Gadgetory

here's the deal your computer speakers are terrible so are your phones it's time to upgrade to a Bluetooth speaker they sound good they work as speaker phones and you don't have to put them upside down in a bowl just to hear them but in order to buy the right one you need to make sure you buy a Bluetooth speaker that sounds great that's easy to carry around that has long range and good battery life and maybe even comes with a cool extra feature or two luckily that's all totally possible it'll cost you somewhere between 80 and 200 dollars and you won't regret the purchase at least not if you buy the right one portable bluetooth speakers look like they're a dime a dozen but they're not and the best one by a pretty wide margin is the logitech ue boom it's everything I'd want it to be it's cool looking a colorful mesh cylinder that comes in a bunch of eye-catching colors it has good range about 35 feet before the signal starts to drop that's pretty normal for a Bluetooth speaker it's battery lasted more than 16 hours and best of all it sounds really good it has loud 360 degree sound pumping out of its round body it's full and clear so you can hear the resonance in the strings of a classical song or catch every word Kanye says if the sounds not loud enough you can chain two boons together and listen even louder there are other speakers with slightly better battery or slightly better sound or a slightly smaller body but the UE boom is a virtually perfect mix of everything a Bluetooth speaker should be if you're ok with its slightly expensive price look no further the SOL Republic deck is another of my favourite portable Bluetooth speakers it's only problem is it doesn't sound quite as good as the UE boom it doesn't have the same clarity or the thumping bass and you get a little of that shallow tin can effect you hear on your computer speakers but it sounds good enough for most uses and is definitely loud enough and it has some really fantastic extra features its ranges ridiculous 200 feet or more it's battery life is ridiculous it took 22 and a half hours to die and it has this cool heist mode feature that lets you connect up to five people at once and have everyone DJ of course ultimately you might just want something that sounds amazing that's the Bose Soundlink mini the metallic silver speaker that just sounds fantastic it's clear and crisp and natural through almost any kind of music and it has strong battery life to more than 14 hours but a Bluetooth range was strangely bad only about 15 feet and it often had trouble connecting at all it also has a proprietary charging port and it doesn't have any nifty extra features but man does it sound good all of my favorite portable Bluetooth speakers are on the expensive side of the market if you're looking for something cheaper the logitech ue mini boom the smaller cousin of the UE boom is definitely the way to go it's tiny and plastic and nice-looking and will easily fit into your jacket pocket its audio does only go in one direction without any real stereo effect and it's sound isn't great though it is much better than anything else in this price range but in terms of bang for your very few bucks the mini boom is a pretty great choice Logitech does know what it's doing with Bluetooth speakers after those four there's a pretty big drop off you could buy one of the three jam box sizes sure but none of them are really worth it the big Jambox sounds great but is humongous and the jam box and mini jambox both just don't sound good at all they're some of the worst sounding Bluetooth speakers I tested and among the most expensive you can do better without trying very hard there are a couple of Bluetooth speakers that sound really good but they're just too big to be considered portable the Bose Soundlink is one and it's too expensive too but it does sound good it would be a great desk speaker if that's what you're looking for the sound freak sound kick gets a little closer to the right size and it sounds great too but it's just not something you'd toss into a backpack and take to the beach there are a couple you could absolutely take to the beach like the Panasonic SCM t10 it's a waterproof hockey puck looking speaker that sounds good for a cheap speaker but its battery life is pretty weak and it's also really ugly the Bravin brv X is a little better sounding and also waterproof but it's only a good choice if someone else is carrying your gear it's huge the JBL flip 2 is another solid choice for cheap speakers it has that same cone round design as the UE boo it's loud and sounds okay but it's a little bit complex to set up and can and it sound just isn't as good as even the Yui mini boo same for the IRA pure the smallest speaker I tested it sounds better than it seems like it ought to but it's only a little better than your computer speakers it's worth upgrading to get something better last and certainly least is the beats pill it just sounds bad that bassy beats sound doesn't work on a portable bluetooth speaker not by a long shot in addition to everything else you should make sure that whatever you buy has an input for plugging in a music source directly plus easy-to-use controls on the box itself luckily most of these do and if you buy the logitech ue boom the best all-around Bluetooth speaker on the market you'll get all that and much more I bought two you