The Bose Portable Home Speaker is a fairly small speaker with outstanding voice assistant capabilities. It has Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, and it has no trouble understanding you even if you're far away or in a noisy room. It's incredibly portable, thanks to its lightweight design and carrying handle. However, its battery only lasts around five hours, and it doesn't get very loud. Out-of-the-box, its sound profile is fairly boomy, although its companion app has bass and treble sliders that let you tweak its sound. This versatile speaker is suitable for playing most audio content and can be a good addition to your home.
Our Verdict
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is okay for music. Its sound profile is boomy, but it has a well-balanced mid-range, so vocals and lead instruments sound clear and present. Its companion app has bass and treble adjustments, so you can tweak its sound to your liking. Although it has to downmix stereo content into mono, it has good directivity thanks to its 360-design, resulting in a wide and spacious soundstage. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very loud, and there's some compression present at max volume.
- Bass and treble adjustments in its companion app.
- Balanced mid-range.
- Lacks low-bass.
- Has to downmix stereo content into mono.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is reasonable for watching videos and movies. It has low latency over Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay, although some apps compensate differently for this. It has good directivity, resulting in a wide and open soundstage. Unfortunately, it lacks low-bass, so you don't feel the deep thump and rumble in action-packed movie scenes. It also doesn't get very loud.
- Low latency over Bluetooth and Apple AirPlay.
- Bass and treble adjustments in its companion app.
- Balanced mid-range.
- Lacks low-bass.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is very good for podcasts. It has a well-balanced mid-range, so dialogue is reproduced clearly. It's also exceptionally portable, so you can listen to podcasts while on-the-go. Unfortunately, its battery only lasts around five hours, and you can only pair one device at a time, which might be disappointing if you like to frequently switch your audio source.
- Exceptionally portable.
- Balanced mid-range.
- Doesn't get very loud.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is incredible for voice assistants. It has Alexa and Google Assistant built-in. It has no trouble understanding you, even if you're far away or in a noisy room. You can also mute the microphone if you don't want the speaker to hear you.
- Alexa and Google Assistant built-in.
- Short battery life.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is fair for outdoor use. It's lightweight and incredibly portable, so you can easily bring it with you on-the-go. Thanks to its 360-degree design, it has good directivity, resulting in an open and spacious soundstage. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very loud, and there's a lot of compression present at max volume. Also, its battery only lasts five hours, which may not be enough for long listening sessions.
- IPX4 rating for water resistance.
- Exceptionally portable.
- Has to downmix stereo content into mono.
- Doesn't get very loud.
- Short battery life.
Changelog
- Updated Jul 12, 2024: We've added a comparison between this speaker and the Bose SoundLink Max in Soundstage.
- Updated Aug 21, 2023: Updated the Portability picture for greater clarity and consistency between reviews.
- Updated May 19, 2023: Thanks to user feedback, we identified that a firmware update adds Chromecast audio capabilities in the Wi-Fi box.
- Updated Mar 01, 2021: Review published.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker comes in two color variants: 'Triple Black' and 'Luxe Silver'. We tested the 'Luxe Silver' variant, and you can see the label for the model we tested here. We expect both variants to perform similarly.
If you come across a variant not listed here, let us know in the discussions so we can update our review.
Popular Speaker Comparisons
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is a lightweight and portable speaker with outstanding voice assistant capabilities. Like the Bose Home Speaker 300, it has Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, and it's compatible with the Bose Music app. However, its battery-powered design makes it more portable. Its soundstage is somewhat boomy, but it has a well-balanced mid-range that can clearly reproduce vocals and lead instruments. Unfortunately, it doesn't get very loud as some other Bose speakers, like the Bose S1 Pro System.
See also our recommendations for the best waterproof Bluetooth speakers, the best home speakers, and the best Bluetooth speakers.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is designed for a slightly different use than the Bose SoundLink Max. While the SoundLink Max is a better choice for entertaining, the Portable Smart Speaker features excellent built-in voice integration and Wi-Fi compatibility, which sets it apart. The SoundLink Max has a longer battery life, can playback stereo content, and gets louder with less compression at max volume. It's also better built, and its IP67 rating protects it well against the elements. That said, if you're looking for a versatile smart speaker that integrates well with your home ecosystem but can also be brought on stints out of the house, the Portable Smart Speaker is still a great choice.
The Sonos Move is a better speaker than the Bose Portable Smart Speaker overall. The Sonos has a better-balanced sound profile than that of the Bose. It's also better built with an IP56 rating for dust and water resistance. It also has a longer-lasting battery life, though battery performance can vary depending on usage, and your experience may vary. That said, the Bose is smaller and more portable than the Sonos. It also has much better directivity, resulting in a wider and more open sounding soundstage.
