Best portable Bluetooth speakers in 2025
Nothing beats the freedom of wire-free listening, and we here at Android Police are major fans of all things Bluetooth. One of the best ways to enjoy the many music-streaming platforms out there is with a portable Bluetooth speaker. Far more than loud and proud drivers, the best Bluetooth speakers include sweet features like top-shelf weatherproofing, intuitive companion apps for phones or tablets, and even integrated voice assistants like Alexa andGoogle Assistant.
Like most consumer tech devices, though, no Bluetooth speaker is created equal, which is why this list was curated with the best in mind. Inevitably, there will be some brands you recognize and others that may be brand-new. Either way, these are all devices we’d be willing to invest our time, money, and trust in. So let’s crank up the decibels and get the tunes pumping!
Top portable Bluetooth speakers
Best for any situation
A waterproof design, great sound (especially its clear mid-range), and a solid 12 hours of battery life make the Bose SoundLink Flex an ideal portable Bluetooth speaker for most situations. It even comes with voice assistant support, so you can take calls or pull up a playlist without grabbing your phone.
Bose Soundlink Flex proves that not only can you get an excellent-sounding speaker without breaking the bank, but that good things can come in small packages. While it may be unreasonable to expect the boomy, room-filling bass that a larger speaker will deliver, the Soundlink Flex will still surprise you. It punches well above its weight class, putting out more bass than you’d think possible from a speaker this size.
There’s also more to this deceptively small speaker than just great sound. It’s also IP67-rated for dust and water resistance, and it floats, too. That means you won’t have to worry about taking it to the pool, beach, or just about any other outdoor adventure. It’s not the most rugged speaker on the market, but its power-coated steel grille and silicon exterior is designed to resist corrosion from rust and UV light, and can easily survive minor drops as well.
Plus, you get 12 hours of use between charges, so you don’t have to worry about finding an outlet halfway through that picnic. It also comes with some useful extras, such as the ability to make and receive calls and use Google Assistant or Siri. And, if you prefer your accessories with a little extra flair, you’re in luck, as the SoundLink Flex is available in four colors.
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Delightfully retro but surprisingly versatile
The JBL Authentics 300 is neither small nor light. But it packs in everything you could want in a portable speaker, from solid room-filling sound to Wi-Fi streaming for AirPlay and Spotify to support for Alexa and Google Assistant.
As the name implies, the JBL Authentics 300 is a modern speaker that looks the part of a classic. The retro design, from the textured front grille to the knobs on top and the black leatherette and gold trim puts it in a design class of its own. It also has a build quality to match its vintage look, with its eleven-pound weight putting it more into a category we’d describe more as “luggable” than portable. Nevertheless, it’s got eight hours of nominal battery life and full Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, so it’s possible to still take it anywhere — as long as you’re willing to carry it there.
The sound that this speaker can put out easily justifies its heft, considering that you’re getting a pair of 5.25-inch woofers, two 25mm tweets, and a large downward-firing passive radiator. That means there’s no shortage of volume or bass here, but it’s beautifully balanced — fully present, but not so overwhelming it drowns out the midrange. This makes the JBL Authentics 300 a versatile speaker for a wide variety of genres, as you’ll get an impressively huge low-end for EDM and hip-hop without worrying about losing the guitar riffs in classic and prog rock.
The only real disappointment is the limited three-band EQ, which could make it harder to tune the sound signature to your liking. You can make up for some of that with on-device EQ from your phone, but that’s a kludge compared to having better equalization on the speaker itself. Still, JBL has tuned it with a sound that should appeal to all but the most demanding listeners.
The JBL Authentics 300 has another neat trick up its sleeve, though, in that it goes beyond basic Bluetooth connectivity. There’s an auxiliary-in jack plus Wi-Fi and even Ethernet for those who prefer to hardwire into their home network. This translates to support for not only AirPlay, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect, but also Alexa and Google Assistant.
A big way to blast your favorite tunes wherever you go
In short, it’s a fully functional home speaker that you can take on the road with you. We found the Bluetooth 5.3 added latency that was barely noticeable, even when using it to stream Netflix, and we had no problems with signal dropout when testing it over Wi-Fi. There’s even a USB-C port that can be used for playing back MP3 files off a flash drive.
Powerful and petite
The Tribit XSound Plus 2 comes in a conveniently portable pill-shaped form factor, so it’ll fit nicely in the side pockets of backpacks and luggage. The sound is decent at this sub-$100 price point, and we get a little extra oomph from the second stereo speaker.
