The 4 Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers of 2023 - Buy Side from WSJ

Rugged and water-resistant tunes for the beach, backyard and beyond

Written By

Written by

Contributor, Buy Side from WSJ

Geoffrey Morrison is a contributor to Buy Side from WSJ.

Updated October 14, 2024, 7:06 PM EDT

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Whether you want to lie on the beach listening to Buffet, relax on the patio with Puccini or partake of a podcast with pals sans headphones, that’s where Bluetooth speakers come in. These small, wireless speakers connect to your phone and can fill a room with sound.

There are a daunting number of these speakers on the market, with countless combinations of size, style and sound. We focused on speakers that are easily portable, with sizes ranging from hand-held to something that could handily fit in any backpack. We also searched for models that are fairly rugged, water-resistant and cost less than $200. Since most people would want to take these speakers on hikes, enjoy them poolside or use them on the beach, we don’t want you to buy something you need to cradle like an egg.

After narrowing down a list of dozens and testing several, we named the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 our overall top pick that will meet most people’s needs. The Bose SoundLink Flex offers the most powerful bass, the Marshall Willen is the best option on the smaller side that gets surprisingly loud and JBL’s Go 3 is the best lower-price option. All four offer big sound in a small size and a water-resistance rating of IP67 on the IP (ingress protection) code standard.

buy side top pick

$100 at Amazon

$100 at Best Buy

Small, rugged and loud with impressive sound for its size, this speaker does just about everything right.

If you're looking for a small and portable Bluetooth speaker that does just about everything right and nothing wrong, that's the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4. It sounds good, plays loud, has up to 14 hours of battery life and it even floats. Other speakers bested the Wonderboom in individual tests, but the Wonderboom came out on top for performing consistently well across the board. That, combined with its price and size, meant it is the best all-around. It comes in several fun color combinations, too, including Active Black, Hyper Pink, Joyous Bright Grey and Cobalt Blue.

With two 1.6-inch drivers and dual passive radiators, the Wonderboom has fairly balanced sound. It has a decent amount of bass for its size, with clear highs and mids. The maximum volume was a little louder than the average in our testing, with more intensity than the smaller options and less than most of the larger ones. Like all the speakers we tested, the audio quality isn't as good at full volume, but that difference was less severe than we heard from several others.

Roughly the size of a grapefruit, the Wonderboom falls in a midsize range where it's easy to hold in your hand, but doesn't disappear in a bag like the JBL Go 3 or Marshall Willen-speakers we talk about below. The large rubber plus and minus volume buttons on the front of the fabric-wrapped speaker are functional, and are a distinctive design choice that some people may appreciate. We also like the nylon carrying loop at the top. The Wonderboom floats if you drop it into water, and should survive without issue, too, as it is IP67 rated, which means it's designed to stand up to dust and water immersion up to 1 meter.

The Wonderboom has a claimed battery life of 14 hours, falling about mid-pack among the models we tested, with plenty of power for the real world. We didn't run the battery all the way down, but didn't find anything in our tests that suggested this figure is inaccurate. You can pair it with another Wonderboom for a stereo multispeaker system, a neat trick that equates to better sound.

This edition of the Wonderboom fixes our top complaint against the Wonderboom 3, swapping the antiquated Micro-USB charging port for the more modern and ubiquitous USB-C. It also adds outdoor and podcast modes that alter the sound profile of what you're playing.

$149 at Bose

$149 at Amazon

Great sound with lots of bass in a traditional-looking package.

The Bose SoundLink Flex sounds better than we’d expect for a speaker of its size, particularly when it comes to the powerful, deep bass. It’s far larger than the Wonderboom 3, but still small enough that it’s easy to carry, and the design is a more sleek, straightforward option for those seeking that kind of look.

The Flex easily has the most bass out of any of the speakers we tested, giving it a fuller sound. The treble is clear and detailed and there is enough of it that the speaker doesn’t sound muffled lying in its flat position, facing upward. The Flex has what Bose calls PositionIQ, which adjusts the sound depending on the speaker’s position. When we set the speaker in its vertical position so the single, 2.4-inch driver was facing us, it didn’t sound overly harsh.

While the Bose plays quite loud — tied for second in terms of raw volume in our test—it doesn’t sound nearly as good at max volume as it does at lower ones. The difference in sound quality between normal and max volumes was more pronounced here than with several other models, but not as much as with the JBL Flip 6. Specifically, the Bose was harsher, with less bass at high volumes.

The speaker’s exterior is mostly soft-touch silicone except the front grille, which is powder-coated steel. It’s available in four color options, including Black, White Smoke, Stone Blue and Carmine Red and may be good for people who like a simpler, unfussy design. Like our top pick, the Wonderboom 3, this speaker floats, and you can pair two Flexes or another Bose smart speaker or soundbar to play together. It also has a tear-resistant loop for hooking to a bag or carabiner.

With a claimed 12 hours of play time, the Flex likely has enough juice to be the perfect party speaker. It also has USB-C charging, so it should be easy to find a charging cable if you or your friends have an Android phone or pretty much any other recent mobile accessory. That said, other similarly sized options have greater battery capacity, including the Ultimate Ears Boom 3 at 15 hours and the Marshall Emberton II at 30.

$70 at Marshall

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The Marshall Willen has a unique look, plays loud and sounds great.

It would have been simple for Marshall, one of the biggest names in amps, to slap their name on this cool design and call it a day, but the Willen sounds great and it gets loud. It’s the loudest of the smaller speakers we tested, and nearly as loud as the larger options.

