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The 7 Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers - Fall 2022 Reviews

Updated

A good portable Bluetooth speaker can bring your favorite music with you wherever you go. Whether you're looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker to take with you when you're outdoors at the beach, park, backyard, or even in different rooms of your home, there are countless models to choose from that are currently on the market. Ideally, you'll want a speaker with a long-lasting battery life that's well-built with an IP rating for water resistance so it can withstand getting a bit wet when you take it outside. That said, it's important to note that smaller speakers are more likely to struggle to get loud and reproduce a thumpy and rumbling low-bass.

We've tested over 100 speakers, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best portable Bluetooth speakers. If you want to see more options, check out our picks for the best Bluetooth speakers, the best waterproof Bluetooth speakers, and the best outdoor speakers.


  1. Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    The Sonos Move is the best portable Bluetooth speaker we've tested. This battery-powered Bluetooth speaker has a built-in handle you can use to carry it from room to room. Its long-lasting battery life of over 10 hours makes it great for long listening sessions, though this varies depending on your usage habits. It also comes with an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance, certifying it to withstand direct contact with water for up to three minutes and dust for around two to eight hours, so you can take it outside without worrying about it getting wet or dirty. With its room correction feature turned on, it has a fairly well-balanced sound profile suitable for listening to a wide variety of audio content, though the room correction feature is currently only available with iOS devices.

    It has bass and treble adjustments in its companion app that you can use to tweak its sound to your liking. It also offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in and can easily understand you in noisy settings and when you're far away from the speaker. If you don't care for voice assistants and just want a speaker to blast your favorite tunes, you might want to check out the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM, which offers better overall sound quality at max volume. It can get louder with less compression present at max volume. It also has a longer-lasting battery life of almost 24 hours, making it better suited for long listening sessions; however, it lacks voice assistant capabilities and isn't as small or portable.

    See our review

  2. Best Upper Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    If you want a more affordable portable Bluetooth speaker, check out the Sony SRS-XG300. It has a nice boombox-like design, with a built-in carrying handle to help you bring it from place to place. Overall, it's small and lightweight, and its materials feel solid. Plus, it's rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, meaning it's certified to be fully dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. You can bring it to the pool or the lake without worrying too much about water damage, which is great.

    This speaker offers a versatile performance that makes it suitable for lots of different people. Dialogue in podcasts and audiobooks is reproduced with accuracy, and you enjoy clear and detailed representations of instruments in your favorite tunes. There's even a little extra boom in the bass range to bring bass-heavy genres like EDM and hip-hop to life. Unlike the Sonos Move, you won't find a room correction tool, so it sounds a little different depending on the space you're in. However, you can make up for this a bit with its graphic EQ, which lets you customize its sound across the range.

    See our review

  3. Best Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    Another more wallet-friendly choice we've tested is the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 3. It's a small, cylindrical Bluetooth speaker that's easy to bring with you on the go, and you can even attach it to your bag with its built-in carrying hook. It comes in many different color variants, too, so you can choose a style that meets your taste. It's also rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, which is great if you plan to use your speaker near bodies of water, like a pool, a river, or a lake.

    Given its price, it's not a surprise that this speaker reproduces less low-bass than the Sony SRS-XG300. It's most noticeable with bass-heavy music, like EDM and hip-hop, as you don't feel as much rumble and thump. However, it's not a big deal if you mostly listen to content without a lot of bass mixed in, like dialogue-focused podcasts or classical music. You can also customize its sound based on your preferences, which is nice, using the graphic EQ and presets available in the Ultimate Ears app.

    See our review

  4. Best Lower Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    The Sony SRS-XE300 is another portable Bluetooth speaker with versatile performance, and it offers great value for the price. It's a lightweight cylindrical speaker that you can easily carry in one hand, so you can bring it with you on hikes and picnics in the park. Its solid build means that it can withstand lots of different adventures, and it even has an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance that certifies it to be fully dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes, meaning you can use it near water without worry. Compared to the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 3, you won't find a carrying strap, though.

    Still, this speaker's sound quality makes it a solid choice for many different users. You enjoy a pretty even sound right out of the box, with a clear and accurate representation of voices and lead instruments in the mix. There's some extra boom in the bass to accentuate more punchy tunes. With the graphic EQ, you can customize its sound more to your liking. If you pair your smartphone over Bluetooth, you can also use the phone's Google Assistant or Siri support to control the device with your voice.

    See our review

  5. Best Budget Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    The best lower-mid-range Bluetooth speaker we've tested is the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3. This stereo speaker is smaller than the Sony SRS-XE300 and comes with a handy built-in strap that you can use to attach the speaker to your bag or suspend it from a hook. Its sturdy build makes it one of the best small Bluetooth speakers we've tested, with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance. It certifies it to be fully dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. Like the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 3, the manufacturer advertises that it can float in water, so you can float your favorite songs around with you next time you relax by the pool.

    Thanks to its 360-degree design, it has excellent directivity, so you'll perceive its soundstage as more natural and open-sounding than the Sony XE300. Its battery life of over 22 hours is fantastic for longer listening sessions, though this varies depending on your chosen volume levels. It has a balanced sound profile out of the box, is suitable for listening to different audio content, and there's an 'Outdoor Mode' preset you can enable for a slightly louder and crisper sound when you're outside. However, like most speakers its size, it struggles to reproduce a thumpy low-bass, and unlike the Sony, there's no graphic EQ to customize its sound to your liking.

