Best Bluetooth Speaker for 2024

When the SoundLink Flex speaker launched, Bose made some bold claims about its new Bluetooth speaker, particularly its bass performance. It mostly lives up to the hype and is arguably the best-sounding wireless speaker for its compact size.

Available in three colors -- black, white smoke and stone blue (pictured) -- it's equipped with Bose's PositionIQ technology to automatically detect the speaker's orientation and deliver optimized sound based on whether it's upright, hanging or flat on its back.

Tribit's StormBox Flow is another Bose SoundLink Flex knockoff for less that shares some similarities with the Soundcore Motion 300, including the same list price. The Tribit may actually sound slightly better than the Motion 300, edging it out for bass performance by a tad. But the Anker speaker wins on design.

Like the Bose SoundLink Flex, the Tribit StormBox Flow can be laid down flat with its speaker firing up. You can also wirelessly pair two of the speakers together for stereo sound.

It has an IP67 water-resistance rating, which means it's dust-resistant and fully waterproof. Tribit says it delivers up to 30 hours of audio at moderate volume levels. That's impressive.

Harman Kardon, which is owned by Samsung, makes popular JBL Bluetooth speakers like the Flip 6 and JBL Charge. But the under-the-radar Harman Kardon Luna may just be the best mini Bluetooth speaker you've never heard of. It's not only attractively designed -- it comes in black or white -- but sounds surprisingly good for its size, with clear, natural sound and punchy bass (it's a mono speaker with a dual-driver design that features a woofer and a tweeter).

While it's slightly bigger than JBL's Flip series speakers and slightly smaller than the JBL Charge series, the Luna's got a bit of heft to it, weighing in at 1.56 pounds (0.71 kg). Equipped with Bluetooth 5.3, it's also fully waterproof and dustproof, with an IP67 rating. Battery life is rated at up to 12 hours at moderate volume levels. I did find it to be a better sounding speaker than the JBL Flip 6 and preferred it in some ways to the JBL Charge 5.

Back in 2020, Tribit released the StormBox Micro, a budget version of Bose's excellent SoundLink Micro speaker that delivered surprisingly good sound for its size and modest price. The second-gen StormBox Micro 2 offers improved sound and battery life, along with a charge-out feature that turns the speaker into a power bank for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. An integrated strap allows you to clip it to your backpack or your bike's handlebars.

Like the original, it's an excellent value and easy to recommend if you're looking for a super-compact portable wireless speaker. It does cost $60 but sometimes goes on sale for closer to $50.

Marshall's new-for-2023 Middleton speaker isn't exactly compact. It also isn't so beefy that you get a workout carrying it around. Weighing 4 pounds (1.8kg), it's bigger than Marshall's Emberton speaker and smaller and more portable than its Kilburn II speaker. Any way you look at it, it sounds very good for its size and puts out a surprising amount of quality bass while offering good treble detail and natural-sounding mids (where vocals live). I also liked that it has equalizer controls on the speaker itself -- I did bump the bass a bit -- and is fully waterproof and dustproof with an IP67 rating. 

Battery life is rated at up to 20 hours at moderate volume levels and Marshall says it takes 4.5 hours to fully recharge the speaker. Its USB-C charging port also has a charge-out feature that allows you to use the speaker as a power bank and charge your devices.

You can pair two or more speakers to amplify the sound but you can't pair two speakers together to create a stereo pair. Marshall says the Middleton uses True Stereophonic, "a unique form of multidirectional stereo sound" and I did think the soundstage was bigger than what you typically get from a speaker this size. The only downside to the speaker is that it's fairly expensive but I was otherwise impressed.

Anker's original Soundcore Motion Boom speaker (see below) has been on this list for a while and is still a decent value at (sometimes) less than $100. The Motion Boom Plus is significantly improved. 

Weighing 5.29 pounds (almost a pound more than the Motion Boom), it uses Bluetooth 5.3 and is equipped with upgraded dual 3.5-inch woofers and newly added dual 1-inch tweeters, delivering up to 80 watts of audio output (60 watts for the woofers and 20 watts for the tweeters). Battery life is rated for 20 hours at moderate volume levels. It's also IP67 waterproof and dustproof, and it floats if you happen to drop it in a body of water.

I was impressed with the sound quality, which measures up well against a few more expensive -- and some larger -- speakers on this list. For its size, the speaker can put out a lot of sound and mostly manages to avoid distorting at higher volumes.

For 2023, Sony's smallest Bluetooth speaker has once again been modestly upgraded, with a new Bluetooth chipset, slightly improved sound and speakerphone performance. This portable Bluetooth speaker is both dust- and waterproof with an IP67 certification and, like its predecessor (the SRS-XB13), it's rated for 16 hours of battery life at moderate volume levels and it charges via USB-C. Equipped with Bluetooth 5.3 with support for the AAC and SBC audio codecs, the speaker plays bigger than you'd think for its small size, with some punch to its bass. It's pretty impressive for a mini mono speaker.

