This year, there have been some nice trends in Bluetooth speakers: “True stereo,” which lets you pair two speakers at once and play the left channel in one and the right in the other, is available in more and more models. While it may be a clever way of selling you two speakers instead of one, it makes the experience more like sitting in front of your home hi-fi system. Meanwhile, battery life keeps on improving across the board, and it’s kind of stunning how water-resistant these devices have become: All of the speakers below have an ingress rating of at least IP67, which means they can be submerged in three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. If you’ve ever combined a swimming hole and a large dog in the same outing, you know why this matters. All of which makes the new speakers highlighted here some of the best ever for outdoor adventures.
Update March 2025: We’ve tested and selected new Bluetooth speakers in five categories, including a new best all-around pick of the Beats Pill.
At a Glance
- Best All-Around: Beats Pill ($150)
- Best for Parties: Treblab HD-Max ($135)
- Best Value: Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2 ($90)
- Most Portable: Ultimate Ears Miniroll ($60)
- Most Rugged: Turtlebox Gen 2 ($400)
- Best for Audiophiles: Bose SoundLink Max ($399)
- Best for Travel: Klipsch Nashville ($119)
- How to Choose
- How We Test
- Meet Our Lead Tester
Better Beach Afternoons
A few years ago I visited an old high school friend in L.A. This was a friend you want to model yourself after: He’d founded his own company and designed his life so that work was done by 1 p.m. Then he’d pack up a self-designed and professionally fabricated “fun cart” that rides on fat Wheeleez wheels. He’d trundle over to the beach and unfurl the built-in umbrella, roll out a cushy beach blanket, unpack a cooler full of cured meats and olives and a bottle of rioja, and tune his FM radio to a local station.
The whole ritual made me think of the last line from James Wright’s poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota:” “I have wasted my life.”
The next time I visit Miguel, however, we are going to up his audio game. Today’s Bluetooth speakers are lighter than ever, and built to laugh off the ravages of water, sand, and accidental drops onto the pavement. No beach afternoon should be absent some smooth-sounding melodies: We’ll take anything with a Michael McDonald backing vocal.
Here are reviews of seven of our current favorite Bluetooth speakers, depending on your needs and budget. We’ll be updating the list over the course of the year. In the meantime, maybe you want to think about taking a “sick day,” shutting down the laptop, and finding some tasty waves.
Bluetooth Speaker Reviews
Best All-Around
Beats Pill
$100 at Amazon $100 at Best Buy
Pros and Cons
⊕ Fun size and shape
⊕ Impressive sound
⊕ Long battery life
⊗ Not omnidirectional
It’s not hard to figure out what makes a speaker stand out. It’s the sound, stupid. Yes, I know, but what I love most about the Pill is the way I can grasp it in my hand like a tallboy of Rolling Rock or, going back to junior high memories, like a baton I’m passing to the anchor sprinter in the 400 relay. The design, which comes in five pleasing colors, might be the best of the year.
And the sound is, in fact, pristine—what one tester described as “more open and detailed” than the others in this test. That may be owing to what’s called a racetrack woofer on the inside, an oblong shape that makes the best use of a small space to produce big sound with less distortion. Gone are the days when a little two-pound unit like this was reserved for travel; this sucker sounds good enough to be your mainstay indoors and out.
The Pill was easy to connect, served brilliantly as a speakerphone, and, as one tester opined, gets “extra credit for aesthetics and a lack of any glitchy issues.” If you get worn out swiping through your Bluetooth settings, you can use the USB-C cable to play music directly from your phone; Beats bills this as high-resolution audio, and we detected a slight improvement.
The speaker runs for an impressive 24 hours at medium volume, has a “Fast Fuel” function to get two hours of playback from a 10-minute charge, and, if lost, can be located via the “Find My” apps on both Apple and Android devices. The soft silicone backing gives it a cushion against falls, and a lanyard lets you strap it around your wrist. One drawback: It’s not omnidirectional. While it stands securely on a flat base, it has to be pointed toward you to deliver the best sound.
