LG Xboom Go XG8T outdoor speaker Review

Introduction

LG has been pushing wireless speakers for years, though perhaps with not as much success as the likes of JBL or Sony; it hasn’t stopped them from coming up with new models.

The Xboom Go XG8T isn’t a name that easily rolls of the tongue but within the current Xboom range, if you need a portable speaker for parties, this is the one you’d be rolling out.

It’ features a military-grade design that makes it a robust, heavy-duty speaker for the outdoors, glowing lights and a 120W audio output to deliver that big party sound.

On the face of it, this combination of features and specs should come together for a good time – you’ll have to keep reading on if that turns out to be the case.

Design

• Military-grade design
• IP67 waterproof
• Weighs 3kg

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. For a portable speaker, the Xboom Go XG8T is a big ‘un. If someone messes around with your party vibe – maybe at a music festival – you could pick this speaker up and knock some sense into them.

That is as long as you carry all 3kg of this speaker from the ground, which stretches the credulity of this being a ‘portable’ wireless speaker, but as I mentioned, it’s a big one.

It’s dressed all in black. I’d like some colour, but that’s what the LED lights on the sides are there to provide, and the all black look gives the sense that this speaker means business. There’s a little pedestal on the underside to help balance the speaker when it’s down on the ground so I’d reckon it’d be fine on uneven surfaces without rolling off.

On the top surface of the speaker are a row of buttons for power, Bluetooth, volume, playback and a Sound Boost mode. You could carry it underarm like a rugby player carrying a ball, but to make it easier, LG provides a handle, which means there’s some assembly required.

The hybrid strap comes together in two different ways – if you want to carry it over-ear or with your hand, which is a neat, versatile way of getting this speaker out into the great outdoors. I like it.

The Xboom Go XG8T features an IP67 rating – strong enough to survive a trip into water that’s 3m deep for about 30 minutes, as well as being dust-tight, which should help against tiny particles like sand infiltrating and messing with the speaker’s innards.

It’s also shockproof, can survive high temperatures, vibration, and even salt fog which I’ve never heard of before but if you ever experience it, you’re covered.

Around the back is a flap for plugging in the mains power cable for charging and a USB output for charging another device. There’s a USB-C port for service tasks only.

The Xboom Go XG8T’s build quality is mostly plastic but feels tough enough to survive whatever s thrown at it.

Features

• Bluetooth multi-point
• Xboom app
• Sound Boost mode

In terms of features, this is a Bluetooth wireless speaker – no Wi-Fi supported here – with Bluetooth 5.1 support that has access to Bluetooth multi-point to connect to two devices (say two phones) at the same time. LG also has its own Multi Play mode, whereby you can connect up to five Xboom speakers with each other.

It streams in SBC and AAC, which is pretty much the standard for Bluetooth whether you have an Android or iOS device. Carrying out my usual test of playing music at full volume and walking away from the speaker, the Bluetooth connection held up pretty well, only just faltering when I reached the other end of the garden.

There’s 120W of horsepower (although the LG website also implies 60W) giving the sound some oomph but the speaker – perhaps surprisingly, is 1-channel (i.e. mono) via its two-way speaker system (a woofer for the bass and tweeter for the highs).

There’s the Sound Boost mode, which boosts the volume and bass, both of which will be helpful in outdoor situations, as you won’t be able to rely on walls and reflect sound and make it appear louder than it actually is.

There’s also the LG Xboom app where you can monitor battery life, play with the volume and equalizer (Standard, Sound Boost), mess around with the Side Lighting to provide the appropriate colour to your party and tweak some power settings.

There’s not too much in the app to concern yourself with aside from the Side Lighting, and even that feature I found the effect of the lights to be not particularly bright, especially on a bright day.

You could also use this speaker for receiving calls but that’s a choice that’s up to you.

Battery Life

• Claimed 15-hours
• Three hours to charge back to full

I’ve heard some not-so-great things about the Xboom Go XG8T’s stamina and I can understand why some might not think it’s great but I don’t think it’s too shabby.

When I first started using this Bluetooth speaker, the battery consumption did feel poor, falling 15% in what felt like less than 10 minutes. It does come with an adapter and a mains plug for charging, though neither of those are much help if you’re outside. Once the battery is drained, it takes three hours to get back up to full, with no fast charging option provided.

During a battery drain with a Spotify stream at 50% volume for an hour, and the Xboom Go XG8T fell from 99% to 91% with the Sound Boost mode off, and from 91% to 81% with it on. That suggests you’ll get about 10 hours from this speaker in its most power hungry mode

That’s still short of what LG claims, which is 15 hours at 50% volume with no Side Lighting – and I wonder what the point of that calculation really is, as much of the reason you’ll be getting this speaker to have it the Side Lighting turned on. To turn it off just to eke the battery out sounds like a potential party killer.

Sound Quality

• Enjoyable expression with vocals
• Loose treble performance
• Bass not the most balanced

Sound quality is the bread and butter of any speaker and the LG Xboom Go XG8T is okay in that regard, but it certainly could do better.

I don’t love the treble response with Greg Foat’s Symphonie Pacifique. It’s not coarse or too bright that it grates, but the high frequency response sounds loose and lacking in detail.

It lacks sharpness and a degree of clarity, and while this performance varies depending on track – the treble response in some tracks seems fine – it’s a speaker that lacks precision in describing those highs. They’re not quite as distinct as I’d like them to be but bear in mind that I don’t think this speaker is trying to be accurate per se.

There’s a looseness of the midrange as well, a lack of detail, definition and separation of voices and instruments to the point where they all feel like they congeal into one blob, a situation not helped by this effectively being a mono speaker.

It does sound more balanced with Sound Boost off. The extra bass, energy and volume don’t help every track. Listening to Sufjan Stevens’ Chicago, it carries forth a more balanced performance, describing the warm, smooth reproduction of the midrange – Stevens’ vocals in particular – in a better manner.

I do like the clarity of its performance with vocals, whether it’s Maye in La Cancion or Jacob Collier in the Sky Above – the warmth and smooth tonality of the speaker’s performance makes voices expressive.

There’s not much dynamic range present, the switch from quiet to loud is small rather than big; but it can capture the rise and falls in Norah Jones’ voice in I Don’t Know Why.

The bass performance is an area that gives some pause. With La Cancion played in the speaker’s Standard mode, the low frequencies don’t sound as good as I hoped – a little flat and hard in places. Sound Boost elevates the lows with a richer performance that gives them more depth and power without affecting Maye’s vocals (which also receive a boost).

But turning on the Sound Boost mode affects the balance of other tracks, so it’s a pick and mix in terms of what you get. And while it’s a speaker that can go loud it does become more bass forward in its presentation. You may like that or you may not, but again it does skew the balance a little.

Should you buy it?