While JBL and Sony have essentially cornered the market on outdoor-friendly Bluetooth speakers with a mix of models across various price ranges, we always like to see competition. The Anker Soundcore Motion Boom lands in the top tier of sub-$100 portable wireless speakers. At $89.99, its relatively compact, fully waterproof design delivers impressively robust bass response, and its intuitive app features user-adjustable EQ. There’s no real wow factor here, but everything works as it should, and the audio quality is impressive for a speaker this size.
Fully Waterproof
Measuring 7.9 by 13.6 by 5.9 inches (HWD), the 4.4-pound Soundcore Motion Boom has a mini boombox look to it, with a built-in handle over its middle upper panel and a front-facing grille that reveals two full-range titanium drivers. The left and right ends are outfitted with passive bass radiators that vibrate and add a sense of bass depth to the audio. The all-black design is subtle and sleek.
Up above the grille, there’s a simple array of controls, including power, Bluetooth, volume, and a multifunction button for playback and track navigation. There’s also a Bass Boost button and a control labeled TWS (true wireless stereo mode) for pairing with another Soundcore Motion Boom and making each speaker the left or right channel of a stereo pair. The multifunction button also works for call management for the speakerphone feature.
The back panel houses a covered connections panel with a USB port for charging external devices using the speaker’s battery and a USB-C port for charging the speaker with the included cable.
The Soundcore Motion Boom has an IPX7 rating, which means it’s fully waterproof when the cover for the back compartment is closed—it can be submerged for up to a meter for 30 minutes. Even though Bluetooth audio can’t survive underwater, the point is the Soundcore Motion Boom can be used in rain or rinsed without any issue. It’s also worth noting the speaker can float, making it ideal for pool parties.
The Soundcore app for Android and iOS is a one-size-fits-all app for a wide array of Anker Soundcore products. Once connected to the speaker, there’s a menu where you can fine-tune auto-off and voice-prompt settings, a play/pause button and volume slider, and an EQ section with multiple presets, including customizable EQ with nine bands from 80Hz to 13kHz. Adjusting it during playback, we can attest to the EQ’s ability to drastically alter to sound signature. There’s also an Bass Boost button in the app (it’s the same button that’s on the speaker itself) that works in conjunction with whatever EQ preset you choose. Soundcore Signature is the default, and the setting we used for our audio tests in the next section.
The speaker is compatible with Bluetooth 5.0 and supports the SBC Bluetooth codec, but not AAC or AptX.
Anker estimates battery life to be roughly 24 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels.
Plenty of Power for the Size
With the audio set to Soundcore Signature and Bass Boost off, we tested out the Soundcore Motion Boom’s audio playback capabilities and quickly came to the conclusion that nearly everyone who buys this speaker will want to turn the Bass Boost feature on. It’s less of a Bass Boost button and more of a Bass Enable button—with it off, the drivers sound tinny, thin, and brittle. The good news is, with Bass Boost enabled, the Soundcore Motion Boom delivers a well-rounded sound signature.
On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Soundcore Motion Boom delivers impressive low-frequency depth for a speaker this size and price. At top volume levels with Bass Boost on, the speaker manages not to distort. The passive radiators add some extra oomph, and a little visual flair as they seem to move about a half-inch inward and outward when vibrating at top volumes.
Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Soundcore Motion Boom’s general sound signature. The drums on this track sound heavier than we’d expect a speaker this size to be capable of making them—they don’t sound thunderous, but they definitely pack some added depth. Callahan’s baritone vocals, however, seem to have the bulk of the actual bass depth here, commanding most of the low-mids in the mix, while the high-mids and highs do a good job of keeping the detail in his voice and the crispness in the acoustic strums and higher-register percussive hits. There’s nothing accurate in the slightest about this wildly boosted, sculpted sound signature, however—it’s scooped so that you get a lot of lows and highs, and the mids are dialed back. You can mess around with the EQ, of course, but don’t expect to be able to dial in true deep subwoofer-like bass.
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On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for it to retain its punchy attack, and it seems to get a little added bass heft as well. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are more implied than delivered—these drivers just can’t go that low, nor would we expect it of them. The vocals on this track are delivered with solid clarity and perhaps a bit of added sibilance. Again, there’s boosting and sculpting all over the place here; it’s in service of an outdoor-friendly party speaker sound, and obviously not for purists seeking flat response for critical listening.
Regardless, orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, actually sound pretty good through the Soundcore Motion Boom. The lower-register instrumentation is pushed forward a bit and given some extra heft, but nothing embarrassing. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals still maintain their bright place in the spotlight. There’s nothing accurate about the picture being painted here, but there’s enough clarity to make it respectable, and enough body to give the lows some pleasant richness.
The speakerphone mic offers decent intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded. There wasn’t much Bluetooth distortion fuzzing up the edges of words, and the mic signal was strong, but it kind of sounded like the mic, which is located behind the grille near the left driver, is inside a Tupperware container. Regardless, it’s a useful feature that seems to be disappearing from many of the speakers we test, and callers should be able to understand you on a decent mobile signal.
Power Your Next Pool Party
The waterproof Anker Soundcore Motion Boom sounds good for its size and price. The app includes EQ that allows you to fine-tune the audio to a degree, and the on-speaker controls are easy to use and intuitive. Anker doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel here, but it doesn’t has to. The Soundcore Motion Boom may lack any real wow factor, but it’s definitely one of the better sub-$100 Bluetooth speakers you can buy. The only issue is that there’s plenty of competition, namely from the two brands that seem to own this realm. The $100 Sony SRS-XB23 and the $120 JBL Flip 5 are both compelling alternatives, and if you’re willing to increase your budget, you can get more power in the form of the $180 JBL Charge 4 or the $200 Sony SRS-XB43. The good news is that any of these speakers will serve you well, so you can’t really go wrong.
