The Best Waterproof Bluetooth Speakers of 2024

The new Sonos Roam is the most versatile portable speaker you can buy, full stop. It works great on the go, no doubt, but unlike other speakers on this list, it also connects over Wi-Fi in addition to Bluetooth. This not only offers improved sound quality, but it also lets the Roam double as a smart speaker for Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, as well as connecting to other Sonos speakers in a multi-room setup.

As for sound quality, the Roam is an absolute ringer for its size and specs. It offers warm and smooth sound with great detail and way more bass response than you’d expect from a six-inch tube. From the moment we pressed play on the Roam, we were amazed by not only how good it sounds, but how big.

Occasionally its sound gets a little heavy in the midrange, and its fidelity is best at about mid-volume (it loses some luster at low volume), but it’s easy to adjust the EQ to taste. What's more, the speaker's True Volume feature helps it adjust the sound to its environment.

When it comes to serious bass, it won’t keep up with bigger sound tubes such as Ultimate Ears’ hefty Megaboom 3, nor does it have the same 360-degree sound field. At just 10 hours of playback time, its battery life is a fair bit lower, too. But it’s also a lot easier to take along.

The rubberized exterior feels good in your hand, and it even fits perfectly in your backpack’s water bottle holster. The rugged front grill keeps the interior parts safe, as does the IP67 dust and water resistance, allowing it to keep dust out and sit in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes—something you don’t usually expect from a Wi-Fi speaker.

Its Bluetooth range on the road is also substantial—we were able to walk nearly an entire practice field before it started to cut out. Because this is a Sonos speaker, you’ll also get the convenience of Sonos Wi-Fi setup, the loaded Sonos 2 app (compatible with 100+ streaming services), and the ability to not only group with other Sonos siblings, but also swap sound from Bluetooth playback, and more.

In short, this is an easy pick for the best portable waterproof speaker. While its cost may be a bit high, if you want a speaker that does it all—and sounds darn good doing it—the Roam is it.

JBL’s Flip line of Bluetooth speakers continues to be an awesome choice for most folks. The Flip 5 brings all the great features of its forebears: solid, room-filling sound; IPX7 water-resistance (meaning it should survive a quick dunk in the pool without incident); 12 hours of battery life; and a massive range of color options, from “sand” to “squad.”

One of the biggest upgrades for the Flip 5 includes the convenience of USB-C charging (the previous Flip 4 uses micro-USB), but it also adds a newer Bluetooth standard (4.2), improved battery, bigger speaker drivers for improved sound, and even a sleep timer.

The additions mean the Flip 5 is a bit larger and heavier than the Flip 4, but fear not: it’s still capped with reinforced rubber and wrapped in JBL’s handsome, rounded speaker grills, meaning it’s fairly robust and it also sounds better than ever. Just don’t drop it on your beach-going toesies.

When it comes to audio quality, for its size and price point, this speaker sounds very good. The rounded chassis provides warm, room-filling tones that sound especially good bouncing off of the surface of sparkling pool water.

The Flip 5 isn’t the biggest, loudest speaker on our list, nor is it the most affordable. It is, however, a great all-rounder, checking off all the right boxes for a portable, all-terrain Bluetooth speaker at a great price. And if you want this kind of all-around solidness but want to spend a little less money, you can still find the excellent Flip 4 in a lot of locations, too.

A proud member of Anker’s Soundcore portable speaker line, the Soundcore 2 is basic, straightforward, and useful. It features a sturdy rectangular design with big, easy-to-push buttons and a very tightly sealed set of inputs for USB charging and a 3.5 input.

The first thing we noticed about the Soundcore 2 was its sound quality. For being small, portable, and fairly lightweight, it has less tinniness in the treble than a lot of portable Bluetooth speakers and more bass presence, too. Between the low price point and the wide array of colors, it’s a clear value pick as far as portable speakers go. It doesn't get super loud, but it pumps out as much sound as most people need, and all without a touch of audible distortion.

Last but definitely not least, the Anker SoundCore 2 is, of course, rated IPX7 water-resistant, meaning it's been tested for 30 minutes in one meter of water. In other words, it’s very splashproof and should also be good for a quick dunk without any ill effects. That's a lot of good stuff for under $50.

