The Bushnell Wingman is a portable Bluetooth speaker designed specifically with music-loving golfers in mind. It works hand-in-hand with its Bushnell Golf companion app which you can use to load your golf course, record your scores, create statistics, and calculate distances to the nearest hole on your selected golf course thanks to its GPS capabilities. It's incredibly portable and easy to bring along with you wherever you go. There's also a strong magnet on its rear that you can use to secure it on the metal frame of your golf cart.
Our Verdict
The Bushnell Wingman is bad for music. With its default settings enabled, like many small speakers, it lacks low-bass, so you can't feel the thump, rumble, and punch in bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. Vocals and lead instruments also sound dull and veiled. While you can adjust its sound using its two presets, there aren't more robust sound customization features to tweak its sound to your liking. Its soundstage is also perceived as narrow and directional-sounding. However, it can get loud with little compression present at max volume, so your audio remains clean and clear when its volume is maxed out.
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Little compression present at max volume.
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Lacks a lot of bass.
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No graphic EQ.
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Directional soundstage.
The Bushnell Wingman is poor for watching videos and movies. That said, it isn't designed for this use. There's a lack of bass, so you can't feel the thump, punch, and rumble in action-packed scenes. Voices and dialogue also sound dull and dark, and there isn't a graphic EQ to tweak its sound. It also has low Bluetooth latency with Android and iOS devices, which causes syncing issues between the visuals you see and the audio you hear.
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Little compression present at max volume.
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Low Bluetooth latency with iOS and Android devices.
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Lacks a lot of bass.
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No graphic EQ.
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Directional soundstage.
The Bushnell Wingman is satisfactory for podcasts. It's incredibly portable, so you can easily bring your favorite podcasts and audiobooks along with you wherever you go. It also gets loud, with little compression present at max volume, so your audio doesn't degrade when the volume is maxed out, so you can easily hear your podcast from far. That said, the underemphasis in the treble range causes voices and dialogue to sound dull and dark, while sibilants like S and T sound sharp and piercing. Unfortunately, there aren't any comprehensive sound customization features to adjust its sound to your liking.
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Little compression present at max volume.
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Incredibly portable.
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No graphic EQ.
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Directional soundstage.
The Bushnell Wingman doesn't support voice assistants.
The Bushnell Wingman isn't bad for outdoor use. This small speaker is incredibly portable, and its long-lasting battery life makes it great for long listening sessions spent on the golf course. It gets loud with little compression present at max volume, so the quality of your audio doesn't degrade as you bump up the volume. It's rated IPX6 for water resistance, meaning it's certified to be protected against direct contact with water for up to three minutes, so you don't have to worry about it getting a bit wet when taking it outside with you. That said, its soundstage is perceived as narrow and directional. It also lacks bass, and you can't feel the thump, punch, and rumble in bass-heavy music.
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IPX6 rating for water resistance.
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Built-in GPS.
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Lacks a lot of bass.
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No graphic EQ.
- 4.6 Music
- 4.5 Videos/Movies
- 7.0 Podcasts
- 2.5 Voice Assistant
- 6.4 Outdoors
- Updated Oct 04, 2023: Added market comparison with the Blue Tees Golf The Player in the App box.
- Updated Sep 19, 2023: Added market comparison for the Bushnell Wingman View in the Style box.
- Updated Sep 12, 2023: Added market comparison for the Bushnell Wingman Mini in the Portability box.
- Updated Aug 03, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Jul 29, 2022: Early access published.
- Updated Jul 21, 2022: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated Jul 21, 2022: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated Jul 10, 2022: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Bushnell Wingman only comes in one color variant, 'Black and Orange'. You can find its label here.
If you come across any other variants of this speaker, let us know in the discussions and we'll update the review.
Compared To Other Speakers
The Bushnell Wingman is a portable Bluetooth speaker that looks somewhat similar to the JBL Flip 6 and the TREBLAB HD77. That said, it's designed with golfers in mind and comes with golf-oriented features that let you record your scores, create statistics, and calculate distances on your golf course. There's a strong magnet on its rear too, which you can use to secure it on the metal frames of your golf cart. However, like most small speakers, it lacks bass, so you can't feel the thump and rumble in bass-heavy music like hip-hop or EDM. There also aren't comprehensive sound customization features like a graphic EQ to customize its sound to your liking.
See also our recommendations for the best golf cart speakers, the best outdoor speakers, and the best portable Bluetooth speakers.
The Bushnell Wingman View is better than the Bushnell Wingman. The View is a slightly larger cousin of the original Wingman with an added LCD display to help keep track of its settings. Both speakers lack some low-bass, but the View does a better job of bringing the punch in the mid-bass.
