LG xboom Blast review

Introduction

The LG xboom Blast is LG’s flagship entry into the heavy-duty, outdoor party speaker market, and it’s been tuned in collaboration with pop sensation turned tech entrepreneur will.i.am. In short, this is a big, rugged portable speaker with celebrity backing.

At £449.99 / $499.99 it’s more expensive than your standard Bluetooth speaker, but the xboom Blast is anything but a standard speaker. 

It combines massive wattage with full environmental protection, and smart room calibration with the obligatory LED lights needed in order to dub it a ‘party speaker’.

It’s not alone in the market though, with heavyweights like the JBL Boombox 3, Ultimate Ears Epicboom and Sony ULT Field 7 giving the LG xboom Blast tough competition. I’ve put it to the test to see if it can hold its own in battle.

Design

• Rugged build with multiple carry handles
• Party lighting is fun and offers customisation
• Works well horizontally and vertically

Give the LG xboom Blast a quick glance and there’s a chance (so long as the party lights aren’t on) you might mistake it for a bag. An odd comparison perhaps, but LG took inspiration from a duffel bag for the design of its rugged speaker.

It certainly has bag-like dimensions, measuring 502 x 225 x 206.5mm, and at 6.39kg there’s a substantial heft to it. You might want to take it in turns to carry the xboom Blast if you’re trudging across muddy festival fields to your camping spot, or traversing sand dunes on the way to the beach.

LG does at least provide two handles, with a fixed rigid handle on top that’s finished in a soft rubber that’s comfortable in the hand, allowing you to carry the speaker horizontally.

You can also carry it vertically, however, with a clever heavy-duty rope handle tucked round an end of the speaker. When stowed, you’re unlikely to notice it — I certainly didn’t for the first day I had the speaker — but pull it out and you’ve got yourself a handy additional way of carrying.

The cord isn’t quite as comfortable in the hand for long periods though, so if you have a bit of a walk ahead of you, I’d recommend using the main carry handle.

And if you are indeed taking the xboom Blast to wet, muddy campsites, or for a day on the beach, LG has ensured it’s ready for whatever the elements throw at it. There’s IP67 protection for dust and water, allowing the speaker to survive full immersion in water for a brief period of time. 

LG even claims the speaker has passed seven MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability tests (for shock, drops, and temperature swings), so it should be able to survive most things.

Thick, rubber end-bumpers protect the passive radiators on either end, and the xboom Blast can be placed horizontally or vertically without compromising driver airflow thanks to this design.

There is an array of buttons on the speaker, with three large black keys embedded in the speaker mesh for volume up and down, and play/pause. Above these, on the rubber trim, are a further five buttons: power, Bluetooth, PartyLink, ‘My’, and sound mode.

All buttons are easy to hit, and are unaffected by wet or dirty hands — there are no touch-sensitive panels here. And just behind the top row of buttons is a groove to hold your phone, giving you somewhere secure to place it (when in horizontal mode) if you’d rather not carry it around.

Round the back, the mesh covering is interrupted only by a small rubber flap in the bottom corner. This covers the AC in and USB-C ports. The former is used to charge the speaker — you will need the dedicated cable that comes with the speaker; you can’t charge via USB-C. Slightly annoying if you happen to forget to bring said cable with you.

Meanwhile, the USB-C port offers two functions. First, you can charge other devices from the speaker — such as topping up your phone if it’s running low on battery. You can also plug a USB-C audio cable into the speaker to play music from a laptop.

And of course, let’s not forget about the party lighting. The xboom Blast comes with dual ring lighting wrapping around each end of the unit.

In the LG ThinQ app you can select the type of motion and colours, or leave it up to the AI Lighting setting that “analyzes currently playing content in real time” to provide optimal lighting.

I prefer the AI Lighting mode, as it provides a variety of lighting effects and colours for a more varied experience. Although if you’re looking to set a particular mood, the manual controls in the app are easy to use.

Features

• Plenty of customisation for audio and lights
• Great selection of sound modes
• Needs better streaming service integration

The LG xboom Blast is well equipped in the design department, and it also comes with a bunch of features on the inside too.

As well as the party lights being a fun addition, they have practical uses too. Change the volume level, and the lights turn into a volume bar, giving you a visual representation of how loud the speaker is. They also flash when powering on and off, and connecting to Bluetooth.

The PartyLink button on the speaker lets you quickly connect the xboom Blast to other Auracast-supported models from LG, allowing you to build a network of speakers for bigger occasions, or pair with another speaker for a stereo setup. This isn’t unique to LG; many speaker manufacturers use Auracast technology for easy pairing of their speakers, but it’s great to see it included here.

As I mentioned before, this speaker can also act as a power bank, allowing you to charge other devices — such as your phone, tablet, or smartwatch — via the USB-C port on the rear. That’s particularly helpful if you’re camping at a festival or a rural campsite.

You can also play lossless audio on the speaker via the USB-C port by connecting it to a laptop, phone or tablet.