Simply put, the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 is one of the very best portable speakers you can buy. It sounds fantastic, offering powerful punch in the bass, more detail than you’d expect in the treble, and a clear and present midrange. Thanks to its balanced, “360-degree” soundstage (in which sound is designed to be distributed from all sides), it’s arguably the top speaker for sound in its price class, with only top competitors like the Charge 5 and Sonos Roam to stand as rivals.

The Megaboom 3 is also built like a tank, with a tactile, dual-tone exterior that keeps it safe from dust and water (its IP67 rating means it can be dunked alongside our other picks). It’s almost actively tough, begging you to throw it like a projectile, or roll it at your friends in an attempt to take out their legs.

It also has a powerful app, which allows you to do things like tune EQ, connect it to other Megaboom speakers in party mode (with a freakishly large group of up to 150 possible), and even use its top button to directly call up a pre-programmed streaming service.

The Megaboom 3 is a natural choice for the best Bluetooth speaker in your arsenal, but it falls shy of the Sonos Roam in a couple of key areas. For one thing, it doesn’t have Wi-Fi or smarts (the Roam offers the same functionality as homebound Alexa or Google smart speaker when connected to Wi-Fi).

The Megaboom 3 also can’t be used as part of a multi-speaker sound system. And while its 20 hours of battery life is massive compared to the Roam (and most other speakers), we found it lasted several hours less than advertised at medium volume.

Most notably, while the Megaboom 3 is an audio wonder, it simply isn’t all that portable. While it’s easy to move around the house or throw in the car, unlike the Roam and the Flip, it’s harder to fit into a backpack or purse for travel.

But if you’re just going to leave it in the yard for barbecues—and you don’t need Wi-Fi—the Megaboom 3 is a killer Bluetooth speaker with sound as powerful and clear as anything you’ll find at its size.

Suppose you were head-over-heels for JBL’s Flip line of Bluetooth speakers, but your phone kept dying on you while you were out at the beach or on a hike. Before you run off and buy a portable battery pack, you should really take a look at the excellent JBL Charge 5.

The Charge 5 is essentially two products in one: it has the same general form factor, robust sound quality, intuitive controls, and IP67 rating as the excellent Flip 5, only it adds pass-thru USB charging.

With 20 hours of battery life, the Charge 5 can keep your tunes playing for almost a full day while it simultaneously charges up your smartphone, tablet, or anything else you want to plug in. Just plug your phone’s charge cable into the back of the Charge 5 and you’re guaranteed almost a full day of music.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Charge 5 is no slouch where sound quality is concerned. It sounds even bigger than JBL’s Flip 5, providing deeper bass, great midrange support and producing robust, enjoyable details in music and podcasts. It’s big enough to provide enough volume for a small backyard get-together, but might be a bit lost in the middle of a noisy party.

The only drawback with this speaker is that you’re definitely paying more for the battery-charging functionality when you compare the Charge 5 to something like the Flip 5, and if you haven’t had battery problems it might not make sense to pick this one up.

But it’s also very unlikely that you’d regret having this functionality if you did: somebody’s phone or tablet is always on its last legs, and the Charge 5 is here to pick it back up again. It’s also worth mentioning that the Charge 5 is pretty bulky: that big, charge-bank-type battery needs room, and it reduces the portability here.

If you want the biggest, loudest, most party-rocking Bluetooth speaker you can buy, JBL’s Boombox 2 wrote the book on “in your face.” In all seriousness, as with many JBL speakers the Boombox 2 is immaculately designed—rounded, robust, and heavy—and it has the audio presence to match its hefty size. While many of the speakers on this list are around the size of a soda can, the JBL Boombox 2 is a dyed-in-the-wool, walk-down-the-street-with-it-on-your-shoulder boombox.

There are a lot of places where a smaller, more traditional Bluetooth speaker might serve you better. We used the Boombox 2 for several weeks while waiting on other Bluetooth speakers to arrive for evaluation.

