Portable Bluetooth speakers are the easiest, most affordable way to spread music and podcasts across a room, backyard, or beach blanket. Because these speakers come in a variety of designs and sizes, no model is perfect for every situation—but the excellent sound and rugged design of the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 made it the favorite in our tests.
The Ultimate Ears Wonderboom has been our top pick for more than seven years, and the latest iteration, the Wonderboom 4, finally makes the switch to USB-C charging to keep up with the times. This small, round speaker (which measures 4.1 by 3.6 inches and weighs 15 ounces) has a clear, spacious sound that our listeners and editors have consistently ranked above the competition in brand-concealed tests.
It’s also quite rugged. With an IP67 water-resistance rating, it can handle immersion in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes. Plus, it’s dustproof, it can survive a 5-foot drop onto concrete, and it floats. We got 11 hours of battery life in our tests, and the speaker is available in four colors.
Budget pick
Tribit StormBox Mini
Decent sound at a great price
This small speaker has the fullest, most natural sound we’ve heard in its price range, but it can’t play as loud as our top pick.
$30 from Amazon
The Tribit StormBox Mini is the best-sounding inexpensive Bluetooth speaker we’ve heard. Unlike almost all speakers under $30, it produces a full sound that didn’t leave our ears pining for more bass—although it didn’t sound quite as clear, or play as loud, as our top pick.
Measuring about 4.7 by 3.6 by 3.6 inches and weighing 1.6 pounds, it travels easily in a beach bag (although not in a laptop bag), and its IPX7 rating means it’ll survive being dunked underwater for 30 minutes. The battery lasted about 9.5 hours in our tests. It charges via USB-C and comes in three colors.
Upgrade pick
W-King X10
Larger and louder, yet still portable
This speaker plays very loud while maintaining its clear, full sound, and it has a long battery life. But it’s larger and a little less rugged than our top pick.
$116 from Amazon
The W-King X10 is an astonishingly affordable upgrade for those who need a larger, louder speaker with a long battery life. It plays almost 8 decibels louder than the Wonderboom 4, so it can easily be heard over a roomful of chatty partygoers. Even when cranked full blast, this speaker sounds clear and doesn’t seem to lose any bass.
We got 24 hours of playtime from the internal battery—less than the claimed 42 hours but still impressive. It charges via USB-C, has an analog input and TF card slot, and offers a USB-A port to charge your mobile devices.
The X10 is about the size of a football and weighs 6.5 pounds. It doesn’t travel as well in a backpack or suitcase, but the shoulder strap makes it easy to carry. The IPX6 rating means it can withstand being sprayed by a hose, but it can’t be safely submerged in water like some of our other picks.
Best for
JBL Go 4
Best for someone who wants a tiny, ultra-portable speaker
This speaker is small enough to fit in a pocket, yet it still sounds good. It doesn’t really have any bass, though, and the battery life is short.
$45 $36 from Microcenter
Price includes shipping
$40 from Amazon
$45 from Walmart
$50 from Home Depot
The JBL Go 4 is by far the smallest of our picks, easy to slip into a laptop bag, purse, or even a pocket. But unlike most of the ultra-compact Bluetooth speakers we’ve tried, it produces a satisfying, reasonably full sound.
The Go 4 measures 3.7 by 3 by 1.7 inches and weighs just 11 ounces. It maxes out at a little under 80 dB, which is about 10 dB more than the speakers built into most smartphones, so it’s worth carrying with you—especially considering it weighs about the same as a typical smartphone.
Like our top pick, this speaker is rated IP67, which makes it both waterproof and dustproof. It has USB-C charging and comes in lots of colors. The battery life is just 5 hours in standard mode. The Playtime Boost mode increased this to almost 9 hours, but it produced a slightly thinner sound.
Best for
Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2
Best for someone who wants more bass than our top pick delivers
This speaker has the sonic clarity and full sound of a small bookshelf speaker, but it’s less portable than our smaller picks.
$110 $90 from Amazon
You save $20 (18%)
Of all the Bluetooth speakers we’ve tested around the $100 mark, the Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2 reminds us the most of a good bookshelf speaker. It reproduces voices more clearly and naturally than almost all other portable Bluetooth speakers we’ve tried, and it produces a satisfying amount of bass—more than our top pick.
Although the Rockster Go 2 is relatively small at 8.3 by 2.4 by 4.3 inches and 1.6 pounds, it’s larger than the Wonderboom 4—too large to fit in most laptop bags, though probably small enough to slip into your suitcase. It charges via USB-C and has an IP67 rating, so it’s waterproof and dustproof. The battery lasted 18 hours in our tests, and the speaker’s removable elastic strap lets you connect it to a post or hang it from a hook.
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The research
Why you should trust us
Who this is for
How we picked and tested
Top pick: Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4
Budget pick: Tribit Stormbox Mini
Upgrade pick: W-King X10
Best for people who want a tiny, ultra-portable speaker: JBL Go 4
Best for someone who wants more bass than our top pick delivers: Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2
Other portable Bluetooth speakers worth considering
The competition
Looking for something else?
The Earfun Free 2s earbuds in black with one earbud out of its case against a blue background.
Great Sound on a Small Budget
A selection of outdoor speakers that we tested to find the best.
