For indoors or outdoors? For decoration or show off? To listen to music or to party? With its Bluetooth speakerXBoom 360, LG seems to have developed a perfect speaker, versatile whatever the circumstances. What’s more, the recently lowered price of this device pleads in its favor.
20 minutes take a closer look and listen with both ears to see if the XBoom 360 is a good investment and, why not, a gift to consider for Christmas.
For the house or on the terrace
The problem with Bluetooth speakers is known. The larger ones generally offer powerful sound at home but are doomed to a sedentary lifestyle. The smallest are nomadic but often lack a safe. With its XBoom 360, the South Korean LG obviously wanted to bring together the best of both worlds. His idea: to imagine a speaker that can meet most needs.
At home, the XBoom 360 – which measures 52 cm in height – finds its place in any room. And anywhere in the room. Diffusing 360 ° sound, with no blind spots, it can be placed on the side of the living room sofa as well as in the middle of a bedroom. It can be moved easily using its integrated handle. Omnidirectional, the speaker incorporates a Tweeter (titanium) and a woofer arranged horizontally. In its base oriented towards the ground, a duct has the effect of amplifying the bass.
Customizable audio settings
With a power of 120 watts, the XBoom 360 is ideal for adding sound to a living room up to around 40 square meters. Its sound quality is convincing, especially as LG offers through a dedicated application (“LG XBoom” for iOS and Android) the possibility of choosing presets (jazz, pop, rock, Classic, Bass blast), but also of them. personalize. Do not deprive yourself of it: the sound of the speaker being naturally bass, it is sometimes necessary to adjust the parameters to add a hint of brilliance to the sound broadcast.
For the exterior, the XBoom 360 incorporates a battery. Rechargeable in five hours, its autonomy is about ten hours. The use of the enclosure is to be reserved here rather for a terrace in fine weather than for going to the beach. And for good reason: the device does not have any certification against splashing and even less immersion, which is regrettable.
Still, this potential mobility is a strength, if only to take the device with you on weekends. But a transport bag would not have been too much …
Light up the colors
Particularity – and not least – of the XBoom 360: its integrated lighting system. Located in an inverted cone above the woofer, it contains a set of LEDs that you can choose to activate from the application or from a button on the top of the speaker. Here again, LG offers presets (Ambient, Nature, Party), but it is also possible to define yourself, and to the nearest shade, the color you want to light, as you would do from your smartphone with a Philips HUE smart bulb, for example.
Enough to transform the enclosure into a real decorative object. With its lantern shape, the device is a real success on this point. It is even possible to turn on the LEDs without listening to music.
The festival of lights in the living room
To go further and be in the festive trend of the moment, LG also offers light effects to liven up an evening: “Dynamic”, “Party atmosphere”, “Superb night view” (for the terrace). Here too, it is possible to adjust the color as desired.
And to ignite the dance floor, the “Party Strobe” button in the application automatically turns your smartphone’s flash into a strobe. Anecdotal, but fun. Anecdotal and also fun are the DJ sound effects that you can swing from the app: scratches, flanger, phaser … Finally, this XBoom 360 is not as wise as it seems …
Gaps that plague the atmosphere (a little)
The fact remains that at the time of writing this paper, the “Warm afternoon” light setting illuminates us with a peaceful orange hue which invites us more to take a nap than to complete this article … In the meantime, the XBoom 360 speaker turns out to be a great aesthetic and technical success.
Admittedly, it is only mono and does not offer uncompressed Bluetooth. Admittedly, its autonomy is limited and its resistance to external weathering is lacking. Of course, the speaker is neither Alexa nor Google Assistant compatible …
But the device with a strong capital of sympathy is extremely attractive. And not only aesthetically. All the more attractive as its selling price has been revised downwards: 250 euros instead of 400 euros when it was launched last September. At this price, we would have taken two to form a stereo pair, but this technical possibility is not allowed. Pity.