Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Bose’s $349 portable smart speaker with Bluetooth aims to steal Sonos’ thunder

Simon Cohen
By
1 of 4
bose bluetooth portable smart speaker home silver 3
Image used with permission by copyright holder
bose bluetooth portable smart speaker home silver 1
Image used with permission by copyright holder
bose bluetooth portable smart speaker home silver 2
Image used with permission by copyright holder
bose bluetooth portable smart speaker home silver 4
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Poor Sonos. It’s presumably been working for years on its new portable speaker — the first of its kind from the company to offer both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. After many leaked specs and images, we even think we already know its name: The Sonos Move.

Recommended Videos

But before the company could make the rumors and leaks official at its August 26 and 27 event in New York City, which is widely expected to be the Move’s debut, one of its chief rivals has beaten it to the punch. Bose has unveiled its own portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi smart speaker, the $349 Bose Portable Home Speaker, which will be available for purchase September 19, 2019.

The Portable Home Speaker isn’t just a dead ringer from a specs point of view (it boasts support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant — plus Apple’s AirPlay 2), but it even looks a lot like the leaked product photos we’ve seen of the Sonos Move (if that’s indeed what it’s called). Available in both white and black (like almost all Sonos speakers), the Portable Home Speaker even has an optional $29 charging cradle, yet another detail we’ve seen in the Sonos Move photos.

Related

Bose’s design offers 360-degree sound through its cylindrical shape and has a built-in, rotating-strap-style carry handle. It’s a better design for those who plan to do some serious toting around, but it won’t be as aesthetically pleasing when sitting atop a counter or coffee table.

The Portable Home Speaker boasts a 12-hour battery life and recharges via USB-C. It has a moderate amount of water resistance with an IPX4 rating — good for the occasional inadvertent splash, but not much more — and it supports Spotify Connect so you can control playback functions from within the Spotify app itself.

Speaking of controls, you’ll find a series of top-mounted buttons that cover all of the usual features: Volume up/down, track skip, and play/pause, plus a microphone-mute button that Bose claims is your guarantee of complete privacy — not a bad feature given how many companies appear to be listening to (and sharing) private conversations.

How will the Bose Portable Home Speaker compare to the as-yet unlaunched Sonos Move, and will Sonos undercut Bose’s price? Stay tuned — more will be revealed after the upcoming Sonos event. We’ll know even more once we get these speakers into our hands for testing.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
Sonos could soon be the soundtrack for your next shopping trip
Store manager using Sonos Pro to control a local speaker.

Sonos has announced Sonos Pro, a new way for companies with multiple locations to manage all of their Sonos wireless speakers from a central, web-based command center. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) product has subscription pricing: each location you want to control costs $35 per month. It's a U.S.-only service for now, with additional markets planned for the future.

The system is flexible, letting companies decide how much control over individual locations should be in the hands of their employees -- all the way from full control to no control at all. The days of your local Kroger running its own quirky playlist could be over if that sort of thing goes against the brand's standards for its in-store experience. Or, companies could decide that a local flavor is exactly what they want to promote and give their store managers a big influence on the music their customers hear.

Read more
Sonos’ new search feature needs work
An iPhone 14 displaying the Sonos app search feature, sitting in front of a Sonos Roam speaker.

Shortly after Sonos showed off its new wireless speakers -- the Era 100 and Era 300 -- the company quietly released a new version of the search feature that’s built into the Sonos app. Sonos says the new version (which is slowly rolling out) is a better overall search experience. And yet, it's a big departure from its normal search, which is now called "classic search," and I think it’s still very much a work in progress.

Sonos says that for now, the classic search isn't going away. But come April 25, everyone will have access to the new search. Here's what you can expect when you use it.
A service-first, service-only approach

Read more
Pantheone’s Obsidian smart speaker puts Alexa in a sharp new body
Pantheone Obsidian in white being held by a woman.

Looking for a smart speaker that doesn't look like a smart speaker? Look no further than Pantheone Audio's Obsidian. The Australian company is no stranger to creating speakers that double as works of art. Its debut product, the $2,750 Pantheone I would look at home in a gallery, and the $1,399 Obsidian makes a similar statement, only on a smaller, portable scale.

For its smarts, the Obsidian (which comes in black or white) leans on Amazon Alexa, but it's also a well-featured wireless multiroom speaker that can connect via Wi-Fi, AirPlay 2, or Bluetooth, plus it has a 3.5mm analog audio input for sources like turntables. In addition to an on/off switch, there are illuminated front touch controls for Alexa, playback, and volume.

Read more