With portable Bluetooth speakers, you can wirelessly enjoy your favorite songs anytime. Simply connect them to your smartphone and instantly create the perfect atmosphere at the lake, a BBQ and garden party, or even in the park and nature. Thanks to their Bluetooth function, these speakers wirelessly receive audio signals from your smartphone – or from other Bluetooth-enabled audio devices (tablets, laptops, Bluetooth MP3 players, etc.). Our blog post tells you what to look out for when buying portable Bluetooth speakers.
Criteria for buying a portable Bluetooth speaker
In addition to the price, important criteria for purchasing portable Bluetooth speakers include:
- Range
- Water protection
- Sound quality
- Battery life
- Other useful features
Range of portable Bluetooth speakers
The actual range between a smartphone and portable Bluetooth speakers depends on many factors. It's not just the sensitivity of the receiver or the design of the transmitting and receiving antenna. For example, it makes a big difference whether you connect your smartphone to the speakers inside your home or outdoors. Outdoors, it again makes a difference whether you are in an open area or, for instance, in a pedestrian zone in a city center. A general important indicator for the range indoors or outdoors are the classes of Bluetooth devices.
| Class | Indoor Range | Outdoor Range (in meters) |
| Class 1 | Approx. 100 m | Approx. 100 m |
| Class 2 | Approx. 10 m | Approx. 50 m |
| Class 3 | Approx. 1 m | Approx. 10 m |
Since most smartphones use Class 3 Bluetooth (among other things, due to significant power savings), a range of up to 10 meters for Bluetooth speakers should be perfectly sufficient. The most common models vary between 10 and 30 meters of range (outdoors).
Portable Bluetooth Speakers: Water Protection
If the speaker is to be used at a pool or beach party and play music loudly, a certain level of water protection is important.
There are speakers where even a few raindrops can cause great damage – and there are speakers that you can submerge underwater for a longer period without anything happening. What your speaker can do exactly can be found in the IP protection classes. These consist of 2 digits, where the first digit indicates protection against dust and dirt, while the second digit describes protection against water.
IP69 is the maximum that can be achieved and means "absolutely dustproof" and "protected against water from high-pressure and steam jet cleaning". You probably don't need that much, but IP66 (dustproof and protected against strong jets of water) or IP67 (dustproof and protected against temporary submersion) are useful features if you use the speaker in the immediate vicinity of a pool, lake or sea; or on a rainy day outdoors.
Sound quality of portable Bluetooth speakers
When reading manufacturers' descriptions of portable Bluetooth speakers, you encounter phrases like "360-degree sound," "excellent sound and audio quality," "impressive stereo sound," "best, powerful soundscape, great bass," and much more. Unlike range or protection class, there are no technical specifications for sound quality. And indeed, it's difficult to find technical values that reliably and accurately describe sound quality.
- For example, high wattage alone is not a reliable indicator. The more watts, the higher the maximum volume – and the higher the power consumption.
- However, all speakers should cover the frequency range of 16 to 16,000 hertz (perceptible by the human ear). A wider frequency range can contribute to improving the sound image. However, to truly benefit from a wider frequency range, you should send uncompressed audio files, such as WAV files, or uncompressed audio copies, rather than compressed MP3 files, from your player.
- Then there is the design of the speakers. The general rule of thumb here is: the larger a speaker, the better the sound. This is because there is more space for the membrane, which, with its vibrations, ensures (good) sound. The design can also help distribute the sound evenly in all directions and provide a better or more limited 360-degree sound experience. Thus, a high weight is usually a good indicator of good sound.
How long does the battery last?
Battery performance is an important criterion, especially if you primarily use your Bluetooth player on the go. At home or even at a garden party, the device could always be easily plugged into an outlet. Depending on the model, battery life ranges from 10 to 24 hours. There is a slight contradiction between long battery life and good sound quality, as smaller, less powerful Bluetooth speakers generally have a longer battery life. However, this is also a matter of price, as newer Bluetooth versions (5.0 or 5.2) consume less power.
Other useful featuress of portable Bluetooth speakers
Other useful features and connections to look for when buying a portable Bluetooth speaker include:
- AUX connection: Connection for wired signal transmission. This makes the battery last longer and the audio transmission is more stable. An AUX connection is standard on most devices.
- Port for (micro)SD cards: This is where music, for example, is loaded and then played via Bluetooth from the smartphone. In addition to SD cards, a USB stick can also be connected.
- Automatic shut-off: Switches off the speaker automatically (to save power) if it doesn't receive audio signals for a certain period or is disconnected from the source.
- Hands-free function: If a microphone is built-in, this function allows you to answer incoming calls through the speaker.
- Equipment and accessories: This can, of course, vary depending on the model.
A detailed test of various Bluetooth speakers – divided into heavyweights (speakers over 1 kg, e.g., for your garden), middleweights (speakers from 1 kg to 500 grams, e.g., for holidays) and lightweights (speakers under 500 grams, e.g., for handbags and backpacks for on the go) is available from Stiftung Warentest. Numerous tests were carried out here with 63 Bluetooth speakers. Whether Soundcore, Teufel, Rockster, Anker or JBL: products from all well-known manufacturers were tested here.
The right music for the speakers
Now that you know which speakers you need, all that's missing is the music. For this, we offer you 2 clever tools with which you can get all the desired songs onto your smartphone in no time – and then enjoy them loudly everywhere via your portable speakers. Both tools are available right here in our shop.
MyFormatConverter
With this multimedia tool, you can rip audio CDs and convert all songs on your PC into the space-saving MP3 format in no time. When ripping original CDs, you can, of course, also choose the WAV format. Compared to MP3, this is somewhat larger but offers even better sound quality.
MOVIEJACK
Even though the software Moviejack is primarily designed to download movies from the internet – especially from YouTube – downloading audio files also works. Instead of the video, you simply download only the audio track of the (music) video and convert the file to MP3. This way, you can quickly fill your hard drive with songs, which you can then put on your smartphone to enjoy everywhere via your Bluetooth speakers. Thanks to Moviejack, you can get the best songs for a small price on any mobile device of your choice.
