We reviewed 14 portable Bluetooth speakers to give you recommendations for the best speaker(s) to pump up your media ministry volume (see more about how they were tested below):
Maybe it’s the roar of the cars going by as you try to share an audio Bible passage with your table-mates at an outdoor cafe. Perhaps it’s the noise of kids playing and babies crying on the other side of the room while you show a clip from the JESUS Film with ladies you’re drinking tea with. Maybe you’ve organized a gathering and brought a laptop or projector, but you need something that will boost the volume of its speakers, so everyone can hear. In any of these situations (and many more), a portable speaker can come in quite handy
Best All Around: Anker SoundCore Mini 2 ($30)
Pairing the best audio-quality we tested with impressive volume, and it’s still “pocketable” (barely- it will be quite a bulge, so no promises for you skinny jeans people!). This speaker is an amazing steal for $30 or less.
Best Value Pocket Speaker: Sony XB01 ($13)
They say, “You get what you pay for,” but with this speaker you’re getting a lot for your money. It tied for fifth place in our rankings and, while it won’t win any awards for audio volume or quality, it is far and away the best “bang for your buck.”
Best Ruggedized Pocket Speaker: Anker SoundCore Icon Mini ($30)
This speaker comes in a wonderfully compact, easily pocketable package that meets high standards for liquid and dirt/dust protection (IP67). The audio quality can get a bit tinny at the highest volume, but if you keep it a little below that level, this speaker will provide much higher-quality volume than the speakers on your mobile or tablet. This is the speaker I will be most likely to have with me when I go looking to share mobile media.
Best Room-Filling Audio: Anker SoundCore 2 ($38)
If you are less worried about a speaker fitting into your pocket (it won’t) than you are about its volume filling a room (it will), this speaker is for you. While being just a hair quieter than the UE Wonderboom, we found this speaker’s audio playback-quality to be higher. That moved it into first place for this category.
Best Multi-Source Audio Player: Anker SoundCore Mini ($22)
While the Anker SoundCore Mini 2 (our best all-around pick) beats the original version in almost every way, the original has two other features going for it that no other tested speaker has. First, a microSD card slot that enables the speaker to play media without being connected to another device. That, in combination with the 3.5mm audio-in port, will allow media to be played without Bluetooth. Second, it has an FM radio player built in. This was also the cheapest speaker tested.
In our review, we considered and tested for a number of variables:
Cost: Speakers probably aren’t items you’re going to be using daily (unless you’re using it for your personal media consumption, too), so we wanted to keep your cost low. None of these speakers costs more than $50 (the UE Wonderboom can be purchased refurbished for less than $50).
Sound Quality: Having clear audio is more important than distorted, echoey or tinny audio that’s very loud.
Pocketability: If you don’t have the speaker with you, it’s not going to do you much good. Some speakers can easily slip into even the tightest of skinny-jean pockets. Others require you to have a purse or bag. We’ve got both pocketable and portable speakers to recommend.
Volume: When the goal is to enable a room full of people to clearly hear what’s playing on a portable projector or laptop, volume is going to be crucial.
Durability: Life happens, and it happens especially hard when you’re in places with regular dust storms, monsoons, etc. In locations where you can’t just order another speaker for two-day delivery, durability is key. You need a speaker that you can pull out of the water, wipe mud off it, and expect the device to keep playing media.
Other: We looked at two other considerations. First, could a player be used without Bluetooth (which extends battery life for the speaker and, more importantly, for your mobile device)? Best-case scenario, a speaker can play audio from both an auxiliary 3.5mm-jack audio-in, plus a memory card slot (which was the case for just 1 of 13 speakers). Secondly, if for some reason you needed to have your mobile in one place and a speaker in another, how far is the Bluetooth range of the speaker before the audio starts falling apart?
We gave each speaker a score from one to five (with five being the highest) for each of these variables and arrived at the results above. You may notice that four of the five are from Anker, which was quite a surprise to us as we tested speakers from Sony, JBL, UltimateEars, Tribit, etc. You can see see the full set of findings and results here.