6 Things to Consider Before Buying a Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Today, portable Bluetooth speakers are incredibly popular. They’re dead simple to use. They’re small enough to take almost anywhere. Most are durable enough to withstand a splash and some sand. And, for the most part, they’re pretty affordable.

That said, there are more portable Bluetooth speakers to choose from than ever before. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and prices, and seemingly every speaker company (and general gadget manufacturer) makes at least one these days. And they’re all just a little bit different.

So, before throwing down your hard-earned cash, make sure you’re getting the portable Bluetooth speaker that works best for you.

Brand matters: Who makes the portable Bluetooth speaker?

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

You’ve probably heard of all the speaker manufacturers on this list, which is a good thing. You want to trust that the speaker is not only going to sound good but also last.

Many portable speakers on this list work with other like-branded speakers; for instance, you can pair two Ultimate Ears speakers or two of Bose’s SoundLink speakers together for more of a party (or multi-room) setup.

This means that if you already have a portable speaker at home, or you plan on getting a few moving forward, there is a real advantage to sticking to one brand of speaker.

Size: What size portable Bluetooth speaker do you need?

Photo by Tucker Bowe

Generally, the bigger the speaker, the louder and better it is going to sound. You also want to consider the shape and design of the speaker.

The two most popular shapes these days are 360-degree (cylindrical) or mono-directional speakers. The 360-degree speakers are generally better when placed in the middle of a room while mono-directional speakers are better for stereo audio.

The size of the speaker directly affects its price, too. Bigger speakers cost more. Most ultra-portable speakers tend to cost in the region of $50 to $100. Mid-sized portable speakers cost between $150 and $200. And larger portable speakers can run $350 or more.

Durability: How water-resistant do you want the speaker to be?

Tucker Bowe

Portable Bluetooth speakers aren’t all created equally — thus you can’t treat them all the same. To know how water-resistant or drop-proof a speaker is, you need to understand IP (Ingress Protection) ratings.

The easy way to explain it is that the higher the IP rating of the speaker, the more water-resistant it is. For example, a portable speaker with an IPX7 rating can be fully submerged in water (but typically not longer than 30 minutes). A portable speaker with an IPX4 rating is simply splash-resistant.

You can check out how the IP ratings are explained here.

Battery life: How often will you need to charge the speaker?

Tucker Bowe

Bigger speakers tend to have larger and longer-lasting batteries. That said, it varies from speaker to speaker. If you know you’re going to listen to the speaker a lot and you’re also going to have to go days between charges, these are things you should consider before purchasing a portable speaker.

As an example, the JBL Go 3, which is one of our favorite ultra-portable speakers, is super small and has a battery life of around five hours. The Sonos Move 2, a significantly larger speaker, can go up to 24 hours between charges.

That’s a big difference.

Charging port: How does it charge?

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Knowing what kind of cable might seem like a small thing, but it’s convenient to be able to use the same cables to charge a few of your devices, like wireless headphones, your smartphone and your computer.

Most of today’s portable speakers can be charged via USB-C, which is the same charging cable that you’d use with a laptop — and that just makes your life easier. No need to worry about needing different cables charging for each of your different devices.

However, there are outliers. A lot of older portable speakers (and even some new ones) still require a micro-USB cable, which not only charges slower but is also kind of rare — not many devices (speakers or otherwise) charge via micro-USB anymore.

Voice control: Can it work as a smart speaker?

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Some of the newer portable speakers have Wi-Fi connectivity and support a voice assistant, such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant.

This allows you to use a speaker similar to an Amazon Echo or Google Home, using voice commands to request songs, answer general queries and control smart home devices. However, you’ll only be able to access the voice assistant when connected to Wi-Fi or a mobile hotspot.

This smart speaker functionality is neat, but it also tends to complicate things when it comes to using the speaker. It also tends to drive up the price considerably.

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