As it serenaded us in our kitchen every day, we probably never set the volume to more than 50% of its maximum. This Bluetooth speaker is very, very loud—that said, it also sounds really good, featuring more than ample bass presence and good clarity across the frequency spectrum. It fills even the most cavernous rooms, easily heard over party conversation, surging ocean waves, or the buzz of nearby power tools.

It’s also rugged, dunkable thanks to its IPX7 water resistance rating, and designed with covered ports, meaning you can tote it just about anywhere (within reason). And with JBL’s “PartyBoost” feature, you can even add in additional JBL speakers (though why you’d need to, I’m not sure).

So why isn’t this the #1 Bluetooth speaker? Simply put, it’s just too much for most people, even if it’s too much of a good thing. It’s (relatively) huge, heavy, expensive, and will offer diminishing returns for casual, everyday situations. However, if you’ve got the funds and want a Bluetooth speaker that can be nuanced enough for a low-key night in and loud enough that they’ll hear it on Mars, this is the one to get.

JBL’s Clip 4 has no right to sound as good as it does. While you’ll have to limit your expectations when it comes to bass response for any speaker this size, you’ve got to limit them a lot less with this speaker than comparable models from even a few years back. And impressive sound is just one of the enticing aspects of this pint-sized dangler.

The fourth generation of JBL’s popular Clip line has improved over its predecessor in multiple ways, from a more sturdy and ergonomic handle to new rubberized dampeners on its backside to keep it from rumbling on a countertop or distorting when the bass ramps up. The speaker has more accessible control buttons as well, including rubberized front-side controls and side controls for pairing and powering on that you can identify with your fingertips. (Though a word of caution, they’re a bit easier to press accidentally, too.)

If there’s one part of the oval-shaped model we’re not crazy about, it’s the extremely loud look of the new logo which will not let you forget which brand makes this tag-along device. But that’s a small price to pay for a speaker this pocketable that sounds this good.

Getting back to the sound quality, this is one of the few speakers of its size we actually enjoy listening to. It offers relatively impressive detail for everything from jazz to podcasts, and while hip-hop will lose some luster—especially if you try to crank up the jams—it’s the perfect speaker for the shower. It also pairs well with getaways where you simply don’t want to bring something chunkier like an Ultimate Ears Megaboom or even JBL’s own Flip or Charge models.

At 10 hours, battery life isn’t incredible, but it gets you more than a day’s use and an open USB-C port makes it easy to charge. With an IP67 rating, the speaker is both dust resistant and dunkable, though it doesn’t float so you won’t want to drop it in a lake. It connects via Bluetooth 5.1 for solid connection from more than 30 feet.

As for downsides, the Clip 4 doesn’t include a speakerphone like its predecessor, nor does it pair with companion speakers over an app. Its rounded edges mean you’ll also need to clip it or lay it flat, which may not always be convenient for sound dispersion.

Those quibbles aside, if you’re looking for a seriously portable speaker with good sound that won’t break the bank, you’ll have a hard time beating the Clip 4. Of course, if you want a very similar experience but would rather save a little cash, you could try to track down the older Clip 3. It sounds a fair bit tinnier than the Clip 4, but will still work well as a shower speaker if you can find it at a good discount.

If you’re looking to secure a fancier-than-average portable Bluetooth speaker, the Bose SoundLink Micro delivers. This speaker checks off a lot of the right boxes: it’s made of durable but very “touchable” materials and features notably elegant design details, plus it sounds great.

While most portable Bluetooth speakers of this size are made of cheap, hard plastic, the SoundLink Micro feels nicer in your hands than, frankly, most things. It’s surprisingly soft—in fact, after passing it around the office, the general opinion was it’s straight-up cuddly. Granted, the silicone finish is what helps the Micro to be waterproof, offering an IP67 water resistance rating, but it certainly doubles as a silky smooth exterior. There’s a certain polish and finesse here that is rare for Bluetooth speakers.

Not to mention, in classic Bose fashion, the sound is quite good. Despite how “micro” the SoundLink Micro is, it still earns marks in terms of full audio frequency support: there’s solid bass and midrange tones here, making music sound robust and substantial. It’s not the loudest speaker out there due to its size, but if you want something very portable and just a little more fashionable than average, the SoundLink Micro is a great choice.