In the end, facing off against an assortment of stellar-sounding speakers, the Pill edged out the others because, no surprise, it sounded the most crystal clear and mellifluous.
Best For Parties
Treblab HD-Max
$135 at Walmart $140 at Office Depot
Pros and Cons
⊕ Loud volume when wanted
⊕ Great value
⊗ One-dimensional sound
⊗ Confusing LED modes
When you need more volume and more bass, the HD-Max delivers. The sound is not as detailed or three-dimensional as the others in this guide, but that matters less when it’s about a crowd and, as the evening wears on, they’re getting down and boogying. Treblab’s newest offering has the power to fill a sizable outdoor space, and if you want to go a notch higher, a bass-boosting feature adds even more thump. “It makes you feel like dancing,” said one reviewer.
Two other fiesta-friendly novelties are a pair of multicolor lights on either end that can be turned off and on, and a bottle opener on the removable carry strap. It’ll get 20 hours of play time if you keep it at 10 percent volume, but at 100 percent it’s certified for only 6.5 hours—still, enough to get you through the night, or, if not, you can always plug it in. (And the power goes both ways: If your phone is running out of juice, the HD-Max can charge it.) One thing that could use improvement: It’s hard to tell when you’re in indoor, outdoor, or bass mode; they’re indicated by a clunky system that involves deciphering a series of blinking LED lights.
These are small trade-offs when you consider that the HD-Max is a tough-built, five-pound, foot-wide boom box that retails for $200—but can be found for 33 percent less than that. Others in its class, like Ultimate Ears’ Hyperboom, usually set you back $350 or $400. When the fun is over and it’s back-to-work time, the speaker has a built-in mic that works well for conference calls, with an average range of 33 feet. One tester said the HD-Max had “the best combination of sound quality, volume, and portability” in the test.
Best Value
Fender x Teufel Rockster Go 2
$90 at Amazon $90 at Fender x Teufel
Pros and Cons
⊕ Sound fills the room
⊕ Long battery life
⊗ Controls not all in same place
The German audio engineers at Teuful got together with the American guitar and amp brand Fender to make this thing of beauty. The sleekly designed Rockster Go 2 is smaller than a hardcover airport novel, at eight by four inches, but it pumps out some of the best, bassiest sound in this size range. Much like Bose’s SoundLink Flex—whose latest version weighs in at 1.3 pounds and costs $149—the 1.6-pound Rockster Go 2 amazed us with its “straight-ahead sound quality and musical vividness,” as one tester put it. It goes one step further than Bose with a button that engages what’s called Dynamore virtual stereo sound, an impressive, non-gimmicky feature that seems to magically move the music to the corners of the room. (Like the Beats Pill, this speaker is unidirectional, but the Dynamore feature does a lot to make it sound good from the front or the back.)
The speaker is supposed to last for up to a whopping 28 hours in Eco Mode (which reduces the bass), though you’ll probably get more like the 15 hours it promises in regular mode at medium volume. Quick charging, however, gets you out the door faster if you forgot to plug it in the night before. A short carry strap enables easier toting, and GoPro users will appreciate the quarter-inch threading on the base, which is compatible with camera mounts. Although its range is only 30 feet, one reviewer remarked that “with a design that’s worthy of residing on your bookcase plus its rugged build, this may be the ideal indoor/outdoor speaker in the midsize range.”
Note: The Rockster line includes two other, larger sizes: the $180 Rockster Cross and the monster $480 Rockster Air 2.
Most Portable
Ultimate Ears Miniroll
$60 at Ultimate Ears $59 at Amazon
Pros and Cons
⊕ Very compact
⊕ Impressive sound for its size
⊕ Bungee strap is useful
⊗ Can get only so loud
Over the past decade, the “mini speaker” category has been trying and trying to achieve a level of sonic quality that sounds so much better than your laptop speaker that it warrants a purchase. With the Miniroll, we may have achieved the singularity. At less than 10 ounces and a fits-in-your-hand, five-inch diameter, this grab-and-go disc produced some moments of startling loudness for its size. Physics wouldn’t allow it to be in the same acoustic class as the others in this test, but testers were impressed by what it can do.
