All portable wireless speakers have Bluetooth which lets you wirelessly connect to play audio from devices such as your smartphone, and the best portable speakers will be easy to carry around with you and have battery power that'll last throughout the day.
Benefits
● The best small Bluetooth speakers are lightweight and don’t take up much space, and are often simple and easy to use.
● Great for playing and improving the sound quality of music stored on your mobile device or streamed from the internet (including music services such as Spotify – which in some cases Bluetooth can also grant access free versions of such services).
Modern wireless speakers aren’t simply passive speakers you plug into a hi-fi. Everything is built-in, and they come in all shapes and sizes from large, powerful wi-fi speakers that can be audio systems in their own right, to compact battery-powered small Bluetooth speakers.
The term 'wireless speaker' doesn't mean they have no wires whatsoever. It means you have the option to connect wirelessly to your devices, typically using a Bluetooth or wi-fi connection.
● Portability – If you want to be able to take your speaker away from the mains, choose a portable model with battery power. Truly portable speakers should be small and lightweight with good battery life. However, smaller speakers will have a lower maximum volume and it’s more challenging to find one with good sound quality – so be sure to check our reviews to find the exceptions to the trend. If you only want to move the speaker occasionally, you can afford to get a larger one.
● Durable and reliable – We’ve found speakers with painful buzzing sounds at certain frequencies that’ll ruin your listening, and others with extremely dubious build quality – even with more expensive models. Make sure you check our reviews to ensure you don’t get caught out.
● Easy to use – For portable, small Bluetooth speakers this will mean easy-to-use controls on the speaker housing and an easy-to-set-up Bluetooth connection to your smartphone or tablet. For home Bluetooth and wi-fi speakers, this’ll mean a simple-to-use app on your smartphone or tablet, and a straightforward setup process.
● Great sound – Sound quality is the top consideration when choosing the best wireless or Bluetooth speaker. But there are lots of other factors to consider as well. The very best sound may not be worth the compromise if the speaker is too large, but there’s no point getting a super-cheap wireless speaker that sounds little better than your phone’s tinny speakers. We use a discerning listening panel at our expert audio lab to rigorously test the sound quality of each wireless speaker.
● Water resistance – Many portable speakers now have some level of water resistance. Choose one that has the level of protection you’re likely to need – if a speaker is water resistant, it will usually give its IP rating (ingress protection).
● Bluetooth and wi-fi – Bluetooth-only speakers are typically the simplest to use. They rely on a Bluetooth wireless connection to your smartphone, tablet or Bluetooth-enabled laptop. Bluetooth has a limited wireless range (typically 10-30 metres), which is fine for most. Some speakers also have wi-fi, and this makes them more self-sufficient. The wi-fi connection is more complex to set up initially but offers much more functionality, such as the ability to access music streaming services such as Spotify (may require subscriptions) and voice assistants including Alexa.
● Apps – Wi-fi speakers and multi-room systems can be trickier to set up, and usually it all hinges on their accompanying apps (for your smartphone or tablet), as many speakers have only minimal physical buttons on the device itself. Some apps are really easy to use, but we’ve found others can be really clunky and poorly designed, which can make using your speaker very frustrating. If you’re not a fan of using apps, you can buy a wi-fi speaker with a voice assistant instead, which (following one-off setup via the app) you can use to access much of the same functionality on a day-to-day basis. Very few speakers come with a remote control, although you could buy a cheap second-hand smartphone or tablet one and install the app if you wanted a dedicated remote for your wireless speaker.
● Voice assistants – Many of the latest wi-fi speakers offer the convenience of controlling them hands-free with only your voice. The voice assistants on offer for speakers are Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri. Many wi-fi speakers will only support one of these, but some give you a choice (such as models from Sonos and Bose). They also give you great additional ever-growing functionality, such as asking for the latest news update, or being able to access internet radio directly.
To browse all the wireless speakers we've tested, head to https://www.trendwoo.com/.
