LG rolls in the life of the party

The people who work at LG must love travelling. This is the first thought that occurs to you when looking at and handling the LG XBoom XL7S portable Bluetooth tower speaker.

With its built-in wheels and telescopic handle a la a stroller cabin-baggage-style suitcase, you can easily drag this sonic beast wherever the party takes you, much like you drag a suitcase behind you when travelling.

This means that you no longer need to lug around heavy, cumbersome speakers that leave you exhausted before the party even begins. With its rubber wheels, the XBoom XL7S rolls smoothly over various terrain, making it effortless to move around.

The built-in handle extends for comfortable towing, allowing you to navigate busy streets, sandy beaches or grass lawns without a hitch. It’s a game-changer for outdoor events and a feature that distinguishes the XBoom XL7S from the competition.

With a portability that belies its 310mm width, 316mm depth and 700mm height, and its hefty 15.5kg weight, this speaker is designed for the party animal on the go. The weight, of course, comes from a robust build quality incorporating some pretty stiff and durable plastic, making it a speaker that feels like it can survive transcontinental flights, and perhaps even a trip to the moon if you wanted to take your party there. And if you do roll up to any such party with this LG in tow, your co-partyers will instantly know that you are someone who takes their parties seriously.

And the people who work at LG must also love partying. This is the second impression you get when you switch on the LG XBoom XL75 and hear and see it play.

You can’t throw a proper party without bone-rattling bass, and the LG XBoom XL7S delivers in spades. From the moment you press play, you’ll feel the thump and resonance of your favourite tracks vibrating through your entire body. This speaker features a robust eight-inch woofer, perfectly designed to generate deep, powerful bass. Crank up the volume, and you’ll soon be surrounded by a musical force to be reckoned with, and you’ll wonder how you ever partied without it.

While bass is crucial for a party speaker, clarity and detail matter too — and the LG doesn’t disappoint here either. Much.

With its two 2.5-inch tweeters, the overall sound quality is both crisp and immersive. Party music is not all that we tested it with – and when we played classical music, gentle ballads and easy listening pop hits, or even podcasts, it reproduces the highs and mids with an accuracy that you wouldn’t expect from a speaker that perfectly fits the made-for-loudness mould.

For those who appreciate clarity, you’ll be delighted to know that this speaker also comes with an equaliser accessed and controlled through the LG XBoom app, with multiple presets. There are three default modes: standard, sound boost and custom. While standard is more or less flat, with low, mid, and high frequencies all seemingly levelled at zero. Sound boost is actually just a loudness switch that boosts pretty much everything, sounding like all frequencies were brought to the forefront and presenting a muddled sound stage with all vying to overwhelm one another. It’s bold and a bit too aggressive at higher volumes but would perhaps prove to be the most impactful in a party.

The custom option was more to my liking, offering a three-band slider equaliser to give you the basic tools to dial the music to your liking. More bands would have been welcome, but this is of course nowhere near an audiophile speaker. For starters, it is a single unit, so there is no stereo soundstage. But even with the three bands provided, a little fiddling makes a big difference. After all, no party will constantly be held to the tune of Megadeth. There will have to be other less extreme interludes, Michael Jackosn to Miles Davis.

So, with great portability, super build quality and good sound as the pluses, what are the negatives of the LG XBoom XL7S? The answer is battery life and water resistance. And for a device that is intended to flaunt portability and robustness among its key desirable characteristics, both these negatives somewhat mar the package.

I mean how effective is a tank-like build if you constantly need to be wary of water ingress, and how portable is your drag-it-along-anywhere design if you cannot go too far away from a power socket for too long?

When it comes to battery life, LG claims up to 20 hours of playing time. In real life though, expect to get around half of that with the volume cranked up, the sound boost feature on and all bells and whistles engaged.

Those bells and whistles include a visual component, too, with the device featuring LED strobe lights, which you can customise via its app for your very own personalise disco experience. Just remember not to dance too long, though.

If you’re planning to take your XL7S to the poolside, beach, on a boat or any place where water is a constant threat, you might want to be careful. With its IPX4 rating for ingress protection, it can take the occasional splash but nothing wetter than that.

In the final analysis, however, its sound quality and 250-Watt power output make up for whatever flaws the XL7S may have. What it does not make up for, however, is the price. At Dh1,999 it is a tad bit overpriced for what it offers. But if you love your parties and some serious punch in your music, LG’s XBoom XL7S is the speaker for you.

Rating: 3.5 stars