Think of the places it can go: With its eminently handy built-in rubber strap, the Miniroll can bungee right over your bike handlebars, onto your belt loop, or—a habit I’ve acquired solely on account of this speaker—over the shower curtain rod, so I can keep clean while keeping up with the news. As secure as the strap is, a bouncy bike ride might eventually dislodge it, but with its sturdy build, we wouldn’t be too concerned about damage—and its crazy-long range of 131 feet means you won’t lose connection when you turn around to retrieve it. A PartyUp feature lets you pair multiple Minirolls together for more power or a stereo effect.
Anyone debating whether to pack a speaker for an overseas flight can be confident that the Miniroll—with its “road-friendly size and shape” and at 1.25 percent of an airline’s 50-pound weight limit—is well worth the consideration.
Most Rugged
Turtlebox Gen 2
$399 at Scheels $400 at Amazon
Pros and Cons
⊕ Extremely tough
⊕ Easy to tote
⊕ Smooth sound
⊗ Not cheap
Like Pelican and Otter, Turtlebox thinks in terms of durability that will see you through any terrain on earth, if not other planets. Case in point: The company claims that they were able to park a six-ton monster truck on this speaker, to no ill effect. Encased in super-hard plastic and completely waterproof (even floatable), the Gen 2 has quickly garnered a following among fishermen and watersports enthusiasts for more than being tough. The 120-decibel speaker is “both incredibly loud and impressively refined,” one tester observed. Indeed, our team was hard-pressed to find many differences in audio quality between the Turtlebox 2 and the other top scorers in this year’s test. The unit also plays for 25 hours at lower volumes and about six hours at max volume, such as what you’d need for a big party.
During LCD Soundsystem’s “Tribulations,” the bass tones flowed smooth as silk and distortion-free, thanks to the 6-by-9-inch woofer, and, to our surprise, the high and midrange sounds also came across with great clarity. With five color options and an ideal form factor—a lunchbox-size 9.5-pound boombox with a hard nylon handle coated in rubber, plus rubber bumpers on the undercarriage—the Turtlebox Gen 2 gets just about everything right, and its fairly high price tag is less scary when you consider its durability.
Best for Audiophiles
Bose SoundLink Max
Pros and Cons
⊕ Very rich, loud sound
⊕ Long battery life
⊕ Easy to pair
⊗ Needs 5-volt charger; standard USB-C is slow
For those who were wowed by Bose’s 1.3-pound SoundLink Flex (our 2022 Editor’s Choice winner), this larger and far more powerful 4.9-pound edition of the SoundLink will be true love. It punches above its weight, with rich bass and perfect balance in the higher registers. While the addition of a rubber-coated rope handle is both convenient and cute, the sticking-to-basics features from this classic brand made it a bit less fun than other party-ready units in this test. Where Bose beats them, though, is with more subtle orchestral and ambient tracks. Max Richter’s The New Four Seasons came through with a dynamism and presence that was a notch above.
Battery life is 20 hours, range is a passable 30 feet, and Bose’s app is more versatile than those that accompany most speakers, with EQ settings to suit your tastes and listening environment. IP67 water and dust resistance means it’s fine being dropped in the pool for up to 30 minutes. The SoundLink Max does cost a lot for its size, but for those among us who like to just sit and focus on great music, it may be the most ideal—and ideally sized—portable speaker to date.
Best for Travel
Klipsch Nashville
$110 at Amazon $149 at Klipsch
Pros and Cons
⊕ Great sound in small package
⊕ Nice design
⊗ Bass can get distorted
Ten years ago, it would’ve been inconceivable to hear sound this deep and loud coming from a speaker so small. Such are the advances of science. Klipsch’s Nashville is the Goldilocks among a new trio of IP67 water- and dust-resistant speakers from the brand (alongside the larger Detroit and the smaller Austin). All of them sound great, but the Nashville won us over because it overdelivers for its size, a mere 2.4 pounds and seven inches wide. A pair of 2.25-inch full-range drivers—one on the front and another on the back—create what the company calls 360-degree sound, so it works nicely in the center of a room as opposed to a bookshelf.
