The 5 Best Bluetooth Speakers - Summer 2022 Reviews

The best Bluetooth speaker that we've tested is the Sonos Move. Overall, it has a balanced, neutral sound profile suitable for listening to many different types of audio content. There are bass and treble adjustments available in the Sonos S2 app to help you customize its sound. When connected to Wi-Fi, it offers built-in Alexa and Google Assistant capabilities, and it does an incredible job responding to your voice even if you aren't very close to it. You can also use it to pair two Sonos speakers together to create a stereo pair or amplify your music across a larger, crowded space.

This versatile speaker is battery-powered and comes with a hollow part on its back that acts as a carrying handle, so you can easily move it from room to room or take it outside with you. It lasts over 10 hours off a single charge, which is great for long listening sessions. It has an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance, so it's certified for protection against direct contact with water for up to three minutes and dust for around two to eight hours, so you can take it outdoors without worrying about it getting a bit wet.

If you're looking for a solid budget-friendly speaker that won't break the bank, check out the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM 2. This stereo speaker has amazing directivity thanks to its 360-degree design. Its default sound profile is fairly balanced and suitable for listening to lots of different types of audio content. Vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present in the mix, and there's an 'Outdoor Mode' preset advertised to help bump up its bass. It has an IP67 rating 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. Also, it's small and lightweight and has a small carrying strap built-in.

However, like most small speakers, it lacks a thumpy and rumbling low-bass, and there's no graphic EQ to customize its sound. If you like having more control over your speaker's sound profile, you might want to look at the Anker Soundcore Flare 2. However, it isn't as well-built as the Ultimate Ears, and its battery doesn't last as long.

The best loud portable Bluetooth speaker we've tested is the Ultimate Ears HYPERBOOM. This portable speaker can get loud enough to fill large spaces with sound without degrading the quality of your audio as you bump up its volume, so your audio remains clean and clear-sounding when the volume is maxed out. There's also a room correction feature that adapts its sound to the environment it's in. With it enabled, it has a neutral and balanced sound profile suitable for listening to different music genres. Its sound profile is customizable, thanks to graphic EQ and preset featured in its companion app. There's a built-in carrying strap to help you bring your favorite music along with you. It's well-built, with an IPX4 rating for dust and water resistance that certifies it to withstand small water splashes.

That said, although it's portable, it's still quite large, and you can't easily throw it in your backpack when you're on the go. Consider the Anker Soundcore Motion Boom if you're looking for a more travel-friendly speaker that can get loud. However, the Anker has significantly more compression present at max volume that degrades the quality of your audio more when the volume is maxed out. It also has a much more narrow and directional-sounding soundstage.

If you're looking for a smart speaker to easily bring along with you on the go, the Bose Portable Smart Speaker is smaller and lighter than the Sonos Move. It's lightweight, battery-powered, and has a built-in handle to help transport it. It's also rated IPX4 for water resistance certifying it to withstand small splashes of water, so you don't need to worry about it getting a bit wet from some light rain when bringing it outside with you. It offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa and Google Assistant built-in and has little trouble registering your commands from far away and in noisy environments.

It has fantastic directivity thanks to its 360-degree design, resulting in an open and natural-sounding soundstage. Its sound profile is slightly boomy out-of-the-box, with a balanced mid-range that ensures vocals and lead instruments reproduce accurately and with detail in the mix. It also comes with bass and treble adjustments in its companion app to tweak its sound to your liking. However, like most speakers its size, it struggles to reproduce the deep thump and rumble in low-bass that's typically felt in bass-heavy music like hip-hop or EDM.

The best speaker for parties we've tested is the JBL PartyBox 310. This large speaker is battery-powered, has telescopic handles, and includes built-in wheels to help transport it. It can get incredibly loud, so it can easily fill large crowded spaces. It can even get a bit louder when wired to a power outlet. With its Bass Boost feature set to '1' and when placed horizontally, it has a boomy sound profile suitable for a variety of audio content. You can customize its sound to your liking using the graphic EQ in its companion app.

Its battery lasts over 17 hours from a single charge, which is great for long parties, though this can vary depending on your usage habits and chosen volume levels. You can customize its RGB lights in the app, and it comes with a 12V DC In port that you can use to charge the speaker from your car's lighter port. There are also mic and mic/guitar inputs, each with volume knobs and gain adjustments, and the PartyBox app features DJ and Karaoke features that'll please some musicians and karaoke-lovers.