Speaker Reviews | The Verge

I tested a living room full of cheap Ikea speakers against Sonos and Bose

2026-04-08T12:01:08-04:00

Ikea's $10 Kallsup Bluetooth speaker is fun and colorful and sounds better than its price suggests. It's not mind-blowing (it is a $10 speaker, after all), and there are no features to speak of, other than the ability to connect up to 100 of them together, but at that price, I don't really care. They're a quick addition if I need a bit more color and sound on my desk or in my son's room.

The Kallsup is about as simple as a Bluetooth speaker can get. It's a 2.75-inch plastic cube enclosure with four short feet on the bottom and a single speaker inside, and it's available in pink, white, and yellow green. There are two buttons and a small LED …

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The versatile Play speaker is a great way into the Sonos world

2026-03-26T05:42:23-04:00

The Sonos Play works both on a Wi-Fi Sonos system and as a Bluetooth speaker when away from home.

It's been nearly a year and a half since Sonos released a consumer product, and those last two releases - the Arc Ultra and Sub 4 - were updates to existing products. The $299 Sonos Play, however, is a brand-new portable speaker that can expand an existing system or be the gateway into the Sonos world. When on Wi-Fi, it acts like any other Sonos speaker - with features like Auto Trueplay, AirPlay 2, and the ability to stereo pair - but it's also a water-resistant Bluetooth speaker.

The Play falls right in the middle of Sonos's portable speaker lineup. While it's not quite as easily packable as the Roam 2, the Play has more than twice the b …

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The Echo Dot Max is Amazon’s biggest little speaker yet

2025-10-29T11:09:27-04:00

The Echo Dot Max smart speaker packs a lot of punch into a small space.

I love the Echo Dot Max. It's an excellent speaker, a good listener, and comes in purple - which is just fun. It's got new, easier-to-use controls and more smart home sensors and radios than earlier models. It's also one of the first devices designed for Alexa Plus. And while the AI-powered assistant isn't mandatory (and is only available in the US), its presence is something of a letdown for an otherwise superior speaker.

Despite the name, the Dot Max isn't a replacement for the Echo Dot, which is sticking around; it's a successor to the fourth-gen Echo, released in 2020. At $99, it's the same price as that melon-shaped Echo, which has be …

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Amazon’s Echo Studio is smaller but mightier

2025-10-29T11:18:19-04:00

The redesign and smaller size of the Echo Studio allows it to fit better in more situations.

The majority of Amazon smart speakers lean more into the "smart" than the "speaker," except for the Echo Studio. That device, which arrived in November 2019, was an imposing, sound-quality-first speaker that delivered Alexa functionality alongside impressive sound for a $200 device. But that was nearly six years ago - an eternity in tech product years - and the Studio has been due for a redesign.

The 2025 model of the Echo Studio, which costs $219.99, is one of four new Echo devices - alongside the Echo Dot Max, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11 - designed for Alexa Plus. Instead of the cylindrical design of its predecessor, it's an orb, a bigg …

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Bose SoundLink Plus review: here’s your new beach speaker

2025-06-26T08:08:52-04:00

I've been testing the $269 Bose SoundLink Plus, which is the company's latest portable Bluetooth speaker. It's durable, attractive, and designed to join you wherever you go, thanks to solid construction and an IP67 rating. You can toss it in a small backpack or clip it to the outside of one for easy transport to the beach or around town.

However, at $269, the Plus falls into a no man's land of Bluetooth speakers. It's more expensive than similarly sized competitors, including the JBL Charge 6, Sony ULT Field 3, and Sonos Roam 2, which all cost $200 or less. The Plus is also about $100 cheaper than slightly larger options with more expansiv …

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Bose SoundLink Home review: a speaker that’s all about looks

2024-12-26T08:00:00-05:00

Sometimes it's okay to buy a speaker mostly for the aesthetic. And from the moment it was first announced, Bose's $219 SoundLink Home stood out from the pack (and Bose's own other efforts) with a mid-modern style that bears little resemblance to most competitors. It's the kind of gadget that people are likely to notice and comment on. No one says a word about boring, ho-hum cylindrical speakers.

But this thing, with its fabric housing wrapped in a brushed aluminum band, feels like vintage Bose. The company doesn't always show this much attention to detail in design and materials, so I'm encouraged by the Home's unique vibe.

Bose SoundLink H …

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Sonos Arc Ultra review: don’t call it a comeback (yet)

2024-12-10T12:01:29-05:00

Sonos really needed a great product right now.

2024 will be remembered as the year that Sonos nearly torpedoed its brand with the haphazard, premature rollout of an overhauled mobile app. This led to an unprecedented outcry from loyal customers who faced myriad bugs, diminished system performance, and other issues. Many called for CEO Patrick Spence to step down. That didn't happen, but Sonos has spent the majority of this year on the back foot with apologies, turnaround plans, and assurances that a setback of this magnitude will never happen again.

It's under these undesirable circumstances that Sonos has released the briefly delayed Arc …

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Ultimate Ears Everboom review: the right size

2024-07-28T09:30:00-04:00

The Ultimate Ears speaker lineup is getting quite crowded, having now reached six products with the recent introduction of the $249.99 Everboom. This speaker is a smaller, more portable take on the Epicboom that I reviewed late last year. And its core appeal is the same as any other UE speaker: you're getting a rugged, waterproof speaker that's cut out for both indoor and poolside parties. You can link the Everboom with other UE speakers in party mode to play music in sync across all of them. The controls are easy to use - especially the company's signature oversized volume buttons.

So what makes the Everboom different? You get a fully cust …

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Beats Pill review: much easier to swallow this time

2024-06-25T10:00:00-04:00

Beats has been out of the speaker game for a long time. Its last speaker, the Pill Plus, was discontinued in 2022 after being introduced years earlier. Since then, Beats' parent company, Apple, has focused on home speakers like the HomePod and HomePod Mini, ceding the portable market to brands like Bose, Sony, JBL, Anker, and countless others. But now, after a not-at-all-subtle celebrity teaser campaign, the Beats Pill is making a comeback.

The 2024 revamp, on sale today for $149.99, has a familiar design. But on the inside, everything has changed, and I've been pleasantly surprised by just how much the new Pill is capable of. At its core, …

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Bose SoundLink Max review: size-defying sound isn’t cheap

2024-05-16T09:00:00-04:00

Bose is undoubtedly best known for its noise-canceling headphones. But do you know what else the company has always been damn good at? Portable speakers. I can still remember being wowed by the original SoundLink Mini (and later, its successor). Something about Bose's magic sauce audio processing can make these relatively tiny speakers sound much bigger and broader than they really are, and that's remained true with the more recent SoundLink Flex - which remains one of our favorite picks.

Now, Bose has introduced a larger speaker, the new SoundLink Max, that takes after the Flex in style while adding key improvements. It delivers much riche …

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