The Tribit XSound Plus 2 sure packs a lot of punch into its small, unobtrusive profile. This speaker may not belt music out loud enough to cover a large gathering, but it’s an excellent choice for personal listening or with a small group of friends. Our testing found this speaker to be plenty robust for covering a space of about 200 square feet.
Expect a decent sound quality for a reasonable cost, with balanced mids and trebles but a modest bassy thump. The bass equalizer is a must to bring the hard-hitting bass notes to the forefront. The instrumentals will stay nice and detailed at most volumes, but the lower tones on this little speaker won’t be rattling the rafters. So, it may not excel as an outdoor speaker.
Little left to be desired from this $70 speaker
The XSound Plus 2’s pill-shaped form factor, combined with the carrying loop, are huge portability perks, but the speaker does have a bit more heft than expected. Its battery life also clocks in at around 24 hours, so you should get several listening sessions from the speaker’s tank.
Loop onto backpacks or handlebars
Anker’s Soundcore Motion 300 delivers solid audio quality that will make you question how this portable speaker can have such a low price tag. It’s loud, durable, and even includes a versatile EQ with the companion Soundcore app. It cuts a few corners, but none of them are deal-breakers for a speaker this affordable.
The Anker Soundcore Motion 300 is a speaker that belies its low price tag. While it makes a few compromises to get there, those are mostly on frills rather than core features. Its 30-watt drivers put out room-filling sound that’s rich in bass and easily comparable to many speakers that sell for twice as much. Put simply, it’s far from the tinny and weak sound we’d normally expect to hear from a sub-$100 speaker.
Of course, you shouldn’t expect sub-woofer-level bass from a speaker this small, but it’s surprising how full the audio coming out of it sounds. It’s a typical V-shaped curve, so the mids do suffer a little bit compared to the lows and highs, but that’s not surprising as it’s the most common tuning for consumer-grade speakers as it plays well with most modern genres.
However, Anker has also packed in a versatile EQ that lets you easily tune those up a bit if you prefer to listen on a different curve. This is handled through a companion app — the speaker itself only features a rather mundane bass boost that muddies things up a bit too much for our liking — but the nine-band in-app EQ lets you adjust any of the other major frequencies by plus or minus 6 dB. That’s enough to let the Motion 300 play nice with a whole range of musical tastes.
What’s even cooler is that you can not only create EQ presets, but assign them to activate automatically when the speaker is in different orientations, so you could create a hip-hop EQ for standing the speaker up and a more nuanced classical EQ that’s used when it’s lying on its back.
Petite, powerful, and cheap
Sound quality aside, the Motion 300 is otherwise a fairly bare-bones speaker. It has a decent 13-hour battery life, but there’s no fast charging, no auxiliary-in port for connecting to a wired audio source, and no Wi-Fi; it’s Bluetooth or nothing here. It’s IPX7 rated, which means decent water resistance but no certified protection against dust. None of those are serious omissions, considering it’s $80 asking price, and one thing that makes the price even more attractive is support for Anker’s TWS pairing, so you can pick up two and sync them up for a more immersive stereo experience.
Worth the splurge
The Sonos Move 2 boasts a spacious stereo soundstage with 24-hour battery life and a more refined design and improved touch controls over its predecessor. It also features IP56 dust and water resistance and a rugged enough design that you won’t have to worry about using it by the pool.
The Sonos Move 2 isan improvement over its predecessor in nearly every way, with 24-hour battery life, a more refined design, and sleeker touch controls. While we still don’t think it would be your first choice to take on a road trip or out to a beach party — especially considering its weaker IP56 rating — it’s an excellent choice for around the home, whether that’s in your den or out on your back deck or even poolside. It won’t have any problem handling splashes or even moderate rain, and it’s built to handle extreme temperatures and UV rays from sunlight. It’s also great to take it to places in your home where you’d never think of leaving a full-size speaker plugged in.
While Sonos promises an expanded stereo soundstage from the Move 2, thanks to the addition of a second tweeter, don’t expect any miracles here, as you can’t really change the laws of physics. Stereo separation requires actualseparation, and there’s only so much you can do with a pair of drivers that are inches, rather than feet, apart.
