The number of portable Bluetooth speakers available is mind-numbing, but the new Bose Portable Home Speaker puts them all to shame, and here’s why.
We love our Sonos home audio system, that is until it started becoming unusable. After two years of trouble-free use, our Sonos speakers now constantly drop out of the system and require rebooting and reconnecting, often to no avail.
When a system fails you so often, you lose confidence in it and we just get frustrated that it doesn’t work. Fortunately, as soon as we were ready to look for a Sonos alternative, the Bose Portable Home Speaker entered our lives.
With the Bose Home Speaker, we could still access Amazon Alexa, Spotify, Amazon Music, and our smart home devices, but not worry about being tethered to an entire system.
The Sound
Bose maintains it’s legendary brand name by only producing products with incredible sound, and this new speaker is no exception. The bass is deep and clear, mids fill the room, and the treble is perfect.
The speaker emits sound in 360 degrees, so no matter where it’s situated you’ll always have great music. Inside, three passive radiators, a high-excursion driver, and a proprietary deflector distribute clear, lifelike sound evenly in every direction — including size-defying bass. Unlike conventional speakers, there’s no sweet-spot for placement or listening — it delivers the same, jaw-dropping experience wherever it is, wherever you are.
And while the left and right channels in standard one-piece systems can cancel each other out — leaving audible gaps in music — the Portable speaker won’t. Bose mono-signal technology makes corrections in real-time, so you hear everything the artist recorded.
Portability
This Bose speaker weighs only 2.3 lbs and has a 12-hour battery life, so you can enjoy it untethered all day in the garage, backyard, or at the park.
Measuring 7.5” high and just over 4” across, the speaker is wrapped in a seamless anodized aluminum enclosure that is shaped precisely to enable peak audio performance.
Connectivity
The Bose Portable speaker has up to 12 hours of battery life to last from morning to night with zero wires. Use Bluetooth to instantly stream tracks from your phone or tablet. Using Wi-Fi, just say the word — and a Bose proprietary voice pick-up system works with the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, both built-in, to access playlists, podcasts, news, weather, smart home devices, and more.
Choose AirPlay 2 to play music from Apple devices, or Spotify Connect to listen directly from the Spotify app. And hear it all through a new Bose acoustic package that makes everything sound better.
“Every Bose smart speaker is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, but the Portable is the first to offer a rechargeable battery — along with a shortlist of features everyone wants and loves,” said Ben Burns, senior product manager for Bose speakers. “We lived with it like anyone else would — with our families and friends, away from work — to make sure it was the kind of product we wanted to use, day after day. It was. And we think people who take it home will feel the same way.”
There are buttons on top for basic functionality, including Bose’s proprietary mic-off feature — which cuts power to the microphones, eliminating any possibility you can be listened to or recorded — along with power, volume, play/pause and skip tracks, wake or dismiss virtual assistants, and Bluetooth source.
Bose Music App
The Bose Music app offers additional functionality, making set up and updates easy and intuitive. Browse content, switch music services, create a multi-room system with other Bose smart speakers and soundbars, and download software for new features: coming this year, pair the Portable with a Bose SoundLink speaker for synchronized, voice-controlled audio — a welcome advancement for the millions of SoundLink Micro, Color, Mini, and Revolve owners around the world; and next year, pair two Portables for incredible 360-degree stereo performance.
Weatherproof
The new Bose Portable is water-resistant with an IPX4 rating to survive spills, splashes, and rain; and rugged enough to withstand drops, knocks, and hits. It comes with an integrated handle for convenience and can charge through standard USB-C, or a charging cradle that’s sold separately for $29.
The Bose Portable Home Speaker is available in Triple Black and Luxe Silver on September 19th for $349.
