of the Ultimate Ears Miniroll showing strap
Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek

It won’t be probably the most mainstream function, however the Miniroll can connect with different UE audio system with its Get together Up mode. The corporate says that is powered by Auracast, the brand new Bluetooth spec meant to attach a number of gadgets collectively wirelessly.

For those who maintain the play button on the Miniroll for 3 seconds it places it into connection mode and doing the identical on one other succesful speaker hyperlinks them. You may play music out of your cellphone, for instance, to a number of audio system for a bigger sound.


Auracast is supposed to work throughout manufacturers and join any supported audio system collectively, however that’s not the case right here. I attempted to attach the Miniroll to an Auracast-enabled JBL speaker and so they wouldn’t hyperlink up. I used to be instructed by the corporate that the function would wish one other Miniroll speaker to operate. It might nonetheless be a helpful function, however I’d most likely go for a special Bluetooth speaker earlier than spending $160 on two Minirolls. I would recommend trying on the new UE Everboom.

The Miniroll has a rated battery lifetime of 12 hours. That’s greater than the Sonos Roam and nice for a speaker its measurement. I discovered that estimate to be shut in my various makes use of of it. There’s no USB-C cable within the field which is a disgrace, but additionally not a dealbreaker.

Ought to You Purchase the Final Ears Miniroll?

Ultimate Ears Miniroll on a table with strap unhooked
Tyler Hayes / How-To Geek


Though you’ll sacrifice some bass and richness, the Ultimate Ears Miniroll is a perfect measurement to carry alongside wherever. It’s virtually pocketable in a pair of pants, however will for certain slot in almost each kind of bag. It’s the sort of speaker you purchase if you don’t know precisely the place you’ll use it, however you recognize you wish to journey with a speaker.

There are fairly just a few small Bluetooth audio system on the market to select from, however few that sound this huge in such a small package deal. If portability is your major objective, that is the speaker for you. For everybody else, I’d wait till you’ll find it on sale, decrease than its $80 retail value.

UE Miniroll
Final Ears Miniroll

The UE Miniroll is a sturdy, compact speaker with a crisp sound. A strap allows you to take your music alongside for the experience.


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