Sonos has angled the tweeters 45 degrees outward to try and bounce the sound around, but how well that works will depend entirely on the room you’re listening in. We had a hard time distinguishing individual channels when listening, but don’t let that dissuade you, because it’s certainly no worse than any other single speaker on the market, and the overall sound profile is still great.
The second tweeter may not separate the sound, but it certainly cleans it up and allows the mids and highs to come into their own. It’s a much more balanced sound overall compared to the original Move, but it’s also not as impressive as other speakers in its price range. We found it more on par with Sonos' $249Era 100than the similarly-priced $449Era 300.
That’s likely because the Sonos Move 2 has a different strength that justifies its higher asking price: it can get loud enough for outdoor places where you’re more likely to use a portable speaker. Unless you’re fortunate enough to live out in the country, using a speaker in your backyard will be a constant battle between whatever you’re listening to and the noise of the suburbs or city. The Sonos Move 2 gets plenty loud enough to overcome that, but be aware that, like many portable speakers, the sound quality falls off as you get into the top quarter of the volume range.
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Naturally, as a Sonos speaker, you get full integration into the rest of the Sonos ecosystem, which makes this one a really easy buy for folks who already have a Sonos One or Era around the home. But it also works as a standalone speaker with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for AirPlay 2 and Alexa voice assistant support — and unlike the original Move, using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is no longer an either-or choice.
Sling along the power
Experience a new sound with the Sony SRS-XB100 Bluetooth speaker. This durable speaker is meant to be at home with dirt and water, with IP67-rated protection. Running 16 hours per charge, it sounds warm and powerful despite its size. A versatile strap helps you to sling it along on your belt or otherwise. A proprietary tech allows the sound to spread widely creating immersion. These speakers charge via USB-C and you can pair two of them to get stereo sound.
A substantial upgrade over the old XB13, the Sony SRS-XB100 is a powerful yet very portable speaker. At a weight of less than 10 ounces, it is easy to carry it around using the belt provided. It is available in many colors and has a rugged shell, contrasting with its smooth-shelled predecessor. It is protected by IP67-grade engineering, meaning it is fully impervious to standard dust and flowing water.
The XB100 delivers impressive sound quality for its diminutive size and price tag, but it’s not all aural sunshine and roses here. It’s loud enough to drown out the noise of the city streets, but it overemphasizes the highs when you pump up the volume to max. The midrange frequencies are a bit more emphasized than most speakers, although we found that makes this one especially well-suited to spoken word content such as audiobooks and podcasts.
The bass situation is more unusual, as the speaker has no problem putting it out, but it also doesn’t come out as forward or clean as we’d like, often taking a backseat to the mids, particularly when vocals come into the mix. Position is uniquely important with this speaker, as we discovered in our testing that the bass fared better when the speaker was put on a floor or a table, as there’s enough rumble to let you feel the bass even when you can’t hear it. That didn’t just affect the bass, either; in some cases shifting it to a different position felt like we were changing the EQ settings.
Hang on tight, though really not all that tight
That’s sort of handy, considering the speaker doesn’t have a companion app, so there are no EQ adjustments to be made otherwise. Connected via Bluetooth 5.3, the XB100 will simply channel the standard SBC and AAC codecs. An upward-firing two-watt driver delivers 100 Hz to 15 kHz mono audio that sounds bigger than you’d expect out of such a small speaker. Sony’s DSP is also quite good at controlling bass and treble across volume levels so that you get the best sound no matter where you’re listening. It does a decent job with voice calls over its built-in speakerphone, too.
Ideal for those who want more low-end
Though the JBL Flip 6 skips out on an AUX port and voice assistant support, it’s still an impressive portable speaker with a waterproof IP67 rating. It has a good amount of bass and is easy to carry for times in the wilderness when you just want a little music.
The JBL Flip 6 has a lot going for it. Like many options these days, it’s waterproof and dust-proof with an IP67 rating. It’s also ruggedly built, ready for any wear and tear from use on the road. You can choose from several color options. And you can use an app to fine-tune your listening experience, including customizable EQ settings. Though you can only get stereo sound when paired with another JBL Flip 6 for stereo mode, it sounds excellent, retaining a lot of the low end that many portable speakers sacrifice.
That’s par for the course for JBL’s Flip series, of course, which has delivered bass-heavy sound since the first-generation model came along in 2012. It was one of the first bass-rich portable speakers in the game, so it’s no surprise that the Flip 6 continues that tradition. However, it also refines that sound signature to provide some more nuance that should bring brighter genres like jazz and classical music through more effectively. That’s thanks to a 10-watt tweeter that helps the mids and trebles rise more above the bass when they need to.
