If you want to keep yourself company (and keep yourself motivated) while you’re exploring the great outdoors, or you want to keep that pool and/or garden party rocking, then you need one of these: the best Bluetooth smart speakers around.
A quality portable Bluetooth speaker will enhance your whole outdoor experience, and the right model will also have the power and sonic scale to turn your backyard get-together into a mini music festival, while being rugged enough to survive the outdoors, which is more than we can say for the average indoor built-in speaker or soundbar set-up. These days, even the most affordable Bluetooth speakers will pump up the jams while having all the essential features at the same time.
Happily, your wish list when choosing your ideal Bluetooth speaker won’t be all that long. You’ll need the sort of battery life that can keep the party going without the need for a power bank. A big, loud audio presentation is always a good idea. And you’ll almost certainly want some water- and dust-proofing, as well as the sort of materials that can stand up to a bit of outdoor rough and tumble.
So we’ve put together a list of the best models around, speakers that do the business on every level. Market leaders like Bang & Olufsen, Bose, JBL and Sonos all feature… but they’re not alone, because combining great sound with durability, stamina and a bit of eco-credibility is a trick that’s not just for the biggest brands. First, we’ll share our two out-and-out favourites, and then we’ll take a deeper dive. Your perfect Bluetooth speaker is in here somewhere…
Best Bluetooth speakers at a glance…
- Best overall Bluetooth speaker: Sonos Roam,
£179£134 at sonos.com - Best portable Bluetooth speaker: Bang & Olufsen Beosound Explore, £169 at bang-olufsen.com
- Best Bluetooth speakers under £100: Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3, £70 at johnlewis.com
- Best waterproof Bluetooth speaker: JBL Flip 6,
£129£89 at uk.jbl.com - Most luxurious Bluetooth speaker: Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5, £999 at bang-olufsen.com
Skip to: How we test the best Bluetooth speakers 2024 | How to choose a Bluetooth speaker
How we test the best Bluetooth speakers 2024
Our shopping editors are well-versed in the benefits of using an outdoor Bluetooth speaker for garden parties, hiking sessions and anything else you can think of when you’re away from a plug socket, so rest assured we’ve suggested only the best models that we’ve physically listened to. We’ve selected the best across a range of price points, testing out sonic performance, smart connectivity and voice controls, and durability in all weather to assess which is best for you.
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Best overall Bluetooth speaker
1/9Sonos
Roam
- Battery life: 10 hours
- Charging: 4 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 430g
The Sonos Roam has been dominating the ‘reasonably affordable Bluetooth speaker’ space for a good while now and for a number of good reasons. First and foremost, it sounds as good as anything at a similar price – and after that, it starts to show the competition a clean pair of heels. It looks good, feels great and is built to endure the rough stuff. It’s properly portable. Its battery life is sufficient to keep the party it inevitably started in the first place pumping until well past closing time. And it’s part of the wider Sonos ecosystem, which means it’s dead easy for Sonos owners to incorporate it into a multi-room system.
Bass is punchier (and better controlled) than seems feasible from a product of this modest size, and midrange detail levels are high enough to let singers express themselves fully. The top end isn’t the brightest you’ve ever heard, it’s true, but then again, it doesn’t get hard or unforgiving when you wind the volume up. With Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant available, just ask for your favourite tunes and they shall be delivered.
Pros
- Powerful 360-degree soundstage
- A long-lasting battery with a hardy chassis makes for a quality portable smart speaker
Cons
- There’re only a few bland colour options
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GQ’s pick
2/9Beats
Pill Speaker
- Battery life: 24 hours
- Charging: 2 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 680g
Among the best portable and fully waterproof speakers we’ve tested here at British GQ is the Beats Pill. The diminutive smart speaker delivers an exceptionally powerful punch when you crank up the volume to full, with powerful drivers inside that pulse out crisp audio with heavy bass –some might say too much bass, but we’ll leave that up to you. As mentioned, it’s ready and prepared for all weather and situations, with a durable rubber design and full waterproofing. 24 hours is plenty of time to enjoy the largest playlists, and if it’s not enough for you, you’ll be pleased to discover you can get up to two hours more from just plugging it in for 10 minutes.
