The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is a versatile and sophisticated addition to Bose’s lineup, combining the portability of a Bluetooth speaker with the smart features of a home assistant. This speaker is designed to deliver high-quality sound while offering advanced connectivity options and smart home integration. Here’s an in-depth review of the Bose Portable Smart Speaker, covering its design, sound quality, connectivity, features, battery life, user experience, and overall value.
Bose Corporation (/boʊz/ ⓘ) is an American manufacturing company that predominantly sells audio equipment. The company was established by Amar Bose in 1964 and is based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It is best known for its home audio systems and speakers, noise-canceling headphones, professional audio products, and vehicle sound systems. Bose has a reputation for being particularly protective of its patents, trademarks, and brands. The majority owner of Bose Corporation is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Non-voting shares were donated to MIT by founder Amar Bose and receive cash dividends. The company’s annual report for the 2021 financial year stated that Bose Corporation’s yearly sales were $3.2 billion, and the company employed about 7,000 people.
Design and Build Quality
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker features a sleek, cylindrical design that is both stylish and functional. The speaker is encased in an anodized aluminum body, giving it a premium look and feel while ensuring durability. Available in Luxe Silver and Triple Black, the speaker’s aesthetic is modern and sophisticated, fitting seamlessly into any home décor.
Weighing just over 2.3 pounds and measuring 7.54 inches high and 4.69 inches wide, the Portable Smart Speaker is compact and lightweight, making it easy to carry around. The built-in handle adds to its portability, allowing you to take it from room to room or outdoors with ease. The speaker’s IPX4 rating for water resistance ensures it can withstand splashes, making it suitable for outdoor use and poolside parties.
The design includes a seamless 360-degree grille that allows for omnidirectional sound output. The top of the speaker features intuitive control buttons for power, volume, play/pause, and Bluetooth pairing, as well as a mic mute button for privacy.
Sound Quality
Bose is renowned for its exceptional sound quality, and the Portable Smart Speaker is no exception. Despite its compact size, this speaker delivers powerful, room-filling sound. It features a high-excursion driver that produces deep bass, balanced mids, and clear highs. The 360-degree sound ensures that audio is evenly distributed in all directions, creating an immersive listening experience.
Bose’s proprietary technology, including the Bose SimpleSync feature, allows you to pair the Portable Smart Speaker with other Bose smart speakers and soundbars for synchronized multi-room audio. This feature is particularly useful for those who want to expand their audio setup across different rooms.
The sound quality remains consistent and distortion-free even at higher volumes, making it ideal for various settings, from intimate gatherings to larger parties. Whether you’re listening to music, podcasts, or audiobooks, the Bose Portable Smart Speaker delivers a rich and detailed audio experience.
Connectivity and Features
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker excels in connectivity and smart features. It offers Bluetooth 4.2 for reliable wireless connections with a range of up to 30 feet. Pairing the speaker with your devices is straightforward, and it can remember multiple paired devices for easy switching.
In addition to Bluetooth, the speaker supports Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to stream music directly from your favorite services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music without the need for a phone or tablet. The Bose Music app enhances the user experience by providing control over the speaker’s settings, managing connections, and accessing firmware updates.
One of the standout features of the Portable Smart Speaker is its integration with voice assistants. It comes with built-in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, allowing you to control the speaker and other smart home devices using voice commands. The speaker’s microphone array is highly sensitive, ensuring accurate voice recognition even in noisy environments.
Another impressive feature is the AirPlay 2 support, which enables seamless streaming from Apple devices and integration into a multi-room audio setup with other AirPlay 2-compatible speakers.
Battery Life
Battery life is a critical aspect of any portable speaker, and the Bose Portable Smart Speaker performs well in this regard. It offers up to 12 hours of playtime on a single charge, which is ample for a full day of use. The speaker charges via a USB-C port, providing fast and efficient charging. A charging cradle is available separately, offering a convenient way to charge the speaker while keeping it accessible.
User Experience
The user experience with the Bose Portable Smart Speaker is highly positive. The speaker features intuitive touch controls and voice prompts that guide you through pairing and other functions, simplifying the setup process. The Bose Music app further enhances usability by providing a central hub for controlling the speaker and accessing additional features.
The portability of the speaker, combined with its robust build quality and water resistance, makes it an excellent choice for both indoor and outdoor use. The ability to switch seamlessly between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity adds to its versatility, catering to various listening preferences and environments.
Price and Value
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is positioned at the higher end of the portable speaker market, reflecting its premium design, advanced features, and superior sound quality. While it may be more expensive than some competitors, the investment is justified by the combination of smart functionality, robust build, and exceptional audio performance.
For those seeking a high-quality portable speaker that offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, voice assistant integration, and multi-room audio capabilities, the Bose Portable Smart Speaker provides excellent value for money.
Conclusion
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is a remarkable device that combines the convenience of a portable Bluetooth speaker with the advanced features of a smart home assistant. Its superior sound quality, durable design, reliable connectivity, and user-friendly features make it a top contender in the portable speaker market. Whether you’re an audiophile looking for a versatile speaker or a casual listener seeking a reliable and stylish audio solution, the Bose Portable SmartSpeaker is an excellent choice.
The company was founded in Massachusetts in 1964 by Amar Bose with angel investor funding, including Amar’s thesis advisor and professor, Y. W. Lee.[6] Bose’s interest in speaker systems had begun in 1956 when he purchased an audio system and was disappointed with its performance.[7] The purpose of the company was to develop speaker systems which used multiple speakers aimed at the surrounding walls to reflect the sound and replicate the sound of a concert hall.[6]
In 1966, after 10 years of research, the Bose 2201 was the first product sold by the company.[8] It was an unusual design consisting of 22 speakers, with many of them facing away from the listener. The 2201 was designed to be located in the corner of a room, using reflections off the walls to increase the apparent size of the room. The 2201 failed in the marketplace and was discontinued after three or four years.[8]
After this experience, Bose concluded that the audio system measurement techniques of the time (such as measuring distortion and frequency response) were ineffective ways to evaluate the goal of natural sound reproduction. Bose argued that the listener’s perception was the best measure of audio quality.[9][10][11] In 1968, the company introduced the Bose 901 stereo speaker system, which used eight mid-range drivers pointing toward the wall behind the speaker, and a ninth driver toward the listener. This design aimed to achieve a dominance of reflected over direct sound in home listening spaces. The design used for the 901 was unconventional compared with most systems, where mid-range and high-frequency speakers directly face the listener.[12] The 901 was an immediate commercial success. As a result, Bose Corporation experienced rapid growth during the 1970s. The Bose 901 model name was a mainstay of the Bose line-up for many years, being produced from 1968 until 2016.