The Bushnell Wingman and the Blue Tees Golf The Player are both golf cart speakers with built-in magnets to attach them to your cart. The Bushnell comes with more features, thanks to its companion app with the ability to connect to your golf course and track your stats. Both speakers lack a lot of bass but offer a similar sound.
The Anker Soundcore Motion+ is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman overall. The Anker's sound profile is more balanced with its BassUp feature turned on. It can produce a significantly more extended low-bass, and there's a graphic EQ and presets you can use to customize its sound to your liking. It also offers a wider and more open-sounding soundstage. However, the Bushnell gets a touch louder with significantly less compression present at max volume. It's also designed with golfers in mind, with golf-oriented capabilities like a built-in GPS. You can also use its app to save scores and calculate distances on the court.
The Sony SRS-XE200 is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman overall. The Sony can produce a more extended low-bass than the Bushnell, and comes with a graphic EQ to customize its sound profile to your liking. It supports voice assistants through your smartphone. It's better built with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. That said, the Bushnell gets louder with a lot less compression present at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio at louder volume levels. If you like golf, it also offers golf-oriented features. It has a built-in GPS. You can also save your scores and calculate yardages on its companion app.
The Marshall Emberton II is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman. The Marshall has a better-balanced sound profile out of the box, that can produce a more extended low-bass. It offers a wider and more spacious-sounding soundstage. There are presets you can use to tweak its sound to your liking. It has a longer-lasting battery life and is slightly smaller, making it easier to carry with you on the go. However, the Bushnell gets louder with significantly less compression at max volume, resulting in cleaner-sounding audio. It also has golf-oriented features like a built-in GPS, and its companion app helps you record your score and calculate yardages.
The Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2 is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman. The Ultimate Ears offers a better-balanced sound profile out of the box, that can produce a much more extended low-bass. Thanks to its 360-degree design, it has better directivity, resulting in a wider-sounding soundstage. It's also better-built with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, meaning it's dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. It even floats in water. That said, if you're an avid golfer, you may prefer the Bushnell's golf-oriented features like its built-in GPS and its companion app that saves your scores and calculates yardages.
The Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman overall. The Ultimate Ears can produce a more extended low-bass than the Bushnell. Its sound profile is also more customizable thanks to its graphic EQ and presets. It has a wider and more spacious-sounding soundstage too. That said, the Bushnell comes with golf-oriented features like its companion app which lets you record your scores, create statistics, and calculate distances on your golf course. There's a strong magnet on its rear too which you can use to secure it on the frame of your golf cart. It also gets louder with less compression at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio at louder volume levels.
The Anker Soundcore Motion Boom is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman for music overall. With its BassUp feature enabled, it has a better-balanced sound profile that can produce a more extended low-bass. You can customize its sound to your liking thanks to the graphic EQ and presets featured in its companion app. It's also rated IPX7 for water resistance and is advertised to float in water. That said the Bushnell is smaller, making it more portable. It also has less compression present at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio when the volume is maxed out. It also has golf-oriented capabilities. There's a built-in GPS, and you can use its companion app to record your scores and calculate yardages.
The TREBLAB HD77 is a better speaker than the Bushnell Wingman. The TREBLAB's sound profile is more balanced and can produce a much deeper bass than that of the Bushnell. Its soundstage is perceived as wider and more spacious too. That said, the Bushnell is a golf speaker that comes with golf-oriented features like a GPS, score statistics, and course yardage calculations. It also gets louder with less compression at max volume, so your audio sounds cleaner at louder volume levels.
The Bushnell Wingman is better than the Bushnell Wingman Mini. The Wingman is the larger of the two speakers, and unlike the Mini, it can playback stereo content. It boasts a longer battery life, too, and it can get louder. However, some users may prefer the Mini's more portable design. Also, the Mini's sound is more neutral out-of-the-box, which may be more suitable for some.
Test Results
The Bushnell Wingman is a portable Bluetooth speaker with a similar look to the Bushnell Wingman View. There's a light ring atop the speaker to inform you of your different chosen settings. Since it's an indicator light, you can't customize its colors or make it pulse to the beat of your music. There's also a small remote control that you can magnetically attach to the top of the speaker. It doesn't have an LCD like the View, though.
The Bushnell Wingman GPS speaker is incredibly portable. It fits in one hand, and its small, lightweight design makes it easy to bring onto the golf course. It also comes with a strong magnet to secure it on the frame of your golf cart. There's a removable D-hook underneath it too, which you can use to clip it to your bags or remove to expose a threaded hole to mount the speaker to a small tripod or a pole. The Bushnell Wingman Mini is a good alternative if you want a similar speaker that's smaller and more portable.
