With more and more consumers turning to digital as their main way to listen music, the competition in the speaker market is booming. Apple’s HomePod is dominating the higher end of the market and with the recent introduction of the HomePod mini, the tech giant is looking to dominate the lower end too. That being said, the HomePod mini still has a pricey tag at £99 so it’s not exactly the most affordable speaker on the market.
A speaker that aims for the lower end of the market, without compromising on sound, is the LG XBOOM Go PL2. Available in pink, yellow and blue, the speaker has a £49 price tag and it’s only 126mm wide, making it perfect for using on the go. One of the things I really like about this speaker it’s how simple it is to setup. You literally take it out of the box, press the on switch and then pair your device. It’s super simple. You should also fully charge it before using it for the first time, which you can do by opening the panel on the right-hand side and connecting the AC adapter that comes with it.
You’d be forgiven for unboxing the speaker and expecting it to give mediocre sound due to its small size but actually the quality is impressive. I ran the speaker through a wide variety of genres from heavy beat-laden pop tracks like Little Mix’s ‘Sweet Melody’ and Steps’ ‘What The Future Holds’ through to the Country sounds of Carly Pearce’s ‘Show You Around’ and Mariah Carey’s latest festive hit ‘Oh Santa’ featuring Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson. I listened to them all with the ‘Sound Boost’ feature off and the quality was fine but the volume substantially quieter, and at times a little muddier.
With the ‘Sound Boost’ on, the vocals are given a significant boost as is the bass and surprisingly the audio fills a smaller room fairly impressively. The speaker would sound a little lost in a bigger room but it’s not really built for that purpose. The LG XBOOM Go PL2 is better suited to teenagers who want to be able to give their music better sound than listening to it on their laptop or phone, or for those who want a bit more oomph in the smaller rooms of their home.
There are some other nice features such as the ability to take calls through the speaker, control it using Siri or Google Assistant (Android users can use the XBOOM App to control the device too), and the option to use ‘Dual’ mode so you can play your music through multiple speakers at the same time. All of these add to an already attractive package at a very reasonable cost.
The speaker boasts a fantastic 10-hour battery life, which should be more than adequate for most users. It’s very rare that you’d likely listen to music for 10 hours straight so casual use should see you having to charge it once a week on average. It also is weather-proof so if you’re listening outside and you get caught in a downpour, there’s no need to worry as the speaker will be fine!
The LG XBOOM Go PL2 is an impressive speaker from every angle. You may get better quality sound from the more expensive speakers on the market but for this price tag, you’ll struggle to find better. It looks nice, it sounds nice and best of all, it’s super easy to use. I can see this speaker being a big hit this Christmas and it’s the perfect gift for any music lover in your life.
Released by: LG Release date: 8th June 2020 Buy ‘LG XBOOM Go PL2’ now
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