Sound-wise, the Marshall is pretty well balanced, with decent bass and clear treble. There’s only so much a single 2-inch driver can do, but it’s powered by a beefy-for-this-size 10-watt amplifier. Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to affect the battery life, with a claimed 15 hours. It can also quick-charge, offering three hours of playtime after 20 minutes of charging. The Marshall app lets you change the equalization (though in my opinion not for the better; most people should leave the default settings). You can also connect multiple Marshall speakers to all play as part of the same audio system.

The rock ’n’ roll character goes beyond the looks. Turning the Willen on or off elicits an electric guitar riff that is significantly more interesting than the beeps and burbles of other Bluetooth speakers. The brass-looking button on the front turns the speaker on and off, controls volume if you press it up and down and skips to the next or former track if you press it right or left. On the top, the red LEDs that look like they should indicate volume instead show battery charge, a feature sorely lacking on several of the speakers we tested. On the back, there’s an elastic strap that you can loop on something like your belt, or use to hang the Willen from a hook.

$37 at Walmart

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$50 at Amazon

The tiny JBL Go 3 plays loud and fits anywhere.

The JBL Go 3 is the smallest and lowest-price speaker in our test. Like the Wonderboom 3, it had a winning combination of size, performance and price. While others we tested played louder or sounded better, none of them could fit in a pocket like the Go 3. It’s the type of device you could throw into any backpack and not notice it’s there until you needed it. It’s available in a variety of colors as well, a nice bonus for this kind of accessory.

Inside the Go 3 is a 1.5-inch full-range driver powered by a 4.2-watt amp. A bass radiator on the back theoretically helps with the bass, but that brings us to the main drawback: The sound is only OK. The Sony SRS-XB13 we talk about below is roughly the same price and a bit larger, but has better sound overall; unfortunately, the Sony doesn’t get loud enough, otherwise it’d be the pick. There’s not a lot of bass with the Go 3, and when you turn it up it gets a little harsh, but not harsh enough that you wouldn’t use it at full volume if you needed to. This is the speaker to get if you value size above all else.

The claimed battery life of five hours is actually the lowest in our test, but it charges via USB-C so most Android users will be able to charge with the same cable they use to charge their phones. The Go 3 has a fabric loop like all the other speakers we recommend.

$119 at Bose

$119 at Amazon

The Bose SoundLink Micro is roughly the same size as the Marshall Willen, with a far more traditional design. It has slightly better bass than the Marshall, though overall the Bose’s sound is a bit more balanced. The Marshall also plays slightly louder. The SoundLink Micro uses the older Micro-USB connection to charge, basically requiring you to bring a separate cable with you to charge it. Since they’re roughly the same price, if the Willen’s looks aren’t your style, get the SoundLink Micro instead.

$100 at Amazon

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$150 at Marshall

The Marshall Emberton II shares the family aesthetic with the Willen, but it’s larger. It has the largest claimed battery life, at 30 hours, and plays a little louder than its smaller brother. However, it doesn’t sound as good as the Willen.

$179 at Sonos

The Sonos Roam is a fantastic-sounding speaker, with great bass and smooth treble. It’s one of the smaller of our “larger” options, and it’s part of the Sonos multiroom audio system. If you have other Sonos speakers, it will integrate with them seamlessly. There are two main issues that prevent it from being a pick, though. The first is that it doesn’t play very loud. It seems Sonos engineers gave priority to sound quality over volume, and that’s fine but it was the quietest speaker in our test, even slightly quieter than the diminutive Sony. It’s also the highest-price option we considered. If you have other Sonos speakers, want something portable that works with them and don’t mind paying a little extra for that convenience, this is a very good speaker.

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$127 at Target

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The Ultimate Ears Boom 3 was the loudest speaker in our test, significantly louder than the smaller options and even louder than its next-closest competitors. Overall the sound was OK; others had better bass and clearer treble. The Bose SoundLink Flex at the same price sounded better and was only slightly less loud. The Boom 3 takes up less space and looks better though. Overall, if max volume is your goal, one of these will work great, and pairing a couple together via the Ultimate Ears app will blast anyone out of the room.

The JBL Flip 6 plays loud and has great bass, but sounds pretty harsh when you turn it up. The equalization in the app can add even more bass, at the expense of overall volume. It’s not a bad speaker, but it was outperformed by some of the others including the Bose SoundLink Flex.

The Sony SRS-XB13 was the second-smallest speaker in our test, just a bit larger than the JBL Go 3. The claimed battery life is an impressive 16 hours. It even sounds pretty good, with surprisingly full bass and smooth treble. But it was the second quietest in our testing. It’s a good option if you want something small that plays for a long time.

I’ve been reviewing audio products for two decades for multiple print publications and websites including CNET, Forbes and Sound & Vision magazine. I was the A/V editor of Wirecutter for five years, where I tested and reviewed headphones, speakers and other audio products. I also spoke to Mike Etchart, the co-host of the Your Morning Coffee podcast and the former host and producer of the Pop Tech and Sound & Vision radio shows. Before that, he was the senior director of marketing and product development at Universal Music Group.

There are a few core features we considered vital for any Bluetooth speaker:

Testing the sound quality of any speakers is, for the most part, a bit subjective. I’ve been reviewing audio gear for a long time, and I treated these like I’d treat any audio system. I listened to a variety of music at different volumes. I was listening for a speaker that had a reasonably flat frequency response, which is to say it was able to reproduce a wide range of notes without overly boosting some or hiding others. To be honest, none of these can do that perfectly. Given their small size and specific purpose, that’s not surprising. However, our picks did a better job than most, and regardless of what style of music you listen to, you should be able to enjoy it through one of these speakers if headphones or a larger audio system aren’t available or practical.

Geoffrey Morrison is a contributor to Buy Side from WSJ.

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