4 Best Portable Bluetooth Speakers With Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant

Smart devices like Echo Spot or Google Home make your life convenient. From playing your favorite tracks to tweaking the status of smart lights or checking the traffic status, the list is pretty long. However, smart speakers like these have one big disadvantage — they need to stay connected to a power source. So, if you want to carry the speakers around the house, sadly, that can’t be done, at least for now. And that’s why you should consider portable Bluetooth speakers with built-in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant support.

As you have guessed already, these speakers don’t need to stay connected to a power source at all times. These are powered by stand-alone batteries, which makes them extremely portable.

Apart from having the advantage of having a smart assistant with you at all times, you will also be able to connect your phone and play your favorite soundtracks. Sounds exciting, right?

So, what are we waiting for? Here are our recommendations for the best portable Bluetooth speakers with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant (or both).

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1. Sonos Move

Sonos Move

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The Sonos Move is one of the best portable smart speakers with a premium feel and experience. It comes with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support, and delivers excellent audio quality. This is the first such model from Sonos, and not your average portable speaker. It falls a tad on the heavier side, but you can carry it outdoors or move it across your house with ease.

As noted above, it’s one of the high-end portable speakers. And as you’d come to expect from such speakers, it also packs a sheer number of features. For one, at one time, it can remember several devices. The battery life is substantial and carries on for around 10 hours.

Now, coming to the important part—Audio. It’s loud and clear even at a lower volume and does justice to songs in every genre. In fact, the folks at The Verge argue that it outnumbered Apple’s HomePod when it comes to clarity and volume.

In fact, the Move maintains its clarity and doesn’t distort. The bass is pronounced, and the odds are that you will enjoy the outcome.

Set up is easy, though some have reported some difficulty setting the speaker and connecting it to Wi-Fi network.

The mics pick up Alexa or Assistant commands seamlessly, even if the volume is cranked up.

2. Bose Portable Smart Speaker

Bose Portable Smart Speaker

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Another premium omnidirectional portable speaker that is worth a shot is the aptly named Bose Portable Smart Speaker. In fact, it’s one of the direct competition to the Move. Compared to it, it’s smaller and lighter, thereby making it more portable. The IPX4 rating makes it easy to carry it to pool parties as well as any beach events. Like its counterpart above, it supports both Alexa and Assistant commands and includes support for services like Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, among others. Apple users can also reap the advantages of the built-in AirPlay 2 support.

Music-wise, it delivers smooth, and clear audio, which is loud and has a pronounced bass. However, when compared to the Move, the bass is a little underwhelming. Otherwise, you will come to love the audio that this premium portable speaker delivers.

Apart from issuing standard Alexa or Assistant commands, you can also use it as a hub to control your smart home gadgets and devices. So whether it’s dimming on the lights or checking the status of the smart air purifier, managing them is just a voice command away.

The best part is that you can carry it around the house without any issues, and it is this feature that makes it a good buy, especially if you are looking for a lightweight Bluetooth speaker.

3. JBL Link Portable

JBL Link Portable

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If you do not want to spend a lot, then JBL Link Portable is one option that you should go for. This one is priced at less than $200. It is portable and lightweight than its counterparts. When it comes to smart assistant integration, there’s a slight catch. This one lets go of Alexa and only has Google Assistant integration. It makes much sense to have Assistant-connected devices like the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock or the Ecobee3 Lite if you already have Assistant-connected devices.

For the price, the Link Portable brings a bevy of features. From streaming your favorite songs on Wi-Fi or AirPlay 2 and smart features to the lightweight nature and the IP67 rating, it brings the best features for the price. Like its counterparts above, there’s also a charging cradle that you can use of you want to charge your device wirelessly. If not, you can use the bundled USB Type-C charger to juice it up.

It delivers clear and balanced audio, although the bass is a little lacking due to the small body.

Other than that, the battery lasts around 8 hours on a single charge in moderate volume, and if you have the wireless cradle nearly, that won’t be much of an issue. Besides, 8 hours on a single charge will be more than sufficient for a normal day out in the backyard.

4. Ultimate Ears MegaBlast

Ultimate Ears MegaBlast

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Do you want a punchy and vibrant soundstage with Alexa smarts? If yes, you should certainly look at the UE Hyperblast, especially if you have an Amazon Alexa-connected home. This speaker delivers a loud and powerful sound. That’s one of the signature features of most UE speakers. And that’s not all. Unlike the speakers above, which only protect against water splashes to some extent, this one is waterproof and carries IP67 rating, which makes it safe from dust, sand, and water. So yeah, it’s one of the best options out there for beach parties and pool parties.

Once connected to the Wi-Fi and set up, the smart features can be accessed seamlessly, and that includes something intricate as tweaking the colors of your smart lights or something as simple as lowering the speaker volume.

When it comes to blasting your favorite soundtracks, note that you will be limited to playing from Amazon Music, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support Spotify. However, you can connect your phone to the speaker and then play songs using Spotify.

Note that if you crank up the volume, the speaker will struggle to listen to your voice commands.

As for the audio output, odds are that you will be impressed with the output, especially if you are someone who loves heavy bass. The bass is powerful and gives off party-like vibes. Even though it’s loud, the sound distortion is minimal at high volumes.

The combination of the smart features and the impressive audio output means you can use it a home or party speaker. And at 2.65lbs, you can almost consider it as a lightweight product. And the long 16 hours battery life is the cherry on top.

Do note it ships with a micro USB charging port.

Go Smart

Apart from the above, you can also check out the Libratone Zipp 2. It brings the power of Amazon Alexa and Spotify Connect to the mix and delivers rich audio. Above all, it has a funky design and weighs just 3.3 pounds.

Buy Libratone Zipp 2

So, which one of these connected speakers will you get for yourself? The idea here is to see which smart assistant sits well with the rest of your smart home products and smart assistant.