Although the 9.6-ounce (272-gram) speaker appears to have the same design as the XB13, Sony says its new sound diffusion processor "realizes richer spread sound," which basically means this has a bit wider soundstage, which I can confirm. It can output only so much sound -- yes, it has its limitations -- but if you add a second XB100, you can get stereo sound. There's no companion app, but that isn't a huge deal.

The XB100 is available in multiple color options and includes a strap so you can attach it to various objects. It also has speakerphone capabilities with an integrated microphone (as I said, the speakerphone's performance has been improved, and callers said they could hear me clearly indoors).

Anker's Soundcore Motion X600 mini boom box not only has a premium look and feel with a metal grille and carrying handle, but includes some interesting features like spatial audio and support for Sony's LDAC audio codec. It sounds impressive for its relatively compact size and is a good value.

Weighing 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg), it's got some heft to it, but it's light enough to carry around without feeling like you're getting a workout. The speaker is available in gray, green and blue color options and is equipped with five drivers, including two woofers, two tweeters and one full-range, upward-firing driver "in a unique speaker array that combined with Soundcore's audio algorithm and DSP helps create a wide (and tall) soundstage for listening to any type of music," according to Anker. It's rated for 50 watts of total power, with two 20-watt amps devoted to the woofers and tweeters and a third 10-watt amp powering the upward-firing driver.

At the default sound setting without bass boost or spatial audio engaged, I wasn't exactly wowed with sound quality (the bass is a bit underwhelming, the mids are recessed and there's a bit too much treble push). But as soon as you engage the bass boost and spatial audio, everything sounds more balanced and full. You can also tweak the sound profile further in the Soundcore companion app for iOS and Android. 

With each new version of the Flip, JBL makes small improvements, and while the latest model, the Flip 6, doesn't look much different from the Flip 5 on the outside, it does feature improved sound. It has two-way drivers with a woofer and tweeter and dual passive radiators that help the Flip 6 deliver much deeper bass than you think it could. 

It's fully waterproof and dustproof with an IPX67 rating. Like the Flip 5, it's rated for up to 12 hours of audio playback at moderate volume levels and charges via USB-C. Available in multiple color options, it's one of the best-sounding speakers for its compact size.

The very compact Soundcore by Anker Mini 3 Bluetooth speaker may not deliver huge sound, but it delivers more sound than you'd think -- with just enough bass -- from a speaker of its size. Available in multiple color options and weighing around 8 ounces (223 grams), it has an integrated strap and is fully waterproof with an IPX7 rating.

The 6-watt Mini 3 sounds fairly similar to the new , which retails for $60, around $20 more than the Anker, and features good battery life -- up to 15 hours at moderate volume levels. You can wirelessly link multiple Mini 3s together to create a wider sound field, but most people will use this speaker for casual listening on the go. It also makes for a good bathroom or shower speaker and does have speakerphone capabilities with a built-in microphone.

JBL Pulse speaker is now in its fifth generation, and both the sound quality and 360-degree light show have been improved. JBL has "expanded the transparent outer body" so the customizable light show (there's a companion app for iOS and Android that allows you to alter the colorful lighting effects) looks more impressive. The speaker is also IP67 dustproof and waterproof, and it offers up to 12 hours of battery at moderate volume levels.

The speaker now has a separate tweeter and a passive bass radiator that delivers fairly punchy bass. I'd say the speaker delivers very good but not great sound for its size and price (it distorts a little at higher volumes). For sound, it's sort of in between JBL's Flip 6 and Charge 5, so you'll arguably get slightly better sound from the Charge 5. You're really buying this speaker for the light show; that's what makes it unique and special and it does look mesmerizing.

Note that you can pair this with another JBL PartyBoost compatible speaker for stereo sound or link multiple JBL PartyBoost speakers for augmented sound. Also, you can find this speaker on Amazon as thrown in for the same price as the speaker by itself.

The Tribit MaxSound Plus is about 30% bigger than its sibling, the XSound Go, and costs almost twice as much, but it performs substantially better and is one of the best-sounding speakers in its size and price class. It has a long-lasting rechargeable lithium-ion battery and superior sound quality for a Bluetooth speaker.

JBL's Charge 5 offers a good balance of size, performance and durability. It's bigger than some of the mini speakers on this list, like the Flip 5, but is still compact and packs more bass punch and overall volume. Featuring a built-in USB charging port for juicing up your mobile devices, it offers improved audio and a dust- and waterproof design that's elevated from the previous Charge. According to JBL, the speaker is equipped with a "racetrack-shaped driver," with a separate tweeter and dual passive radiators, to improve both clarity and bass performance over the Charge 4. (In my tests, this indeed proved to be the case.) 

Battery life is rated at 20 hours at moderate volume levels. This model is also equipped with JBL's PartyBoost feature that allows you to connect it to other compatible JBL portable speakers to augment their sound. The Charge 5 comes in six color options: black, blue, gray, red, teal and "squad" (which looks like a kind of camo).