Pros
- Excellent sound in a water and dust-proof speaker
- Gorgeous design
Cons
- None that we know of
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Most luxurious Bluetooth speaker
3/9
Bang & Olufsen Beosound A5
- Battery life: 12 hours
- Charging: 2 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 3.7kg
Easily the most luxurious Bluetooth speaker on our list is Bang & Olufsen’s delicious Beousound A5, which is the sort of speaker you imagine might sit on a shelf in the corner of a billionaire playboy’s living room. At just under a grand, you have to take your playlists very seriously to buy one. So what do you get for the money? Besides its gorgeous looks, it’s an accomplished smart speaker that boasts four drivers and B&O’s most powerful woofer ever. The speaker will read the acoustics and size of you’re room to tweak the power required to fill the space with a 360 soundstage that can be controlled by the app or via the buttons on top.
With up to 12 hours of battery, a decent IP67 water and dust rating and a quick QI wireless charging station on the top to keep your phone juiced up, it’s also handily equipped to keep the party going no matter your plans.
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Best waterproof Bluetooth speaker
4/9JBL
Flip 6
- Battery life: 12 hours
- Charging: 3 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 1.2kg
What do you want a Bluetooth speaker for? To act as a power bank? To obey your commands via its integrated voice assistant? Or just to bang out your favourite tunes with proper scale and vigour? If it’s just that last option that interests you, the JBL Flip 6 is here for you. Not much money at all buys big sonic performance, proper fidelity at all but the highest volumes, and way more physical presence than the price suggests. There really is no school like the old school.
Pros
- Hard-hitting
- Expansive sound
- Aggressive price
Cons
- Short of features
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Best portable Bluetooth speaker
5/9Bang & Olufsen
BeoSound Explore
- Battery life: 27 hours
- Charging: 2 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 631g
Not for the first time, here’s a Bang & Olufsen product that’s a treat for the eyes as well as the ears. The Beosound Explore is a rugged and robust cylinder of sound that seems to have been designed with the word ‘lifestyle’ uppermost in mind – you’re almost certain to have to pass some sort of ‘minimum attractiveness’ test before you’re allowed to buy one. But even ordinary-looking folks like us love this speaker. It sounds even better than it looks, giving your favourite tunes a stack of weight and presence on the great big soundstage it conjures up.
Pros
- Incredibly durable and resistant to water and dust
- Great 360-degree soundstage
Cons
- Colour options are bland
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Best Bluetooth speakers under £100
6/9Ultimate Ears
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3
- Battery life: 14 hours
- Charging: 3 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 570g
The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 couldn’t care less. Any weather, any environment, any kind of music, any volume level you like… this colourful, compact speaker is ready to give you everything it’s got in any circumstance. It’s capable of more out-and-out volume than seems feasible from such a little cabinet, you can wirelessly pair a couple for true stereo sound, and the ‘outdoor boost’ mode lets everyone around know exactly what you’re listening to. All for comfortably less than £100.
Pros
- Can go pretty much anywhere
- A lively listen
Cons
- Sounds a little lightweight
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Best Bluetooth speaker for most people
7/9Sonos
Move 2
- Battery life: 15 hours
- Charging: 4 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 1.97kg
Sonos’ Move 2 is noticeably less portable than the Roam above, but if you’re looking for a solid Bluetooth-connected smart speaker for the home that can be taken outside should you need it, there isn’t much better. This one has two powerful drivers for exceptional low-frequency playback that don’t get fuzzy if you partake in some of the grungier, bass-heavy corners of the music scene.
Regardless of your audio tipples, the Move comes with a useful app (both for Android and Apple iOS) that will scan the environment to figure out the best way to deliver your tunes. Popped it on a thin wooden table? It will flatten out the bass and focus on high frequencies so the whole room doesn’t shudder or vibrate. And if you’re not happy with how the AI is presenting your playlists, you can tweak it yourself for a more refined experience.
Downsides? Considering its heft, cost and the clear focus on it being a more stationary at-home speaker, we’re disappointed there aren’t rear channels to sync it up as a home cinema soundbar stand-in.
Pros
- Premium bass and treble performance
- Lots of internal smart features
Cons
- Not particularly easy to take around with you
- Expensive
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Best Bluetooth speaker for long battery life
8/9Ultimate Ears
Epicboom Bluetooth Speaker
- Battery life: 17 hours
- Charging: 2.6 hours
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 1.9kg
What’s more epic than an EPICBOOM? According to Ultimate Ears, nothing. This rather beastly Bluetooth speaker is a bass-y, heavy 360-degree monster, with a huge soundstage to handle all your heaviest, dirtiest playlists. The internal woofer and dual high-frequency transducers combine for a thoroughly meaty performance, with up to 17 hours of listening time and a quick recharge time in case your party outlasts it.
