Bose Portable Home Speaker review: Booming sound and completely portable

If you’re looking for a smart speaker – be prepared for a long search, there are LOTS of them. Of course, Google and Amazon have their own speakers – and they’re good – but are they great?

When you want great, you’ve gotta pay for it, and you’ve gotta look for brands that know sound. And sound is what Bose does.

A Bose speaker might normally be associated with an advanced home entertainment system or a decent smart speaker that sits in place in your home.

But when you want portability, something you can take outside or by the pool, or in the lounge room or the kitchen while you cook – that narrows the field a bit, but Bose now has a speaker to suit and it’s a cracker.

The Bose Portable Home Speaker has hints of the original Google Home in its design. However it’s wider, taller, has many more functions and – it’s portable.

Hard wired with a USB-C power connection it can sit in the corner of your room and entertain.

Remove that plug, and it just keeps on going – and will do so for around twelve hours.

Once you realise how much you love the combination of the device having a “home” as well as being portable to pick up and go, you’ll want to look for the charging cradle which will charge the Bose Portable Home Speaker by just placing it down.

You’ve got a Bluetooth speaker, you’ve got a Google Assistant speaker, and the thing packs a punch. 360 degree sound with a strong bass you’d struggle to find in similarly sized speakers.

Plus, if Alexa is your choice of assistant, you can configure the speaker as an Alexa speaker too.

iPhone users – the speaker is also AirPlay 2 compatible – so you can just stream straight from your Apple device to the speaker.

It comes in Black or Silver, and retails for $499.95 but you’ll find it for less if you shop around.

If you are enjoying music by the pool, the Bose Portable has an IPX4 rating so it can endure the odd spill or splash or even the rain. Plus it can survive the odd drop, knock or hit.