Best portable speakers for every budget

No, it doesn’t have the catchiest name in the world, but the Sony SRS-XR100 is a truly amazing portable speaker for its size. It boasts some serious bass for something that weighs less than a cup of tea, and even at its loudest (which is pretty damn loud), distortion isn’t an issue.

With an IP67 rating, you and your SRS-XB100 can go anywhere - to the park, beach, by the pool - without much fear of water or dust damage. And, it’s so small, light and long-lasting (with 16 hours of battery life) that you probably will take it everywhere.

Pairing two SRS-XB100s is easy, so you could always buy two and connect them whenever you need that extra boost. We also love the inclusion of a stereo mini-jack, which allows for easy switching between devices and no more fighting over Bluetooth.

As much as we love the speaker itself, our favourite thing about the SRS-XB100(and what put it in the top spot) is undoubtedly the price. While the RRP is $99.95, retailers routinely sell these tiny beasts for under $70, making them the perfect gift for just about anyone.

The Sonos Roam 2 is a smart revision of its predecessor but it's every bit as committed to the idea of quality over quantity. It's expensive but if you're after a portable Bluetooth speaker that doesn't feel compromised by its size, this a great option.

Like other Sonos speakers, the second-generation Roam is easy on the eyes but designed to fade into the background until you need it. Thanks to a pair of class-H digital amplifiers, a single tweeter and a mid-woofer, the hardware here sounds as good as it looks. While the battery life here isn't quite as long as some of the cheaper options, the fidelity of those ten hours of playback leaves little to complain about.

The Sonos Roam 2 is also IP67-rated for water and dust resistance. In other words, it's as good an outdoor speaker as it is an entry into the Sonos ecosystem. In our review of the Sonos Roam 2, we came away pretty impressed.

It's been years since it first hit the scene but the UE MEGABOOM 3 continues to exert its dominance as the best big portable speaker on the market. Its sleek tube design offers 360 degrees of powerful, immersive sound, and one-touch control, allowing you to pause, play and skip tracks with one magic button.

It’s also probably the most party-proof Bluetooth speaker on our list, with UE claiming the MEGABOOM 3 is drop-proof (and even kick-proof) in addition to being IP67 water and dustproof. They’ve even taken it to the next level and made this behemoth buoyant. That's right. It can float.

With 20 hours of battery life, The Megaboom 3 is built to carry you through party after party without needing a charge. If you’ve got mates with other UE speakers, you can easily connect up to 150 of them (who even has that many friends?) and become both the best Spotify DJ and your neighbours’ worst nightmare.

While AUX-in and voice assist would be nice to have, it’s still hard to best this beast of a Bluetooth speaker.

BlueAnt's X5 Party speaker is your one-stop solution for turning it up at any event. The X5 is a large 4.1kg 60-watt speaker that packs a 6.5-inch woofer and 2.25-inch tweeter that pumps out over 110 decibels of sound and an (optional) bass boost via a psycho-acoustic extension.

It doesn't offer 360-degree sound, and you'll want to position it off the floor for the best results, but it does offer the option to network multiple X5 speakers for a stereo setup if you want to kick things up a notch (though that'll only be necessary if you're throwing a huge outdoors rager.

Most of the more compact speakers above will bring the noise if you're planning on throwing a party but can you call it a party without some late-night karaoke that you'll later regret? The X5 includes flashy LED-lit mood lighting and two karaoke microphones so you and a friend can duet Don't Go Breaking My Heart when the mood hits.

It supports a wireless Bluetooth 5.0 connection, but it also has a good old-fashioned AUX cable if you want a hardwired connection. That could come in handy more often than you'd hope. In our tests, the big BlueAnt speaker was a little susceptible to interference when used around other tech and gadgets but you shouldn't have that problem if you're partying outside.

The BlueAnt  X5 party speaker advertises about 20 hours per charge when listening at 50% volume, and that tracks with our experience. We ran the battery dry over a month with roughly 15 hours of usage at volumes typically higher than 50%.