LG XBoom 360 XO3 review

LG isn’t a heavyweight in the Bluetooth speaker market, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the quality of its admittedly badly named XBoom 360 XO3.

It’s a good looking wireless speaker with solid sound quality and crazy customisable lights that can be plugged in to the mains or charged via USB-C and used on the go with its rechargeable battery.

The lights are a bit of a gimmick but fun enough, and the XO3, as it shall be known, holds it own when it comes to audio. It’s just a shame that for the price it doesn’t offer any smart features or voice input like similarly priced speakers from Sonos and Apple – but the sound quality is excellent.

If all you need is a reliable Bluetooth speaker with room-filling sound chops and also want to connect something like a vinyl turntable via an audio jack, the XO3 is a great choice.

Design & build

• Heavy at 3.2kg
• Attractive vase design
• Woofer, driver, and tweeter combination

The XO3 is heavy for a portable speaker at 3.2kg and an imposing 165 x 327 x 165mm. This isn’t a speaker to stick in a bag and forget about, but it is small enough that you can put it in a larger bag to take away to the park or on a trip, or just move to a different room. This is aided by the included optional hand strap.

LG describes the design as a ‘modern vase’, which is fairly accurate. It’s a symmetrical round vase shape in either the grey colour I reviewed or an alternative cream version. Either can blend into a living room or bedroom set up nicely as the look is quite ornamental.

There’s a gap near the top where LED lights sit. You can customise these within the Android or iOS XBoom app to play preset light shows to suit the mood you’re going for.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

They can also flicker like a candle, or you can turn them off. There’s even a strobe option that flashes your phone light on an off as an accompanying mood starter. If you really want a speaker with funky lights then the XO3 will fit the bill, and they are fun, but I usually turned them off.

The lights are within a plastic reflector, which is more important to the sound distribution than the lights are to the product. Sound can emanate from the top and is directed outwards thanks to the shape.

Below the light reflector, the entire body of the speaker is covered in a mesh fabric to allow sound to travel outwards from the woofer and tweeter within. It is hardy enough and I wasn’t too worried about it rubbing up next to things in a bag or a car boot when carting it around.

On the top of the unit are responsive touch controls for volume, play/pause, Bluetooth, and the lights, next to a battery indicator light. Red for low warning.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

There’s also a loop to attach the included optional hand strap for easier lugging it about, which sits above the USB-C port for charging and a 3.5mm audio plug to attach an auxiliary cable to audio devices. There’s no charger in the box, though there is a USB-C to -A cable for charging.

With IP54 dust and water resistance you will be fine if you get caught in the rain while tunes are blasting, but the XO3 won’t survive a dunk in the pool.

Connectivity

• Bluetooth only
• 3.5mm audio in
• USB-C charging

While the speaker market is full of smart speakers such as the Apple HomePod and Sonos 100, LG keeps it very simple with the XO3. There are no smart features here, and connections are via Bluetooth 5.1.

It can support the AAC or SBC codecs but won’t play FLAC or WAV files at their full high resolution quality. There’s multi-point support so you can connect more than one wireless audio input, and you can even link several of the speakers together for stereo audio, which I was not able to test.

Battery life is claimed at 24 hours if you play audio at 50% volume and don’t use the lights or EQ feature in the XBoom app. The unit never ran out on me before I’d got back home and plugged it in to charge, and I could regularly rely on it for all-day playback.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

The lack of smart features might irk you at this price. You can’t speak to the XO3 to choose music and so you can’t use it as a smart home hub to control lights or devices like you might with the HomePod or a Google Nest or Amazon Echo product.

It means you also don’t get Apple AirPlay or Google Cast functionality – it really is Bluetooth only. LG provides software updates over-the-air via the XBoom app though.