    See our review

  6. Best Cheap Portable Bluetooth Speaker

    If you're looking for a more budget-friendly portable Bluetooth speaker, check out the Anker Soundcore Flare 2. This small speaker has a balanced sound profile with its BassUp feature enabled, making it great for listening to a wide variety of audio content. Its balanced mid-range ensures vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present in the mix, though higher-pitched voices and instruments sound dull at times. While its 8-hour battery life doesn't last nearly as long as the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3, you can customize its sound profile to your liking, thanks to the graphic EQ and presets featured in its companion app, and it produces a deeper bass too. Thanks to its 360-degree design, it also offers a wide and open-sounding soundstage so you can hear your audio clearly from all angles.

    While it isn't floatable like the WONDERBOOM 3, it's still rated IPX7 for water resistance, so you don't have to worry about getting it wet or dropping it in a pool of water when taking it outdoors with you. It also supports voice assistants through your smartphone. If you're looking for an even cheaper option, the Anker Soundcore 2 is a smaller, well-built speaker with a balanced mid-range that's suitable for listening to a wide variety of audio content. That said, it doesn't produce as deep a bass as the Flare 2 and doesn't come with sound customization features. If you can afford to stretch your budget for the Flare 2, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck, with a deeper bass in your audio, a graphic EQ, and a wider soundstage. However, if it's out of your price range, the Soundcore 2 is still a good choice.

    See our review

  7. Best Portable Speaker For Bass

    The best portable speaker for bass is the JBL Boombox 3. While it's larger and heavier than the Sonos Move and doesn't support voice assistants, it produces a more extended low-bass than it and the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM. It has a balanced sound profile overall with a bit of warmth in the bass range that adds a bit of extra boom and thump to the mix, making it great for fans of bass-heavy music like EDM or hip-hop. You can tweak its sound profile to your liking using the graphic EQ in its companion app. Also, while it doesn't get quite as loud as the HYPERBOOM, it still gets loud enough to fill large crowded spaces without much compression at max volume, so your favorite music remains clean and clear sounding when you blast them on the speaker.

    While it's on the larger and heavier side, it comes with a built-in carrying handle so you can easily carry it in one hand to your next gathering. It's better built than the Move and the HYPERBOOM, with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance that certifies it to be fully dust-tight and immersible in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. It even floats in water, so you don't need to worry about accidentally knocking it into the water at your next pool party. Its long-lasting battery life lasts up to almost 30 hours from a single charge, so it doesn't die on you in the middle of your jam. That said, its larger and bulkier size doesn't make it ideal for listening on the go, like smaller speakers like the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2, which you can attach to your backpack, for instance.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Sonos Roam: The Sonos Roam is a small, portable Bluetooth speaker that's a smaller, more compact version of the Sonos Move. It's a viable alternative if you're looking for something more portable with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. However, it struggles to reproduce low-bass, and its battery only lasts around five hours on a single charge, though this can depend on your usage. See our review
  • Bose Portable Smart Speaker: The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is a portable Bluetooth speaker with a carrying handle and Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. However, its battery life doesn't last as long as the Sonos Move. It also isn't as well-built. See our review
  • JBL Flip 6: The JBL Flip 6 is a well-built portable Bluetooth speaker with a balanced sound profile, suitable for listening to different audio content. However, it has to downmix stereo content to mono to play it, which isn't as immersive. Its battery life also doesn't last as long as the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 3. See our review
  • Bose SoundLink Flex: The Bose SoundLink Flex is a very well-built portable Bluetooth speaker with a neutral sound profile that floats in water. While it's smaller than the Sony SRS-XE300, it has to downmix stereo content to mono to play it, which isn't as immersive. It has a much shorter battery life of around seven hours. It also doesn't have a graphic EQ to tweak its sound like the Sony. See our review
  • TREBLAB HD77: The TREBLAB HD77 is a portable Bluetooth speaker with RGB light rings. This stereo speaker features an AUX input you can use to wire your devices to it. However, there's a lot more compression present at max volume than the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3, so audio quality degrades more as you increase its volume. There isn't a graphic EQ or presets to customize its sound to your liking, like the Anker Soundcore Flare 2. See our review
  • Sony SRS-XB13: The Sony SRS-XB13 is among the best small Bluetooth speakers we've tested, thanks to its compact design and great build quality. It's much smaller than the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3 and the Anker Soundcore Flare 2 and comes with a removable carrying strap to help transport it. That said, due to its smaller size, it doesn't get quite as loud as the WONDERBOOM 3 and the Flare 2, and it lacks extra features like a graphic EQ to customize its sound. See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Nov 17, 2022: No changes in product picks after verifying their accuracy and availability.

  2. Oct 21, 2022: Replaced the Sony SRS-XG500 with the JBL BoomBox 3 as the 'Best Portable Speaker For Bass'.

  3. Sep 23, 2022: Replaced the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2 with the next generation Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 3. Minor updates to the text for consistency and accuracy.

  4. Aug 25, 2022: Added the Sony SRS-XG300 as the 'Best Upper Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker' and the Sony SRS-XE300 as the 'Best Lower Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker'. Moved the Sony SRS-XB13 to the Notable Mentions.

  5. Jul 25, 2022: Recategorized picks to better reflect how users are searching for speakers. Made the Ultimate Ears MEGABOOM 3 the 'Best Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker', the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2 the 'Best Lower Mid-Range Portable Bluetooth Speaker', the Anker Soundcore Flare 2 the 'Best Budget Portable Bluetooth Speaker', and the Sony SRS-XB13 the 'Best Small Bluetooth Speaker'. Also added the Sony SRS-XG500 as the 'Best Portable Speaker For Bass'.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best portable Bluetooth speakers most people can buy, according to their needs. We factor in the price (cheaper speakers win over pricier ones if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no speakers that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you would like to see more products, here's the list of all our Bluetooth speaker reviews sorted by their outdoor performance. Be careful not to get caught up in the details. There are no perfect speakers. Personal taste, preference, and listening habits will matter more in your selection.

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Bluetooth Speaker With Handle