Our tip for a truly mind-blowing listening experience: pair the EpicBoom with any of Ultimate Ear’s other Boom speakers via the app, sync up the EQ and let them rip. Trust us. On its own it’s heavy, so don’t expect to take it on long hikes, but if you’re staying put, it’s a sensational player.
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Best Bluetooth speaker for at-home listening
9/9
Audio Pro G10
- Battery life: N/A
- Charging: N/A
- Water resistance: IP67
- Weight: 1.5kg
For those who prefer to enjoy their music at home, the Audio Pro G10 is a mighty handsome speaker for Bluetooth listening from the comfort of your sofa. The compact cylinder is of a scandi-minimalist design aesthetic, with an unobtrusive felt exterior that hides the interior mechanics and offers an almost-360-degree listening stage that is weighty and meaningful through the range.
Long story short, the sound is great, and there’s a hard plastic rear that houses the power socket and an AUX socket, too.
How to choose a Bluetooth speaker
We like simplicity as much as anyone, but let’s face it: choosing your ideal Bluetooth speaker needs a bit more consideration than simply picking the best-looking one you can afford.
You need to think about what you want your new speaker to do, for starters. A portable speaker is going to be taken all over the place, in all sorts of conditions – so build quality, durability and robust materials are all key factors. Most Bluetooth speakers, broadly speaking, have water- and dust-proofing – so check out the IP rating. ‘IPX4’ means the speaker can handle splashes without problems and should be fine in a brief downpour while you take your party indoors, but if you’re after something a bit more rugged then consider IPX7 a minimum rating against moisture, dust and (because it’s always a possibility) booze splashes.
Your speaker is in danger from more than just the elements, of course. Accidents will happen – so you should probably consider robust plastic or, even better, some rubberisation to help offset the odd bump or scrape. But this needs to be balanced against the need for ultimate portability – so your speaker needs to be light enough, too.
And then think about battery life. If you don’t think you’ll take your speaker any further than the bottom of the garden, its stamina is unlikely to be an issue – but if you want to take it on a hiking or camping break, you need to know it’s got the power to last for the duration.
The technical aspect needs to be considered, too. Even if you’re not comfortable with the language of the electronics industry – and after all, who’s got time or inclination to learn the ins and outs of aptX, or passive mode radiators, or stereo pairing? – you’ll need to establish what you require and what you can happily ignore. For instance, you should avoid older USB port standards – if the speaker you have in mind charges using anything except USB-C, give it a wide berth. And if you want a bit of voice control, there are speakers out there ready to deal with Alexa, or Google Assistant, or Siri – but not every speaker is capable of listening to what you want.
Sound quality, though, has to be the most important aspect of any new speaker. Even if you don’t know your transient response from your dynamic headroom, we guarantee you know what you like when you hear it… and don’t forget that when your speaker is out and about, all the boundaries disappear – so be sure your speaker has the power to make itself heard in the great outdoors.
Best Black Friday Bluetooth speaker deals
Upgrading your home speaker system needn’t be pricey – particularly if you’re a savvy shopper and buy during the Black Friday sales, which happen to be looming large on the calendar. The best Black Friday deals when it comes to Bluetooth speakers will help drag devices below the £200 (if they are at the higher end of the scale) or below £100 for mid-range models. You’ll want to keep an eye out for discounts of at least 30 per cent to get the most value, and there should be plenty of them on offer.
So when is Black Friday? Blessedly soon. It begins on the 29th of November and ends with Cyber Monday on December 2nd. During that time, you’ll find wallet-busting deals on a near-infinite number of products, like the speakers above, but also on mattresses, air fryers, sneakers and more, so make the most of it while it’s live. To help you out, let us point you in the direction of sales that are already live in the audio world.
- Bose – Free delivers on orders over £39 and 90-day free trials on all purchases
- Amazon – Sitewide discounts on headphones and speakers
- AO – £50 off all Sony speakers
- Currys – Save up to £50 on selected smart speakers and audioware
- SONOS – Discounts on refurbished speakers and home cinema soundbars
- Bang & Olufsen – £300 off speakers and headphones
- Selfridges – Exclusive offers on smart home tech
- Argos – Free delivery on purchases over £30 and great savings on Bose speakers
- John Lewis – £100 off selected speakers
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