As someone who doesn’t tend to trust voice assistants to get the song choice right I was perfectly happy trading these ‘smart’ features for the portability of the speaker. I like how LG is fully focused on the music playback, battery life, and versatility of the XO3.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

There’s also 3.5mm jack for audio input so I was able to easily hook up my vinyl turntable to the speaker (there’s no 3.5mm audio cable included, but they are cheap to buy). With it connected and plugged into a USB-C charger via the mains, the XO3 is a good option for a permanent, compact turntable speaker.

Sound quality

• Excellent, rounded sound
• Good EQ options
• 360 degree audio

This big ol’ sound vase is so shaped to deliver 360 degree sound, and LG delivers on that promise. Wherever you place it in a room the XO3 pumps out full, well balanced sound – though it does not have the smarts of the HomePod, which can tune the direction of audio by not blasting it into a wall if it detects it’s next to it.

Despite the lack of such sensors, I never found the XO3 to distort or sound bad wherever I placed it.

The sound is formed from a 4in woofer, 2in mid-range driver, and a 1in tweeter. The combination of these ample components makes for wonderful sound.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

‘Speed of Plight’ by Loyle Carner is well rounded, with the bass notes rumbling nicely behind the tight treble of the drums. Likewise, ‘midnight sun’ by Nilüfer Yanya is room-filling when you crank the volume on the XO3, but it doesn’t distort, and it can keep the frequencies separate enough to still sound clear. You can easily set a mood and get lost in the music with this speaker.

The speaker carries the bass and percussion nicely on Ezra Collective’s ‘Lady’ cementing the XO3 as a good party speaker. I was hoping the bass would be loud but controlled and was not disappointed as in songs like this it’s tuned very nicely.

If you are indeed having a party or just want to give the speaker an extra lift indoors or outdoors, in the XBoom you can switch on the preset ‘sound boost’. It raises the low end noticeably but keeps a nice mix on most genres.

Henry Burrell / Foundry

I preferred most music with it on. Even Bach sounds great with a bit of a bass boost.

You can also customise the EQ with a responsive six channel EQ dial. I often found a better mix of levels this way, particularly with indie rock such as The Strokes, where on ‘standard’ mode the speaker can sound a little flat unless the volume is cranked really high.

As well as the bass proficiency, the XO3 handled mid and high frequencies well. I never listened to a song and thought it sounded muddy or badly reproduced.

Price & availability

The LG XBoom XO3 costs $299 from Amazon in the US or £299 direct from LG in the UK. It’s also available on Amazon, Richer Sounds, AO, and Currys.

At the time of writing, several retailers had the XO3 on sale for about $199/£199, which is a more palatable price.

This is relatively expensive for a speaker with no smart features. You might prefer to spend $249/£249 on the Sonos Era 100 – but that speaker, like many others, needs to be plugged into the mains.

The Sonos Roam is smaller and costs $179/£179 but needs to be connected to Wi-Fi to take full advantage of its features, and its battery life away from a charger is only 10 hours compared to closer to 20 for the LG.

For simple enjoyment of music on a very good sounding speaker, without the complication of Wi-Fi connections – and on battery power – the LG XBoom XO3 could be a no-frills winner for you.

It’s closest rival is the Marshall Middleton, which has excellent sound quality and is much more portable for $299/£269.

Verdict

It’s a tad expensive for a speaker that’s Bluetooth only, but the LG XBoom XO3 makes up for this (and its clunky name) by delivering exceptionally strong audio quality from streaming, MP3, and line-in sources.

What you lose in smart features you gain in portability – and though the XO3 is quite heavy, being able to quickly get the tunes going outside, at a barbecue, or the park is worth the sacrifice of smart features if that’s what you’re after. If you don’t want to faff about with Wi-Fi, AirPlay, the XO3 is great.

With fun optional lights, an attractive design, great battery life, and water resistance, the XO3 should last you for several years.

Specs

• 1 woofer
• 1 mid-range driver
• 1 tweeter
• 360 degree sound
• Bluetooth 5.1
• 3.5mm line-in
• USB-C charging
• Up to 24 hours battery life, or mains power
• IP54
• Companion XBoom app
• 165 x 327 x 165mm
• 3.2kg