The Bose Home Speaker 500 is a better speaker than the Bose Portable Smart Speaker overall, though they have different strengths. The Home Speaker 500 can play stereo content without downmixing it to mono. It can get louder with less compression present at max volume, resulting in cleaner audio at louder volumes. That said, the Smart Speaker is battery-powered, and much more portable than the Home Speaker 500. It also offers a slightly better-balanced sound profile out-of-the-box.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is a better speaker than the Bose SoundLink Revolve+ II. The Smart Speaker has a more customizable sound profile thanks to the bass and treble sliders available on its companion app, so you can tweak its sound to your liking. It also has a fantastic voice assistant performance, with Alexa and Google Assistant built into the speaker. That said, the Revolve+ is better built and has a longer battery life, which some users may prefer.
Test Results
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is a fairly small portable speaker that's meant to sit vertically. It has a sleek design with a built-in carrying handle that can be adjusted to the front or back. There's a thin light ring on top that indicates the volume and battery level and lights up when using the voice assistant. The bottom of the speaker is covered with an aluminum grille. It comes in two colors: 'Triple Black' and 'Luxe Silver'.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is exceptionally portable. It has a battery, so you can use it outside without having to find an outlet. It's lightweight, and you can carry it with one hand thanks to its carrying handle.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has a decent build quality. The bottom of the speaker is wrapped with an aluminum grille, while the top is made of silicone and plastic that has a soft touch. It sits on a rubber ring that gives it a good grip. This speaker doesn't have an advertised rating for dust or impact resistance, but it has an IPX4 rating for water resistance, though we don't currently test for this. If you're looking for a similar speaker that's better-built, check out the Bose SoundLink Revolve+ II.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has very good controls. There's a light ring on top that indicates the volume and battery level. It also lights up when using the voice assistant. It has buttons located on the top, which are clicky but not texturized, so it's not clear which button you're pressing without looking. There's a power button, volume adjustment buttons, and a play/pause button, which you can press twice to skip a track or three times to go to the previous track. There's a voice action button as well as a mute mic button if you want it to stop listening to you. You can deactivate its Wi-Fi connection by holding the play/pause button and the Bluetooth button at the same time for 5 seconds. You can deactivate the Bluetooth connection by holding the Bluetooth button for 10 seconds. When using Alexa, you can directly call other Bose smart products, Amazon Echo products, or anyone in your contacts.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has decent frequency response accuracy. Out-of-the-box, it has a slightly boomy sound profile, but its balanced mid-range can produce clear and present vocals and lead instruments. It struggles to produce a thumpy low-bass, which may disappoint fans of bass-heavy genres like EDM or hip-hop. Fortunately, its companion app lets you adjust the treble and bass to your liking. However, unlike the Sonos Roam/Roam SL, it lacks a room correction feature.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has a satisfactory soundstage. Its 360-design results in good directivity, so its soundstage is perceived as wide and spacious from all angles. However, unlike the Bose SoundLink Max, it has to downmix stereo content into mono, which doesn't sound as immersive.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has sub-par dynamics. It doesn't get very loud, and there are a lot of compression artifacts present at max volume. Because of this, it may not be well-suited to playing audio in a large or crowded room.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker has an unremarkable battery performance. While its battery is advertised to last for twelve hours, in our tests it only lasted around five hours. That being said, battery life can vary based on usage, so user experience may vary. Fortunately, it has power-saving features, turning off after 20 minutes of inactivity when it's not charging or connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. If it's connected to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it will transition to standby mode after 20 minutes of inactivity.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker has a fantastic voice assistant performance. It has both Alexa and Google Assistant built-in, which require a Wi-Fi connection to be used. They can understand you even if you're far away or in a noisy room. Using Alexa, you can make commands to other Bose smart products, Amazon Echo products, or anyone in your contacts list. There's also a mic mute button if you want the speaker to stop listening to you.
The Bose Music app is good. It's compatible with both iOS and Android devices, and it includes bass and treble sliders for tweaking your speaker's sound profile. You can also pair several compatible Bose speakers to amplify your audio in a large space or play music between multiple rooms. However, you can't pair two units to create a stereo pair.
You can't use the Bose Portable Smart Speaker wired as it has no audio input ports. You can charge it using its included USB-C cable.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker has impressive Bluetooth connectivity. It has very low latency with iOS and Android devices, making it suitable for watching videos. However, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your results may vary. This can also result in negative latency, as we saw in our tests with iOS devices, where the audio is played before the video. Unfortunately, it doesn't support multi-device pairing, so you can't pair more than one device at a time.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is Wi-Fi compatible and supports Apple AirPlay. It has low latency when connected via Apple AirPlay, which makes it suitable for streaming videos. When you update the speaker to firmware version 14.0.15, you can Chromecast audio to the device. However, there are no video-casting capabilities available. As with the Bose Home Speaker 500 and the Bose Home Speaker 300, when you attempt to play a video, the audio transfers to the speaker, but it stops the video on the device.