Stunning Revolutionary Bath Stereo

The Nomad is a Kickstarter-backed project from UpBeat Sound Co., and it’s the kind of wacky gadget I wish was around more often. The idea is simple: pair a waterproof tablet with loud car audio-style speakers so you can bring a high-volume CarPlay-style experience to private shower concerts, kitchen cookouts, or wherever you decide to venture.

I’m the type of person who is always listening to something. Music, podcasts, audiobooks, everything. The bathroom is always a weak point. I’ve tried several settings over the years. A waterproof Bluetooth speaker hanging from the shower head worked until moisture finally killed it. Next I tried the HomePod mini on the bathroom vanity. It was better than silence, but still not great. This mostly resulted in me shouting song requests to Siri from behind the curtains while the sound of water swallowed the answers.

I keep coming back to the same question: why can’t I control what’s playing from inside the bathroom, with a speaker loud enough to overpower the sound of running water?

UpBeat Sound seems to be asking the same thing. When Nomad first launched on Kickstarter, I considered backing it, but I wasn’t entirely sure how it would look in practice. About a year later, once it became clear that it was a shipping unit, I caved and bought one as a Christmas gift for myself. It arrived a few days later.

What’s that?

At its core, the Nomad is an Android tablet equipped with a thick speaker casing with a kickstand and a built-in battery. Its main trick, which is familiar if you’ve ever seen an aftermarket Android head unit in a car, is that it can run phone mirroring apps within the OS.

This is what allows Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to behave the same as in the vehicle. The bonus is that you’re not limited by automotive safety lockouts, so you can run video, YouTube, or Plex apps wherever you park the Nomad.

As a self-professed Apple fanboy, I wasn’t too carried away by the original Android interface. It still feels clunky to me. The device appears to be running a simplified version of Android 14, plus a homegrown over-the-air update system for future software updates.

Traveler’s voice

The title feature is clear. This thing is meant to sound like a boombox as opposed to a small shower puck. Visually, the four-speaker arrangement seems appropriate. However, out of the box, that is not the case. The default settings sound flat and disappointing, as if there’s nothing to match at all. I don’t know if it’s a driver limitation or just a bad default EQ, but first impressions aren’t great.

After digging a little deeper, I found a video from UpBeat Sound recommending a specific third-party EQ app. Installing it makes an immediate and obvious difference, which begs the question of why it isn’t the default experience. Once set, I dialed in a profile that supports spoken sound, and podcasts and audiobooks felt smoother and clearer.

So what’s the verdict? The audio is good, not great. It doesn’t compete with high-end dedicated speakers on the level of Sonos or Bose, but it has one advantage that matters most in the shower: volume. It gets loud. When you’re standing under gallons of running water, raw results are more important than audiophile finesse.

Form factor and portability

It’s marketed as a go-anywhere device, which is true if you define “anywhere” as “anywhere you’re willing to take a small brick.” This thing is a tank. At 3.6 pounds, it doesn’t weigh much, but the biggest part is the real story. Measuring approximately 13 × 6 × 2 inches, everything feels right in the hand. This isn’t something you’d normally put in a side pocket of a backpack. It’s something you carry in your bag.

Despite this, the build quality feels very solid. Its thick plastic shell basically dares you to drop it. The IP66 rating means the device can handle powerful water jets, which is pretty reassuring considering my primary use case involves daily spraying. The stand is stiff and confidence-inspiring, and the mounting system securely locks onto accessories, including the clever hook-style shower base. The overall vibe is less “consumer tablet” and more “workplace equipment.”

Shower test

This is the main event. I put adhesive on my bathroom walls after aggressively cleaning the tiles as if my happiness depended on it. I’m not interested in a disaster in the middle of a podcast. Installing Nomad is easy, and once installed, it completely changes the dynamics of the bathroom.

An 8-inch screen at eye level in the bathroom feels futuristic and a bit suspicious. Watching YouTube or checking the weather radar while sudsing up is great. However, the touchscreen experience is mixed. Anyone who has ever tried using a cell phone in the rain knows that capacitive touch screens and water droplets are their natural enemies. Nomads are no exception. The screen is bright enough to keep out steam, but trying to tap the small controls with a wet hand while water is running across the screen often results in a touch of ghosting or no response at all.

The solution is simple: queue up what you want before the water starts flowing. When the shower is on, I rely more on the physical volume buttons, or I use Siri via CarPlay when I need to change something.

From an audio perspective, bathroom acoustics actually help. Tile turns the room into a natural reverberation chamber, making the sound feel bigger than in the living room. More importantly, it eliminates shower noise without sounding annoying or distracting. Compared to the HomePod mini that struggled to live on the dresser, this is a massive improvement.

Uniqueness

The Nomad device doesn’t have a camera, which is unusual for an Android tablet and frankly a welcome choice in a place where you’re often standing around in your birthday suit.

Battery life is solid. I usually turn it off between uses to stretch it further, but that comes at a cost. Cold booting took a while since the tablet had to power on, load the UI, launch the mirroring software, then connect to my phone via CarPlay.

There are also some software glitches. After each reboot, I had to reopen and reinitialize the EQ app or the audio would revert to flat, out-of-the-box tuning. And when my phone is connected via CarPlay, the internal Wi-Fi is disabled. If I wanted to switch to a native Android app like YouTube, I had to disconnect CarPlay and re-enable Wi-Fi.

The good one

• Loud noise in the bathroom
• CarPlay and Android Auto support
• Long battery life
• Good portability and installation

Missed Opportunities

• Processor and RAM specifications could be better for a smoother experience
• The form factor is big and bulky
• Old version of Android

The bad one

• Big and heavy
• Laggy and slow UI response
• Expensive for non-early adopters

The verdict

The Nomad is a really fun gadget that prioritizes usability over subtlety. It has the weight and personality of a dedicated Android device, but it delivers exactly that: a loud visual medium that almost no other product can manage well.

It’s arguably overkill for a 15-minute rinse, and the touchscreen still obeys the laws of physics when wet. But it solves the problem I bought completely. If you value raw performance and volume more than software refinement, this is a truly great shower companion.

Read the full Beard Blog technology review

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