The tough build—with cushy rubber cladding all around—instills confidence in its durability, and its 24-hour battery life makes it even better for carrying through remote places without power. The Nashville has a 40-foot range and can be wirelessly linked together with up to 10 other compatible Klipsch units. We also like the built-in mic, which allows it to work as a speakerphone, courteously pausing your music on its own. “The cool retro looks don’t prepare you for how thoroughly modern this speaker sounds,” one tester said.
How to Choose
When shopping for a new Bluetooth speaker, first consider whether you’ll be using it indoors, outdoors, or both. Check its IP (ingress protection) rating to get an idea of how much water and dust resistance it offers; these are typically reliable. Next, think about how much you’ll be carrying it around—between house and backyard, say, or moving from campsite to campsite—and whether you’ll be on foot (carrying a pack or duffel, or not) or on wheels. Then consider what makes sense in terms of weight and dimensions. As a general rule, the heavier a speaker is, the more volume you’ll get out of it, but playing it loud isn’t always a necessity—some of you will be entertaining large groups, but others will just be setting it up for mellow creekside cocktail-hour listening with your partner.
If you’re someone who moves around a lot, a speaker with long battery life might also make a difference. These days most new models will play for a good 10 hours or more even at high volume, but some are longer-lasting than others, as detailed in the models reviewed here. Finally, more and more models offer “true stereo” linking, where two or more speakers can be paired to play at once but in stereo; this makes smaller models with this option a little more attractive than before, because if you later decide to invest more, you can give your soundscape an appreciable boost.
Finally, don’t assume that if one of the speakers in this list doesn’t sound great to you, it’s your fault. Different folks have different tastes, and some types of music sound better—or worse—on certain speakers. If you make a purchase and are feeling lukewarm afterwards, keep an eye on your return window and don’t feel guilty if you have to exchange it.
How We Test Audio Equipment
- Hours of Testing: 246
- Test Environments: Running, hiking, dog walking, cycling, windsurfing, skiing, rock climbing, yardwork, car camping, conference calls, video streaming, noisy coffee shops
- Highest Elevation: 10,152 feet, Leadville, Colorado
- Lowest Elevation: 5 feet underwater in Lake Pleasant, Arizona
- Most Listened-To Tracks: Childish Gambino: “Lithonia,” The Cure: “Alone,” Drugdealer and Kim Bollinger: “Pictures of You,” Fontaines D.C.: “Favourite,” J Dilla: “Workinonit,” Kenya Grace: “Strangers,” Magdalena Bay: “Image,” Slowthai ft. James Blake and Mount Kimbie: “Feel Away,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross: “Challengers”
The first thing we do with any Bluetooth speakers is attempt to pair them with our phones without consulting the user manual: The quicker, more intuitive, and easier the sync, the more points scored. Then we put them through hours of testing doing the kinds of things Outside readers do—soaking in remote hot springs, inviting friends over for outdoor dance parties, playing audiobooks while riding a bike, etc.
Our team turns in reports on each product tested, providing a score of 1 to 10 for five different measures: sound quality, pairing and connectivity, fit and comfort, rain and drop protection, and user friendliness. Scores are averaged, with more weight given to sound quality and (knowing our audience) how well they stand up to the elements. Note: Battery life estimates in these reviews are based on manufacturer specs; it’s difficult to confirm those numbers, given the time involved and variances among user habits (different volumes, different uses, different functions enabled). Actual results may be 10 to 20 percent lower, judging from averages experienced in general testing.
Meet Our Lead Tester
Will Palmer has been testing gear for 21 years for Outside, where he was managing editor and copy chief for nine years. Based in Santa Fe, he has been a runner since 1984, and while the mile counts have decreased over the years, he’s kept motivated to head out the door on the hottest, coldest, and wettest days by the opportunity to test the best new products—and to commune with the junipers and piñons.