The Best Outdoor Speakers
Two of our top picks for the best multiroom wireless speaker systems, the Sonos Era 100 and the Sonos Era 300.
How to Build the Best Multiroom Wireless Speaker System for You
One black Apple HomePod next to one white Apple HomePod.
Apple’s HomePod Is a Good Smart Speaker. But the Mini Is Better for Most People.
Read more from Electronics
Why you should trust us
Several portable Bluetooth speakers sitting on a patio.
Some of the portable Bluetooth speakers we tested for our most recent update. Brent Butterworth/NYT Wirecutter
I’m a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, currently handling 12 guides on audio products and providing technical measurements for our headphone guides. I’ve worked as an editor or writer in audio publishing for more than 30 years, and I’ve previously served as a consultant on speaker tuning and measurement for some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
For this guide:
I spent 22 hours testing 14 new models. To date, I’ve tested 437 speakers for this guide.
I brought in another listener—drummer and audio production student Kage Shissler—to provide a second opinion. I also played several models for a group of Wirecutter staffers in a brand-concealed test. For listeners other than myself, I concealed the identities of the products to avoid bias.
I ran technical tests on the products to find flaws that our listening sessions might have missed.
Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
Who this is for
Anyone who owns a smartphone or tablet is likely to enjoy owning a portable Bluetooth speaker, which usually has a rechargeable battery and is often waterproof and/or dustproof. Bluetooth support is available in every current smartphone and tablet, as well as in most laptop computers, so you don’t need additional equipment.
Unlike smart speakers and Wi-Fi speakers, Bluetooth speakers don’t require a network connection, and most don’t require the use of special apps—whatever you play on your phone will play through the speaker.
If sound quality and volume are your top priorities, and you don’t plan to take your speaker out of your house, you may want to check out the larger, more powerful speakers featured in our tabletop speaker guides:
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How we picked and tested
Five of the portable speakers we recommend set next to each other to compare their sizes. From largest to smallest: W-King X10, Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2, Tribit StormBox Mini, Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4, and JBL Go 4.
A size comparison of all our current picks. Connie Park/NYT Wirecutter
We use the following criteria to help us decide which portable Bluetooth speakers to call in for testing:
Portability and battery life: We focus on models that have rechargeable batteries and are designed to take a trip to the beach or the park with no hassle. In selecting our top pick, we prioritize speakers that are compact and easy to toss into a backpack or beach bag.
Ruggedness and waterproof design: We give priority to speakers that are built to survive the knocks and bumps of travel. We prefer speakers with an Ingress Protection (IP) rating, which tells you exactly how dustproof and waterproof a speaker is.
Price: We set a bottom price of $10. Less-expensive models often don’t sound better or play much louder than a phone’s built-in speakers.
Playback controls: Because you can control the playback from your Bluetooth source device (usually a phone or tablet), we don’t require the speaker itself to have playback controls, but it’s a convenient perk.
Bluetooth codecs: We don’t award extra points for inclusion of additional Bluetooth codecs beyond the standard SBC codec found in all Bluetooth devices. The sonic differences among these codecs are insignificant next to the easily heard differences among the speakers themselves.
Special features: Bluetooth speakers may offer extra features, including speakerphone capability, multi-speaker pairing (the ability to play the same material through two Bluetooth speakers at once), and built-in lighting. We don’t consider any of these features essential, but they can be convenient add-ons.
For each new round of tests, I begin by comparing the new models with each other and with some of our previous picks. I measure the maximum output of each speaker indoors at a distance of 1 meter, using an NTi Minilyzer audio analyzer and a calibrated NTi MiniSPL test microphone and playing a 34-second section of ZZ Top’s very loudly mastered tune “Chartreuse.”
The chart below shows the maximum output for our current speaker recommendations, plus a few other models we’ve tested. For more details, see our results and our explanations of our testing process.
Portable bluetooth speaker maximum output
A chart comparing the tested speakers price and their maximum volume in decibels.
NYT Wirecutter
From these tests, I narrow down the group of contestants to the models that have a real chance to impress our listening panel, in addition to all of our past picks. To prepare for our brand-concealed panel testing, I hide the speakers behind black fabric and divide them into four groups: ultra-compact, small, medium, and large. To make the test fair, I set the volume within a particular group to the same approximate level by using a shaped-noise channel-balancing test tone recorded from a Dolby Digital receiver.
During our brand-concealed tests, our listeners pay particular attention to:
how clear the speakers sound at normal levels
how the speakers balance bass to midrange to treble
how loud the speakers are able to play when cranked up
how clear they sound when cranked up
Last, I check the battery life of each of our top picks by repeating Steely Dan’s “Aja” at an average level of 75 dB (measured at 1 meter) over and over until the power runs out. For the larger Ultimate Ears Hyperboom speaker, I increased the level to 81 dB.
I also measure the maximum Bluetooth range of all our picks by placing my Samsung Galaxy S10 phone indoors, in a window, and carrying the speaker away in my backyard until the connection becomes unreliable. There are no industry-standard methods of testing these functions, but our methods have worked well through 11 years of testing more than 400 portable Bluetooth speakers.
With each model that offers speakerphone functionality, I try placing a call to Wirecutter senior staff writer Lauren Dragan. I note how the speaker sounds to me, and she tells me how my voice sounds on her end.