Wireless audio, whether it’s a strong connection over Wi-Fi or a lightweight one via the Bluetooth on your phone, is one of the fastest ways to start listening to the music you love. It’s also made owning a speaker you can take anywhere in your house or outside imminently possible.
Best smart speakers: Great sound and smarts in sleek packaging
From Alexa to Google Assistant and Siri, Pocket-lint tested, reviewed, and compared the top smart speakers on the market.
A good portable speaker offers an easy way to transport it from place-to-place, strong wireless connectivity, and danceable sound. For our money, Ultimate Ears’ Wonderboom 3 makes it one of the easiest to carry and listen to speakers out there, but if you’re considering other portable options, we’ve created this list, with great sounding speakers that will be at home anywhere, from your backyard, to strap to your backpack. Continue reading below to find the portable speaker that works best for you.
Best portable speakers: Our top picks
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3
1. Best overall portable speaker
Small, round, and waterproof
$76 $100 Save $24
The UE Wonderboom 3 is a round Bluetooth speaker that offers 360-degree sound and up to 14 hours of battery life in a compact package.
- Easy to carry in a bag or backpack
- Up to 14 hours of battery life
- IP67 dust and waterproof
Ultimate Ears’ Wonderboom 3 Bluetooth speaker is small enough to attach to the outside of a bag, but powerful enough to distribute full and rich bass — two facts that are more than enough to make it a good pick for this list. But in our tests, the speakers’ ability to stereo pair with UE’s other speakers and its even better battery life pushed it over the edge to make it our overall pick for just about anyone.
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3: Still packing punch
UE hasn’t changed a huge amount for the new Wonderboom 3, but that’s not a huge deal as it’s still great. Here’s our review.
There are bigger and louder speakers on this list that might technically be “better,” but there are few that pair audio performance, size, and price like the Wonderboom 3 does.
It’s unfortunate it still ships with a Micro USB port, but we think that’s easy to forgive given what the speaker otherwise offers, including some eye-catching colors.
Sonos Move 2
2. Best premium portable speaker
Long battery life and wireless charging
Sonos’ Move 2 is a big improvement on its predecessor thanks to more tweeters, a longer battery life, and an overall more repairable design.
- Works with Sonos’ system
- Up to 24 hours of battery life
- Built-in handle
- Heavier than Bluetooth-only options
- Not waterproof
For someone who’s willing to spend a fair bit more but still prefers portability, the Sonos Move 2 is one of our favorites. It looks the same as its predecessor, and is able to connect to Sonos’ multiroom audio system.
Sonos Move 2: Power, performance and portability
The Sonos Move 2 replaces the Move, bringing a number of subtle improvements to the original portable speaker. Should you buy it? Here’s my review.
The key difference between it and Sonos’ other speakers is that it can wirelessly charge and includes a handle that makes it easy to move inside or out. The Move 2 features one more tweeter than the original Move, but in our opinion, its best quality is still its battery life.
The Move 2 can last up to 24 hours, meaning all-day music or podcast listening are more than feasible if you’re willing to pay $449. Also of note, Sonos has done work to make the Move 2 more repairable than before, including an entirely replaceable battery, which is a big win for users and the environment.
Sony SRS-XB100
3. Best affordable portable speaker
Oh so small
$48 $60 Save $12
The Sony SRS-XB100 is smaller than most speakers, but more than able to keep up in terms of sound clarity and battery life.
- Absolutely tiny
- Comes with a strap
- Up to 16 hours of battery life
- Sound is not as rich or full as bigger speakers
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Sony SRS-XB100 is both a fraction of the price and size of the Sonos Move 2. Sony has decades of experience creating excellent audio products, so acceptable sound shouldn’t be a surprise here, but it is nice to hear it coming out of a speaker that’s smaller than a soda can and can fit in the palm of your hand.
The SRS-XB100 doesn’t get loud enough to really be satisfying for an outdoor get-together, but it can fill a room, and should work just fine if you want to listen to something while you cook. Plus, it’s IP67 dust and waterproof rating, up to 16 hours of battery life, and an included strap should let you use it just about anywhere without having to worry about breaking it.
Ultimate Ears Epicboom
4. Loud and perfect for parties
An upgraded Wonderboom
$320 $350 Save $30
Ultimate Ear’s Epicboom is bigger than the company’s other speakers, able to float, and is far louder than its predecessors, making it great for pool parties.
- It floats
- It’s super loud
- IP67 dust and waterproof
- Doesn’t connect over Wi-Fi
The UE Epicboom is one of the newer additions to Ultimate Ears’ speaker lineup, and go-to pick if you want something loud, that’s still easy to move around. Like the Wonderboom 3, the Epicboom is able to blast sound 360-degrees around itself, filling a space with up to 94 decibels of rich bass.
Ultimate Ears Epicboom: Keeping it simple
Ultimate Ears has a powerful new speaker — the Epicboom, and we’ve tested it thoroughly.
You can also “boost” that performance for outdoor use if you’re worried about your music getting drowned out. For lugging it to and fro, the Epicboom comes with a built-in strap, which is magnetized to stick to the side of the speaker when you’re not using it.
The IP67 rating also means the Epicboom is able to float in the pool and is totally water-resistant, protecting it from dunks and splashes. There’s no ability to stream music over Wi-Fi, which feels like a missing feature on a speaker that costs more than $300, but in terms of both power and volume, it’s hard to go wrong with the Epicboom in our opinion.
