The 4 Best Bluetooth Speakers Under $50 - Summer 2022 Reviews

The best budget-friendly Bluetooth speaker we've tested is the Anker Soundcore 3. This small battery-powered speaker is incredibly portable and comes with a removable carrying strap to help transport your favorite tunes with you wherever you go. If you're willing to spend at the upper end of your $50 budget, stretching your budget a nudge lets you access sound customization features like a graphic EQ or presets, which other portable speakers we've tested under $50 don't feature. With its BassUp feature enabled, it has a balanced mid-range that ensures vocals and lead instruments sound clean and present in the mix, though higher-pitched vocals and instruments sound a bit dull at times.

This small battery-powered speaker is incredibly portable and comes with a removable carrying strap to help transport your favorite tunes with you wherever you go. It's also well-built 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, making it a great poolside companion. Its long-lasting battery life of over 13 hours means you don't have to worry about frequently recharging it, though this varies depending on your chosen settings and volume levels. That said, like most speakers its size, it doesn't get loud enough to fill spaces larger than smaller bedrooms, and there's compression that degrades the quality of your audio when you max out its volume.

Looking for something more compact? The JBL Clip 4 is a small Bluetooth speaker that fits in the palm of your hand and comes with a built-in carabiner hook you can use to clip it to your backpack when you're out and about. Like the Anker Soundcore 3, it's very well-built 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, meaning you can sing along to your favorite tunes under the rain or the shower.

While it doesn't get as loud as the Anker, its soundstage is wider and more spacious-sounding when you place it with its logo facing up. It doesn't produce as deep a bass, though it still has a somewhat boomy sound profile that adds a bit of warmth to the high-bass range. The rest of its sound profile is balanced, making it suitable for listening to a wide variety of audio content, from pop music to podcasts. Unfortunately, unlike the Anker, it doesn't come with sound customization features like a graphic EQ or presets to tweak its sound to your liking. Its battery life is significantly shorter, lasting between five and six hours from a single charge.

If you like blasting your favorite songs at max volume, check out the DOSS SoundBox Plus. This small portable speaker comes with adjustable lights around its drivers, and it's one of the loudest speakers we've tested for under $50. While it gets a touch louder than the Anker Soundcore 3, it has significantly less compression at max volume, so your favorite songs sound cleaner and clearer when you blast the volume. Its mid-range is balanced, so vocals and lead instruments are accurately reproduced in the mix, though sibilants like S and T sound a bit piercing and sharp at times. Unfortunately, it doesn't produce as deep a bass as the Anker and doesn't feature sound customization features like a graphic EQ to tweak its sound to your liking.

This stereo speaker also still has a very good battery performance, lasting over 10 hours from a single charge, making it great for longer listening sessions. It even supports voice assistants through your smartphone and is excellent at understanding your commands from far away. If you don't care for a speaker with lights and aren't very picky about compression, the Oontz Angle 3 ULTRA is a small, decently built portable speaker shaped like a triangle that's a cheaper alternative to the DOSS. It's more customizable thanks to the bass and treble adjustments in its companion app, and its battery lasts twice as long. However, while it gets about as loud as the DOSS, it has a touch more compression at max volume, but not by much. The DOSS also produces a bass that's a bit deeper.

Looking to "smartify" your home without breaking the bank? The Amazon Echo Dot Gen 4 offers fantastic voice assistant support with Alexa built-in. You can activate Alexa with your voice, and the speaker has no trouble understanding you from far and in noisy rooms. There's a mute mic button for when you no longer want it to hear you. That said, like many smart speakers we've tested, it isn't as portable as the Anker Soundcore 3 despite its small size since it's designed to be used at home and needs to remain connected to an outlet for it to work. Out-of-the-box, its mid-range is balanced, so vocals and lead instruments reproduce accurately and with detail in the mix. You can use the bass and treble adjustments in its Amazon Alexa app to tweak its sound to better suit your preferences. It also has great directivity thanks to its 360-degree design, meaning you can hear your audio clearly from most angles.

If you prefer Google Assistant, the Google Nest Mini is even more affordable, though it isn't as good at registering your commands in noisier rooms. This Google-enabled speaker supports Google Chromecast and has a balanced sound profile overall. You can customize its sound to your liking via the bass and treble adjustments featured in its Google Home companion app.