LG Xboom Grab Review

Design

• Tubular shape
• Solid build
• Versatile carry straps

The LG XBoom Grab looks like a reusable water bottle and will even fit in the bottle cage of your bike, should you value Shabba Ranks over consistent rehydration.

Its neat tubular design lives up to its name, and even small hands can get a firm grip around the mix of rugged black plastic and acoustic cloth. In any case, elastic material straps are also available, held in place by premium metal brackets.

Embossed Xboom branding looms large in the middle, with a control panel of seven buttons on top comprising power, volume up, volume down, play/pause, Bluetooth pairing, Auracast/Party Link, and LG’s MY button for customisation.

At either end, you’ll find passive radiators distributing sound, with a 16mm dome tweeter from Peerless handling high frequencies, and an 80 x 45mm racetrack driver providing woofer wobbles down low. The sole input is USB-C.

Weighing 700 kg, it’s lighter than its closest rival, the JBL Flip 7, which tips the scales at 826 kg, although it does come in about 2cm longer, should size matter. Overall, it’s nice to look at, thoughtfully designed, and well built.

A quick note on the light bar, which is a much more subtle affair compared to the Xboom Stage 301 party speaker. Just a slither of a 10cm long strip skirting the bottom of the acoustic cloth. 

Features

• AI light and sound
• IP67 rating
• Auracast Party Link

Will.i.am aside, LG’s headline-grabbing features include AI audio settings for every genre, AI lighting that syncs with the sound, and AI calibration so the speaker setup is optimal in any given space.

As mentioned, the Black Eyed Peas frontman has been assisted by Danish audio company Peerless on the speaker components.

Pleasingly, the Xboom Grab inherits the same MIL-STD-810H military standards and IP67 rating seen on the bigger Xboom Bounce. That means protection against high temperatures, rain, vibration, impacts, salt water spray, dust and flooding.

LG’s ThinQ app is a labyrinth of settings and sub-settings, plus everything from Apple Music integration to healing therapy playlists.

Party Link via Auracast is, however, a superb inclusion at this price point. Choose from dual mode for pairing two Grabs at once, or multi-mode, allowing you to connect multiple Xboom speakers from 2025 onwards.

This Bluetooth 5.3 mini-boomer gets speakerphone support, plays nicely with voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant, and doubles as a power bank for charging devices

App support

• Razor-sharp pairing
• Clever AI calibration
• Head-scratching app

The best portable Bluetooth speakers are a simple switch-on and pair affair. Forget about the LG ThinQ app, and the Xboom Grab kicks into gear in milliseconds. Officially recognise the app’s existence, and things become a little more involved.

Your first port of call should be to dive headfirst into settings and hit the AI calibration feature. This optimises the speaker’s sound for the space you’re in, be it inside or out. You’ll need to repeat this process if you move to another area.

From there, start playing around with the sound effects, choosing between ‘Standard’, ‘Bass Boost’, ‘Voice Enhance’, ‘AI Sound’, and ‘Custom’ for more selective fiddling with the overall EQ settings.

Lighting options are just as versatile. Either let the AI analyse what you’re listening to, or choose from seven lighting motions. Customise further by selecting your preferred colours and choosing a repeat mode — either sequential or random playback of all motions. Better still, turn it all off and give your brain a break.

Cognitively, Party Link is an altogether simpler affair. With Auracast on board, I connected the Xboom Grab with an Xboom Stage 301 pretty swiftly, great news for extending the garden party playlist to other areas of the house.

That just leaves the ‘Contents’ tab, and honestly, it’s probably one to avoid. The Healing Therapy playlists and My Music integration with Apple Music are so weak, you’re better off just using your native streaming app.

Sound Quality

• ‘Bass Boost’ for the win
• Excellent soundstage separation
• Avoid AI

With a 16mm dome tweeter from Peerless handling high frequencies, and an 80 x 45mm racetrack driver on woofer patrol, I’ve high hopes in the sound stakes for the compact Xboom Grab.

The aforementioned setup is front-facing, with passive radiators at either end to help push the sound all around. This bodes well for the Bass Boost EQ setting out of the box, and there’s certainly a pleasing amount of low-end.

I’d say it’s overpowering, and while mids can sound slightly muddied at times, ‘

Chase the Devil by Max Romeo and Hip-Hop by Dead Prez sound bigger than the sum of their parts on a speaker this small, which is a real win.

While the AI calibration tool is a boon, AI Sound repeatedly misses the mark. Tracks feel too eager, crisp and overpronounced in places, while lacking impetus in others. It’s all rather odd and unconvincing.

The sultry, psychedelic and cinematic qualities of Bonnie and Clyde with Bridgette Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg sit much better in Standard mode, while the pop, funk and disco elements of Why by Carly Simon suit Bass Boost. Decision, decisions.

Switching to something rockier, Black Sabbath’s War Pigs (RIP Ozzy) and System of a Down’s Chop Suey both need ‘Bass Boost’ or we may as well all go home, so unless you’re planning on switching EQ settings for every song, just keep it on that.

It might not be the most refined, but I’m not conducting an orchestra in Dolby Atmos here, so I can forgive a little loss of balance with the mids and treble — especially when the one thing LG has nailed is a soundstage with commendable frequency separation, for a vibrant and captivating listen. 

There’s harmony and warmth here once you eek it out, and while you’ll get a more engaging listen from, say, the Marshall Emberton III, you’ll come away feeling pretty confident about taking this as your +1 to a party.

Voice Enhance is there for spoken word, so if you’re taking phone calls or locked into Test Match Special for the day, it does a decent job of taking the edge off any background noise while keeping Jonathan Agnew at the crease with a straight bat.

Battery life

• 20-hour battery
• 3-hour charging time
• Auto power off

With 20 hours of playtime, the LG Xboom Grab beats the JBL Flip 7 by four hours and the Ultimate Ears Boom 4 by five. Extra battery life that could be the difference between an after-party and leaving with a fully charged mobile phone.

Charging takes three hours to the JBL’s 2.5, but you’d plump for the extra capacity every time. Or just buy an Auracast-enabled, IP67-protected Marshall Emberton III with 32-hour battery… albeit for an extra £20.

Need to recoup some minutes? Utilise the auto power off setting and turn off any lighting. Note, the 20-hour figure is based on 50% volume and no lighting.

Should you buy it?