One of the biggest questions we get asked when talking to folks about Bluetooth speakers is: How do I pick out the best one? The answer is to set your budget, figure out a list of must-have features and then shop within those constraints.
Regardless of what features you want from your speaker, its imperative that it has a decent battery life and good level of sound quality. There’s no point in having a device packed full of features if its battery dies quickly and it sounds rubbish. All of our picks fulfil these two requirements, so when you’re picking from this list you can afford to focus more on features.
On the features side, common requests include water-resistance (and water-proofed speakers), voice calling and device charging – a feature that allows you to plug your phone or tablet into the speaker to siphon off a bit of juice when it’s running a bit low.
Another good way to narrow down your search is to select a speaker based on the activity you’re going to do with it. A great travel speaker might not have the exact same attributes as the best home listening speaker, for example.
That being said, we’ve tried to highlight some of the most common use cases below and have selected a speaker that fits perfectly with that scenario.