LG Xboom 360 X02 Review

Introduction

LG has been trying to appeal to a wider audience with its Bluetooth speakers – none more so than the Xboom 360 X02.

While the name is a mouthful, its form is more pleasant – shaped like a lamp, it provides 360 degrees of sound. Like Samsung’s Music Frame, it’s a speaker that doesn’t look like one.

But at the end of the day, it has to perform. How well does the Xboom 360 X02 do?

Design

• IP55 rating
• Touch controls
• Conical shape

The Xboom 360 X02 is almost a scaled version of the RP4 Xboom 360 model from a few years back. It’s like a lamp or a lantern in a conical shape, and the version I reviewed is the grey model.

Even though grey is not the most attractive colour (there is a beige option), the speaker comes wrapped in a fabric that adds to its lifestyle aspirations. The top of the speaker features a glass effect even though it’s obviously plastic. Regardless, it fits into whatever décor you have.

It weighs 900g and while it doesn’t have a handle, the Xboom 360 can be gripped from the bottom of the section at the top, which doubles as a glowing light source. Knock past the speaker and it doesn’t fall over either.

Its IP55 rating is strong enough that the speaker can be exposed to sprays of water and shake it off, as well as resist dust. Don’t take that to mean it’s waterproof though.

Around the rear is a flap that conceals USB-C charging input (like the Bose SoundLink Max, a cable is provided but no charger). It’s next to the power button, which you’ll want to be careful with in case you grab the speaker and accidentally turn it off.

On the top surface are controls – volume, light, playback, and Bluetooth – although I’ve had to tap to see them. A proximity sensor in the vein of the Denon Home 150 would be more helpful, and when they light up they disappear quickly. I find I have to jab to make them to appear again.

App Experience

• EQ support
• Customise mood lighting

The Xboom 360 X02 comes with an app, Xboom, to configure the speaker’s sound and mood lighting.

There’s an equalizer with Standard, Sound Boost, and Custom modes. Simple things such as monitoring battery life, playback controls and changing the volume are also possible, and the app also provides tips for using the speaker.

The One Touch mode acts as a shortcut to play music with the mood lighting and volume you want to go with that playlist as well.

Most people will probably play with the mood lighting, and the Xboom 360 offers plenty of ways to customise with several presets. You can also create your own by mixing colours together.

As always, you can update the speaker through the app, though perhaps annoyingly, notifications have to be activated so the app is always on in the background.

Features

• 15-hour battery
• Bluetooth multipoint
• Stereo pair with an LG TV

One of the more interesting features of the Xboom 360 X02 Bluetooth speaker is that if you have two, you can connect to an LG TV to provide a bigger soundstage.

Battery life is claimed to be 15 hours, but carrying a battery drain I found it was closer to nine. LG say the 15 hours comes with the EQ and LED light turned off but considering most people will likely want it on all the time, 15 hours seems an overstatement.

Bluetooth support is v5.3, with support for SBC and AAC streaming; and the Xboom 360 supports Bluetooth multipoint to connect to two devices at once. The wireless Party Link mode whereby means you can connect to multiple LG speakers at the same time.

I’d query the lack of Wi-Fi considering the similarly priced JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi comes with it. Especially as the JBL speaker is an outdoor model that can be used indoors, while the LG Xboom 360 is an indoor model that can go to the garden.

Sound Quality

• Warm presentation
• Two-way speaker

LG might want to convince you the sound from the speaker can fill a room – but that’s not the case. The Xboom 360 X02 doesn’t really push sound away from its body – it’s all contained within – but it can go loud but fill a room? It depends on how big it is.

Twist the speaker around and you get much the same sound from front to back and side to side.

It’s worth noting this isn’t a speaker for an audiophile audience. Inside is a two-way driver set-up that handles the highs and the lows, but this is nothing like the Apple HomePod 2. It’s not the most detailed or sharpest speaker, and the highs come worst off worst in the frequency range.

It’s a warm-sounding speaker, which firmly puts it into the more casual/lifestyle market as its levels of detail and definition aren’t high.

Greg Foat’s Symphonie Pacifique lacks both precision and detail even if the treble is bright. It’s not that it sounds fuzzy but that the highs lack clarity.

With GoGo Penguin’s Raven, the highs sound better but it’s still lacking sharpness and clarity. With some tracks, the LG shows an emphasis on the midrange and bass, which affects its balance. There’s a firmness to low frequencies but an unfocused approach to the highs.

Vocals get prominent space within a track, and whether it’s a male or female singer they sound smooth, clear and warm to the ear with a richness to some vocals that adds to the speaker’s enjoyable vibes.

The soundstage does feel a bit bunched up. Perhaps it’s the shape of the speaker but the soundstage isn’t so much horizontal as vertical. Dynamically it’s not quite fluent – if anything the speaker doesn’t start at normal levels and go up and down, it just gets louder.

All of this was in the speaker’s Sound Boost mode, which I didn’t realise was on at first. So turning it off and the Xboom 360 X02 doesn’t sound as energetic but it sounds clearer. It’s not as warm but retains that smooth quality. Playing the same tracks as before and treble still has the same unfocused tone. Even so, on the Standard EQ, music sounds more like it was meant to be heard.

Push the volume up and some tracks sound even better and energetic at higher volumes but it trades subtlety for fun.

With low frequencies, the speaker outputs a punchy sense of bass rather than lows with depth. There’s at least a power to the low end that doesn’t overload the midrange.

Sound Boost adds more power to the low end that makes tracks more energetic and exciting. The Standard EQ helps midrange clarity but isn’t as great for the bass. It makes the Xboom 360 the type of speaker that can focus on some parts of the frequency range but not all of it.

Should you buy it?