Sonos Roam
5. Sonos audio on the go
Highly versatile inside and outside
The Sonos Roam is the smallest and most portable of Sonos’ speakers, with an excellent battery life and automatic tuning for superior sound.
- Connects to existing Sonos system
- IP67 dust and waterproof
- Supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant
- More expensive than competitors
The Sonos Roam captures the set-it-and-forget-it charms of the company’s speaker ecosystem in a device that’s lighter than a pound and able to use Bluetooth just as easily as it uses Wi-Fi. The Roam can work in a multiroom setup if you’re using Sonos’ app, and is able to wirelessly charge with a stand accessory, but its neatness trick is a Sonos classic: Automatic Trueplay for tuning the speaker’s sound to your room, and its orientation, horizontal or vertical.
Sonos Roam: Portable perfection
It’s pricer than your average Bluetooth speaker, but it isn’t your average Bluetooth speaker. Should you buy it? Yes. Why? Let us explain.
Otherwise, the Roam isn’t dramatically different from similarly small Bluetooth speakers. It has up to 10 hours of battery life, is IP67 dust and waterproof rated, and supports voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Anker Soundcore Motion 300
6. Cheap automatic tuning
Bass boosted
Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 is a Bluetooth speaker capable of High-Res audio, that can be paired with other speakers and easily transported thanks to a built-in strap.
- Detachable strap
- IPX7 waterproof
- Up to 13 hours of battery life
- Bass boost button is gimmicky
If you were curious to try something like the Sonos’ Trueplay on a sub-$100 speaker, you might want to look at the Anker Soundcore Motion 300. This Soundcore Bluetooth speaker is basically a compact rectangle with a detachable strap that’s able to playback High-Res audio, with the added twist of something called “SmartTune Technology” which adjusts the Motion 300’s sound depending on where it is and which way it’s facing.
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With interactive story features, sound perfect to stream their favorite songs, and fun colors, these are speakers kids will love.
The Motion 300 isn’t dustproof, but it is IPX7 waterproof, which should allow it to be submerged in water or used in the shower without any problems. Moreover, with up to 13 hours of battery life and 30W stereo sound, it should fill your room with sound all-day.
JBL Boombox 3
7. A modern boombox
Not pretty, but useful
The JBL Boombox 3 is essentially a clear and loud modern-day boombox that supports multiple Bluetooth connections and ships with an all-day battery life.
- Up to 24 hours of battery life
- Clear and loud bass
- Sturdy handle
We reviewed the Wi-Fi version of the JBL Boombox 3, but aside from different connectivity options, the rest of the positives of this Bluetooth boombox stands. This is a big speaker, and loud, particularly if you’re listening to the thumping bass of a dance track.
JBL Boombox 3 Wi-Fi: Party hard
JBL’s biggest speaker is back, and now it has Wi-Fi on board to upgrade it to full multi-room audio potential.
That added size also allows for a bigger battery — the JBL Boombox 3 is supposed to get up to 24 hours of battery life on a single charge. The JBL logo on the outside of Boombox 3 is far from subtle, but the speaker’s handle means it’s easy to transport around, and its ability to support up to two Bluetooth connections means you and a friend can easily DJ all-night long.
It’s more utilitarian than some of the other speakers on this list, but you’ll be happy you have it all the same.
The bottom line: What is the best portable speaker?
Striking a great balance between portability, sound quality, and price, the UE Wonderboom 3 has the looks and features to make anyone happy. It gets louder than its size might suggest too. If you’re looking for a more premium experience, the Sonos Move 2 is a natural step up in terms of features (Wi-Fi connectivity and multiroom audio) and price ($449). The affordable option is no slouch, though. Sony’s SRS-XB100 costs less than $100 and is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but it can fill a room with sound, and last all-day on a single charge.
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3
Editor’s Choice
$76 $100 Save $24
An ideal combination of size, style, sound and waterproof design makes this speaker very hard to beat.
How we picked the best portable speakers
Pocket-lint has tested dozens of different smart speakers, sound bars, and super-portable Bluetooth devices. A majority of the picks on this list are portable speakers that we used, reviewed, and highly enjoyed. The rest are consensus picks based on user reviews on online marketplaces and review coverage from other publications.
For this list, connectivity wasn’t a limiting factor. These speakers didn’t necessarily have to use Bluetooth, but they did have to be easy to carry in one hand. Once the straps and handles were identified, our criteria narrowed to what we also look for in a good speaker, like dynamic range, rich bass, and a price that reflects the useful features you’ll receive if you buy one.
Why would you want your portable speaker to connect to Wi-Fi?
While choosing a speaker purely based on how easy it is to move around is the first thing we considered and Wi-Fi isn’t always available outside your home, flexibility is important too. Bluetooth is all you need if you’re going to be streaming music from one of your devices, but a Wi-Fi stream opens up the possibility of higher quality audio, speaker groups, and other smart features. That’s what makes the Sonos Roam and Move 2 so compelling — they connect over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi so they give you the best of both worlds.
What do you do if your portable speaker runs out of battery?
All the speakers we chose for this list can charge over a wired connection. USB-C is the most common, with the rare Micro USB port, like the Wonderboom 3 uses, a notable exception. Charging on the go is as simple as plugging the speaker into a portable battery pack. With the long battery lives our picks have, it likely won’t be an issue, though.
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