The Sound Mode button allows you to modify playback to suit your taste, with four different modes to choose from. By default it’s set to EQ mode, for balanced and natural playback. Press the button, and the backlight will switch to red, indicating you’ve changed to Sound Field Enhance. This gives you a wider sound field and powerful sound — good for pumping party tracks.

Hit the button again and it’ll turn green, for Play Time Enhance mode. This enhances the clarity of vocals, and improves power efficiency. It works well for podcasts, but music sounds more muted in this mode. The final setting, turning the button yellow, is Standard for a general optimised sound across all content.

Dive into the free LG ThinQ app (available on iOS and Android) on your phone and you’ll find a few more sound effect options, including Clear Voice for more distinct vocals, and AI Sound that will automatically adjust the sound based on the content being played. There’s a custom EQ setting too, allowing you to fine tune playback.

The various Sound Modes do make a noticeable difference to playback, and the fact they’re available at the touch of a button on the speaker itself means it’s easy to switch between them, depending on the audio you’re looking to play.

On paper the My button sounds like a useful feature — programmed to your favourite music and light effect for instant party mode action. In reality, it’s not quite that seamless. If you have an iPhone, you can link your Apple Music account (if subscribed) for instant playback of a select playlist. If you subscribe to another music service, however, you won’t be able to link it.

And for those with Android phones, you can’t link any streaming services. It means you’ll need to have actual music files downloaded on your phone, like it’s 2008, or opt for the LG Radio+ station, which are pretty limited and not exactly the personalised audio I was hoping to select.

Something that works better is Space Calibration, which sees the xboom Blast optimise its sound for the space it’s currently sitting in. Enabled via settings in the LG ThinQ app, it’ll play some very loud tones — the app does warn you of this — to work out where it is in a room.

It only takes a few seconds and, LG says, optimises audio performance to suit your surroundings. Once calibrated, you can listen to the before and after tuning to see if you can tell the difference. I was able to pick up some subtle differences.

Sound Quality

• Dual 5.25-inch woofers, three passive radiators, and two 20mm tweeters
• Audio output up to 220W
• Signature sound by will.i.am

The LG xboom Blast is powerful, with will.i.am helping to shape the signature sound for greater balance and a warmer tone.

Audio is delivered via dual 5.25-inch woofers, three passive radiators, and two 20mm tweeters from Peerless, a Danish high-end acoustic audio manufacturer.

Together they can deliver an audio output of up to 220W on AC power (210W on battery), making the xboom Blast plenty loud enough even in large halls or open camp site. If you want to get a party started, this is the speaker to do it. LG says the xboom Blast’s sound stage can cover over 82m2 — enough to fill a space larger than a standard regulation double badminton court.

As the name suggests, this is a speaker that can boom and blast bass. The large passive radiators on either end willingly vibrate all the way up the volume scale, delivering deep powerful bass. 

It travels well outdoors, but bring the speaker inside and the rumble is even more noticeable. Considering this is a party speaker, it delivers. Putting on some of will.i.am’s greatest hits further demonstrates this capability.

The 2009 hits Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling sound great, as do Where Is the Love?, My Humps and Shut Up.

From block parties to woodland raves, pumping out party anthems is what the xboom Blast does best.

Switching sound mode to Clear Voice and hitting play on the Heed the Call podcast, the LG xboom Blast delivers a comfortable listening experience without too much of a bass heavy response — although it does linger in the background.

I found Standard mode better suited to less bass-heavy tracks, with the speaker able to balance the frequencies in Aja by Steely Dan and Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones.

But you get the feeling the xboom Blast really just wants to be let loose on party hits. It’s where it sounds most comfortable, and really that’s what it’s designed to do. It is most at home when it’s pumping out dancefloor fillers with accompanying lighting effects.

Battery Life

• Up to 36 hours of playback
• The battery is removable
• A full charge takes around three hours

The LG xboom Blast boasts the longest battery life of any of its xboom siblings, with a quoted playback duration of up to 36 hours. That’s plenty of time to keep the party going into the early hours, and right through ’til the next evening.

What’s even more interesting though, is the fact the battery is detachable — something of a rare feature in 2026, where the vast majority of products come with rechargeable batteries sealed inside.

You’ll need an Allen key to remove the four screws on the base plate of the xboom Blast, but once removed you can simply lift up the rubber cover to reveal the 9,170mAh battery.

This theoretically means you should be able to have multiple batteries and charge them all for several days of use. However, I couldn’t find LG selling a replacement battery for the xboom Blast — only a smaller one for a different xboom speaker. 

There was a listing on AliExpress for a replacement battery (priced around £140), but I couldn’t verify whether it was an official product. 

There’s plenty of battery on offer then, and with the USB-C port the xboom Blast doubles as a power bank, letting you charge phones and other devices directly from the speaker.

What’s slightly more frustrating though is you can’t use the USB-C port to charge the speaker itself. Instead, you’ll need to remember the dedicated AC charging cable that comes with the speaker.

Once plugged into the mains, the xboom Blast takes around three hours to fully recharge.

Should you buy it?