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Best Overall
UE Boom 3
Best Smart Bluetooth Speaker
Sonos Roam
Best Bargain
Tribit StormBox
Best for Home
Sonos Move
The best Bluetooth speakers still have a place near and dear to our hearts, even as we’ve seen better (and more portable) smart speakers creeping into the universe.
It’s fun and easy to ask an Amazon Echo or Google Nest speaker to play your favorite track or tell you the weather, but smart speakers have a few crutches—first and foremost, stable Wi-Fi. By (mostly) forgoing voice assistants and Wi-Fi radios, Bluetooth speakers gain portability, with the ability to venture outside of your house and withstand rugged conditions like the sandy beach or the steamy Airbnb jacuzzi. They’ll also work with any smartphone, and they sound as good as their smart-speaker equivalents.
We’ve tested hundreds of models in the past few years, and we can happily say they are still some of the best small devices you can listen to. Here are our favorites right now.
Be sure to check out all our buying guides, including the Best Soundbars, Best Wirefree Earbuds, and Best Smart Speakers.
Updated February 2023: We’ve added the Shower Power Pro, Victrola Re-Spin, Vizio M Series 2.1, and Kef LSX II, and updated links and prices.
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Photograph: Ultimate Ears
Best Overall
UE Boom 3
There are bigger and badder Bluetooth speakers, but none match the fun and convenience of the Ultimate Ears Boom 3 (9/10, WIRED Recommends). It puts out some of the most pleasant, balanced sound for its size. The waterproof cylinder comes in multiple colors, lasts 15 hours between charges, and gives you 100 feet of Bluetooth range. On top of all that, it has a two-year warranty.
★ Bigger and boomier: If you really need to get a party kicking, the Megaboom 3 ($200) is a beefier model that amps up the bass.
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Photograph: Sonos
Best Smart Bluetooth Speaker
Sonos Roam
The larger Sonos Move is great if you want a speaker that usually lives inside, and which you can occasionally carry outside. But it’s not the kind of thing you’d want to throw in a backpack. That’s where the Roam (9/10, WIRED Recommends) comes in. This tiny Sonos speaker has all the same smarts as its bigger siblings, but with an IP67 dust- and water-resistance rating and 10 hours of listening time. It’s about the size of a 16-ounce beer can and easily fits in cup holders and knapsacks alike.
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Photograph: Tribit
Best Bargain
Tribit StormBox
You probably haven’t heard of Tribit, but its line of Bluetooth speakers sound a lot better than they should for the price. The StormBox is my favorite model. It has dual-firing drivers and passive radiators in a 7-inch-long pill shape. No, it can’t fuel a trance dance party on its own, but its sound clarity is impressive, and it has a fun extra bass button that adds some surprising, if slightly muddy, thump.
With 20-ish hours of battery and an IPX7 waterproof rating—which means it’s not dust-proof but can be submerged in water—it’s a great companion for backyard tunes, a trip down the river, or other informal gatherings.
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Photograph: Sonos
Best for Home
Sonos Move
If you want a Bluetooth speaker that can fill any room (or patio) but lives a lot of its life inside, the Sonos Move (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a good one to build a home network around. Sonos invented wireless multiroom speakers. Its speakers connect to nearly every streaming service, and they work with Google Assistant or Alexa. They also sound amazing by every measure. The Move streams music over your Wi-Fi network, but it can also function as a Bluetooth speaker when you take it outside.
It gets 11 hours of battery life, plus it’s splash-resistant. We shot a hose at it, so we know it can handle getting wet. It also has a charging dock for when the outside fun is over.
