I've had the rugged ruckus a few months now..

The good:
I charged it up when it arrived, but since then, have left it near a window that. Despite using it for a few hours a day and occasionally using it to top up my cell phone, I haven't had to charge it up again. Almost every time I've checked the battery, it has said it was full. The solar cell works pretty well.

The annoying:
It beeps when you turn it off and on or when you adjust the volume (including from your phone) and these beeps are loud and annoying. It doesn't auto shut off after you are done, so you'll have to turn it off yourself, possibly after the kids are asleep in bed, only to head a loud beep beep bop.

Despite the beeps being loud, anything else you play through it isn't really that loud. Its better than using your phone, but I struggle to hear a podcast properly if I'm doing something else mildly loud - such as boiling a jug. This thing can't compete with my kettle.

If you move your phone or device out of range, it won't automatically reconnect. The simplest way to reconnect is to turn it back off and on again, and have to listen to the stupid beeps.

The icons on the buttons are painted on with something very week. Two of them have worn off with only a few months of use and are now just unhelpful blank buttons (see photo for one of the now blank buttons).

The bad:
The Bluetooth range on this is shocking. My phone starts cutting out if I move it more than 5 meters from the device. Compare this to some Bluetooth headphones I have where I can roam the house completely - this thing won't let me walk to the other side of the same room. And if you come between the two devices, they cut out. And as previously noted, once they disconnect, you need to turn if off and on again to reconnect and listen to those lovely, loud beeps twice - once to turn off and then again to turn it on again.

Using it as a back up battery is pretty weak too - it charges an iPhone slowly but hardly makes a dent in their battery. It can't charge iPads - the ipad will just say "˜not charging'.

Summary - as long as you don't use it to charge things and don't move too far away from it, and don't mind beeps and don't do anything else remotely noisy, then this is fine. I'm actually really disappointed, as I love the idea of not having to plug in a Bluetooth speaker, but the downsides to this one outweigh having to find an outlet.

From all of the positive reviews this speaker has it may be possible I received a dud but I will never know because my attempts to contact eton have been a waste of time and effort.

I wanted something that would increase the volume of my iPhone and iPad in certain situations. My daughter has and loves her eton Rugged Ruckus solar-powered speaker then when I saw all the positive reviews I decided to buy this speaker.

I have never been able to get my eton Rugged Ruckus speaker to work despite following the instructions in the book that came with it. However my daughter was able to get it to work once after fiddling with it for 15/20 minutes. She kept at it because I purchased it on her recommendation.

Does it really take that long to get this speaker to work every time it is used? I am not always able to plan that far ahead when the occasion arises to use this speaker. Plus, my attention span for misbehaving technology is not that long.

I called the phone number for eton listed in the directions. It rang and rang, stoped ringing then the line went dead. I also sent an email to an address I found on their web site. No response.

Based on this experience, I certainly will not buy from eton again. I recommend that you give buying anything from eton a second thought.

Rugged Rukus used to make great speakers. I bought one well over a year ago and absolutely LOVED it. It was very loud and the sound was fantastic, but the solar charging option is why I originally bought it and proved invaluable, as I spend a lot of time out of doors and need a speaker that won't die on a camping trip, etc. It was nice to be able to charge it from an outlet, too, for if I ever wanted to get it charged up at night, but that feature eventually stopped working so it could only be solar charged. Unfortunately, I left it on an island in Vietnam and wasn't able to recover it.

Almost a year after losing it, I finally bought another one, and was surprised to see that it was significantly cheaper than the previous one. I quickly realized why after my first attempt at listening to music. The sound is absolutely TERRIBLE on this new version and sounds like a muffled tin can.. which I could probably make a better speaker out of myself. It's a shame that a company with such a vision and an incredible product decided they would rather sell out with cheaply made garbage sold by the truckload than continue with the high-quality speakers they were initially making, even if the cost was a bit more.

I have had this little speaker for over 2 years and have nothing but praises for it. I have left it outside in a hailstorm, has fallen and been tossed around and is still pumping out tunes.

Great speaker to bring on backpacking trips, not only do you have a speaker but also can charge your devices because it's solar powered! The solar function usually maintains the battery and allows for constant playing in sunny weather. I have actually never plugged the speaker in after the initial charge, I just leave it in the sun.

I wasn't paid for this review but sure wish I was!

Works very well, very good quality. I think the battery will last about 5-6 hours on max volume but I easlity got 9 hours on medium volume and not powering any other devices. As long as you can put the thing in the sun the battery will likely never die during normal use.

I would give 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that the thing has no balls. It's not nearly loud enough for camping/drinking beer with buddies. I thought about modifying it but being that it's very water resistant and has effectively zero air flow I don't think that would be possible without either affecting the water proofness of the case or over heating the amp circuit that I want to add.

Unless you're looking for very loud, this product is probably exactly what you want.