The Bushnell Wingman GPS speaker has decent build quality. It's made of sturdy plastic and is covered by woven mesh, similarly to the JBL Flip 6 and the TREBLAB HD77. It comes with an IPX6 rating for water resistance that certifies it to be protected against direct contact with water for up to three minutes, so it doesn't get damaged from some light exposure to water. That said, the manufacturer advises against exposing it to heavy rain or other direct streams of water and warns it can't withstand being immersed either.
There are sealable rubber flaps to protect its ports and there's a remote control you can magnetically attach to the top of the speaker. There's a strong and sturdy magnet on the rear of the Bushnell Wingman which you can use to secure it on the frame of your golf cart, and there's also a removable D-ring you can use to attach the speaker to your bags, or to mount it to a small tripod or pole.
The Bushnell Wingman has a good selection of controls that are decently easy to use, though they can be hard to press. The speaker automatically connects to the last device it was paired to when you turn it on. You can press the volume buttons simultaneously to disconnect the speaker from the device it's paired to. You can also press and hold them to restart your current track and to backtrack. However, this can cause you to accidentally skip tracks as you increase and decrease the volume. You can use the play button to answer, end, reject and redial phone calls. You can also double-press it to change EQ presets.
The light ring atop the speaker lights orange when you're in 'Indoor' mode and slowly flashes orange when you're in 'Outdoor' mode. It lights green when it's charging. It flashes orange when it's in pairing mode and when its battery is low. The speaker emits a chime when you reach its maximum volume level and causes the indicator light ring to blink three times. That said, it doesn't let you know when you reach its minimum volume level.
The Bushnell Wingman also comes with a remote control you can place atop it, which you need to connect separately via Bluetooth to your phone using the Bushnell Golf app. It has one control button you can press to hear your distances from the closest hole on an eligible golf course. You can also press and hold the button to hear sound effects such as applause or a custom message.
- Bushnell Wingman speaker
- Micro-USB charging cable
- Remote control
- Quick Start guide
The Bushnell Wingman has a poor frequency response accuracy. When placed horizontally on its base, and with its default 'Indoor' preset enabled, the speaker presented a severe lack of bass, so you can't feel the thump, punch, or rumble in bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. That said, while the lack of bass is noticeable, it doesn't actually sound as lacking as the graph makes it look with real-life content. Subjectively, we found its bass reproduction sounds on par with the average speaker of its size.
The underemphasis in the treble range also causes vocals and lead instruments to sound dull and veiled, while the peak in the high-treble causes higher-pitched sibilants like S and T to sound piercing. If you don't like its sound on its 'Indoor' preset, there's also an 'Outdoor' preset you can try that offers less bass. However, there aren't more comprehensive sound customization features like a graphic EQ to adjust its sound profile to your liking.
The Bushnell Wingman's soundstage isn't bad. It can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono. As a result, sound effects and instruments in your audio are localized to a pinpoint location. For instance, if you play a song that has the guitar on the left and the synth on the right, this speaker emits the guitar sounds from the left side of the speaker and the synth sounds from its right side. However, due to the small size of the Bushnell Wingman, these distinctions aren't very noticeable when passively listening to music. Still, this adds to your perceived immersiveness of the speaker's soundstage.
On the other hand, it has disappointing directivity despite its 360-degree design, resulting in a narrow and directional-sounding soundstage. This means that sound doesn’t really stretch around the speaker. Instead, your audio sounds a bit different when listening from different angles, like when listening from behind the speaker.
The Bushnell Wingman has a great dynamics performance. It gets fairly loud with little compression present at max volume. As a result, your audio doesn't degrade as you bump up the volume and remains clean and clear-sounding when the volume is maxed out.
The Bushnell Wingman has a great battery performance. While it's advertised to last up to 10 hours from a single charge, it actually lasted up to almost 16 hours in our tests, making it great for long listening sessions on the golf course. There's also a power-saving feature that turns the speaker off following 15 minutes of inactivity.
The Bushnell Golf app is a great way for golfers to make the most of their time on the course, and it really makes this speaker stand out compared to other golf cart speakers like the Blue Tees Golf The Player. The app lets you select your golf course, and it informs you of your distance from the nearest hole on your course in yards. You can enter your scores and track your statistics, too.
The Bushnell Wingman has a micro USB port to charge the speaker, as well as a USB-A out port you can use to turn it into a power-bank, and charge devices like your phone.
The Bushnell Wingman has decent Bluetooth connectivity. It has outstanding range, so your paired device remains connected to the speaker, even from far away. However, it has high latency with iOS and Android devices. As a result, there's a noticeable delay between the audio you hear and the visuals you see when using the Bushnell Wingman to watch videos and movies. That said, some apps compensate for latency differently and your experience may vary. This isn't a really big issue though since the Bushnell Wingman isn't designed for this use.