Nevertheless, the Flip 6 sticks to its bass-heavy roots, making it the ideal portable speaker for EDM, hip-hop, and other modern genres. We found that the bass was not only present, but it was substantial and remained so even when cranked up to the max. In short, JBL hasn’t lost its touch, and the Flip 6 remains the most bassy speaker in its class by a wide margin.
Respectable sound quality, solid battery life, and IP67 resistance provide a reliable portable audio companion
Sadly, the middling 12 hours of battery life is a bit disappointing, especially considering its slightly larger size. Still, it should be more than enough for everyday use, and you get IP67 dust and water resistance, making it a great choice to use at the beach or poolside. Sadly, there’s still no aux-in port — JBL moved away from those a few years ago — so you’ll need to connect to this one via Bluetooth.
Big sound powered by an all-day battery
Whether a backyard barbecue or beach-side bash, the Anker Soundcore Boom 2 Plus packs enough punch in its portable frame to deliver robust tunes in larger spaces. It features bass-boosting technology, 20 hours of battery life, and a weatherproof rating that protects against stray splashes.
The Anker Soundcore Boom 2 Plus combines a fun boombox-style form factor with hearty sound. It may not be the ideal choice for someone looking for a speaker that slips easily into backpacks, but with the built-in handle, the Soundcore Boom 2 is easy to carry around at parties. That is, if you want to be that person carrying around the speaker.
While it’s not the absolute best performer in terms of sound quality, the Soundcore Boom 2 Plus is certainly a crowd-pleaser. The audio is nice and clear, with a deep, powerful bass, thanks to its 140W of audio power.
Booming audio and outdoor durability make this Soundcore speaker a delight
The Soundcore Boom 2 also boasts the ruggedness necessary for the hazards of outdoor excursions like camping and beach trips. Its IPX7 waterproof rating promises resistance against errant splashes and waves, while a 20-hour battery life ensures your tunes won’t be interrupted from dawn until dusk and then some.
What to look for in a portable Bluetooth speaker
If you’re working on a limited budget, that should be your first concern. After all, you’re able to’t (or shouldn’t) get something you can’t afford. But once you’ve determined what’s within your price range, you should consider what form factor you need.
Also, account for the environment where you plan to use the speaker. You’ll find IP ratings listed for Bluetooth speakers,wireless earbuds, and essentially any other outdoor equipment. IP ratings are listed as two numbers.
The first, which tops out at six, indicates resistance to dust, while the second, which tops out at nine, indicates water resistance. For example, a device with an IP67 rating will block out more dust particles and water than a device with an IPX5 rating. The water resistance is generally the more important number, and getting something with a seven (i.e., IPX7) will be more than enough unless you plan on diving or submerging the device for an extended period.
Of course, sound quality is key. While you’re not shooting for an audiophile experience, you at least want good sound. You shouldn’t expect much in the way of sound separation from these speakers. But, they can still offer a great listening experience with a crisp but not painful high-end, a full mid-range, and a pounding (or at least present) low-end.
And don’t forget about battery life. Most speakers now have more than enough for a day out or an afternoon get-together, as long as you charge afterward. But, if you plan to be away from a power source for a while, such as camping, battery life becomes a crucial consideration. At that point, you might want to invest in apower bank.
Portable sound meets powerful performance
Portable Bluetooth speakers can be found just about everywhere these days, so it’s important to know which models are worthwhile. Fortunately, many of these products are from noteworthy audio brands with long-standing, reliable track records in the consumer tech world.
For example, Bose is a name you should recognize, and its SoundLink Flex gets top honors. This is because it sounds great, is easy to use, and can be paired to more than one Bluetooth device simultaneously. It also offers a whopping 12 hours of battery life and is available in multiple color options.
If you’re willing to take things up a few notches, the JBL Authentics 300 is an excellent premium pick. It delivers great sound in a unique retro design that we love and checks all the boxes for connectivity and compatibility. The only real downside is its weight, but if you’re willing to pay the asking price, we think that’s a reasonable trade-off for a speaker this great.
On the other hand, if you’d prefer to keep some more money in your wallet, the Tribit Xsound Plus 2 offers solid, well-rounded sound for just $70. For this price, you also get voice assistant support and a weatherproof rating to keep the music uninterrupted, even in the rain or by the pool.
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