Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

**Warning** This is an overly extensive review. I apologize for my rambling but I wanted to touch on everything. Ok, so much like many of you may be, I was recently RACKING MY BRAIN over the decision between the two products: UE Boom and Bose Soundlink Mini. I went back and forth, almost day to day, before finally walking into BB and coming home with the UE. First let me me say I am completely unbiased when it comes to brand names. I make my electronic purchases based on my eyes and ears (and in this case - hands), with a small consideration of track record of the company. I say this because through the course of reading countless speaker reviews, it became apparent that there are Bose loyalists, and also Bose haters. So again, I'm unbiased. I consider myself pretty tech savy and I spend a lot of time researching the products I want before buying them. These two were no exception and I hope it will help you guys pull the trigger.....regardless of which one you pick. This is also the first time I've written a review on ANY product, EVER. Thus should reinforce my enthusiasm and happiness with the UE Boom. I am 28 years old, living in Scottsdale, AZ. I spend a lot of time at my condo complex pool, playing sand volleyball, hiking, playing basketball, basically I live a pretty active lifestyle and all of the aforementioned activities leads me to the first factor that helped me choose the Boom: PORTABILITY/DURABILITY - I love having expensive gadgets, but i HATE having to baby them or worry about them being broken or damaged. The Bose looked pretty tough, and I'm sure outside of simply dropping it, it would hold up fine. But I knew with the Bose i would be treating it like a rolls royce. Having to worry about where i set it down, how close to the pool it was, making sure it shaded adequately form the sun (aluminum body) if i had it out at the pool etc. So this was an easy PRO in favor of the Boom. FEATURES - This category also easily was in the favor of the UE, however, most of them were not overly important to me. I probably won't have use for many of them (NFC, speakerphone, even the double up i don't anticipate using). But I like that they are AVAILABLE. And the app is pretty sweet also. Let me be clear here, I didn't chose the Boom BECAUSE it had more "features" than the Bose, they just seemed like a little extra bonus. Moving onto the most important characteristic we care the most about: SOUND QUALITY - This was initially a tough one for me. After so many reviews online, I couldn't tell if I was being influenced by them when I was in the store testing the two speakers. So here's the simplest way to say it. They both sound GREAT, and regardless of which one you choose, you'll never be like "Damn, I bet theres a better sounding speaker out there." As I'm sure you know the Bose has more bass, but the UE goes noticeably louder and PERSONALLY, I felt the sound was crisper/cleaner coming out of the UE boom when sampling the same song on each. I listen to a lot of hip hop music and was worried about lack of bass might be a negative for me if I went with the UE. But the more i listened to the Bose, I just found myself feeling like the sound just "wasn't right". The UE sounded a bit more "natural" and it still has bass, just not as audible as the Bose. The "360 sound" seemed kinda gimmicky to me, but it does seem to be pretty uniform. In the end, I came to the acceptance that both speakers sounded DIFFERENT, and I picked the one MY ears liked more. I think this is probably the best way to fully decide. Strip away everything else and just be honest to which speaker's sound jumps out to you. OVERALL - I have had the UE Boom for 3 days now and I could NOT be happier with my decision. I charged it all the way up to 100% first night and then left it playing overnight at 25% volume to test the boasted "15 hour battery". I woke up after 8 hours of sleep and checked the battery, and it was still 80% charged. So that was pretty cool, especially because I'm terrible at remembering to charge my gadgets. The weight is perfect, not too heavy but also not light enough that the wind would even have a chance at blowing it over outside. Music genre wise - I've played every genre in my iTunes repetoire from hip hop, country, alternative, classic rock pop, techno, a few stand up comedy shows and each one truly sounds FANTASTIC. Even the hip hop that I was worried about. The design is about as cool and unique as it gets. The soft mesh feels great in your hands and you can feel totally at ease with tossing it around without a case. As I held it in my hand I just constantly found myself thinking "This thing is SWEET." I got the white/blue despite being worried about the rubber becoming dirty. The Best Buy display model was pretty grimy but they said clorox wipes clean it right up. Magic erasers I'm sure work great if really need be. Bottom line is that they are both great speakers. Cliche, I know, but its true. I'm not trying to persuade you to get the UE Boom over the Bose. I just wanted to explain why I chose the UE in the thought that there are many of you out there that might be right on the fence like I was. Good luck!