Bose SoundLink Plus Review: The Grass-Type Pokémon of Portable Bluetooth Speakers

Gizmodo

4 hours ago

There are lots of different types of speakers out there for lots of different kinds of people. You've got rugged speakers for the outdoorsmen and doomsday preppers; you've got little speakers for anyone that needs to travel light; you've got party speakers for anyone that needs to annoy the ever-loving-shit out of their neighbors. And, of course, you have your regular old portable Bluetooth speakers for your everyday carry—sorry for the loaded terminology, pun intended. It's hard to stand out in a field as saturated as Bluetooth speakers, and it's questionable that you'd even want to, but sometimes just a little bit of flair goes a long way, and I can think of one speaker company that knows that.
Bose recently unveiled its SoundLink Plus portable Bluetooth speaker, and while the category may not be the most exciting thing in the world, there's still a lot to love about a lightweight speaker with great sound that looks more summery than the condensation on a beer bottle in a Corona ad. Based on my testing, that's exactly what the SoundLink Plus is. Let's start with what's new about Bose's newest Bluetooth speaker. First, there's the price range—the SoundLink Plus falls between the SoundLink Flex and the SoundLink Max at $269, which makes it more expensive than most comparable JBL speakers, but in this case, you get what you pay for (more on that later).
Bose SoundLink Plus
Bose's outdoor-focused SoundLink Plus is a pricey speaker but it's got great sound and comes in a very nice citrus yellow.
Pros
Cons
Also new is a citrus yellow color, which—sorry, audiophiles—really steals the show. This color is everything. The minute I see it, my mind melts into a far-off place as though you boiled down a Jimmy Buffett song into a concentrated sludge and then mainlined it into my veins like that nightmare drug from Robocop. It's soothing, it's tropical, it's… citrus yellow. Your mileage on the enjoyment of citrus yellow may vary, obviously—colors are subjective—but I can say from experience that I pulled out this speaker in front of a few of my friends, and some literally squealed with delight. I'm proclaiming this speaker the grass-type Pokémon of Bluetooth speakers, and there's nothing you can do to convince me otherwise.
The only thing nicer than the color is the way the speaker feels in your hands, though. It's made from a 'powder-coated' steel grille and a 'soft-touch silicone,' according to Bose, which helps give it a strong water-resistance rating of IP67, damn near waterproof and dustproof. Beyond that, though, it just feels so freaking nice in your hands—soft and smooth. Every time I pick this thing up, I fondle it for a bit and then force my friends to fondle it, too. They think I'm some kind of pervert for telling them to feel up my Bluetooth speaker, but the consensus is, 'Damn, that feels nice.'
And the battery? Also nice. Bose estimates that you'll get about 20 hours max out of the SoundLink Plus, but that obviously depends on the volume you're listening at. I'm inclined, after a couple of weeks' worth of use, to agree with that estimate, though it also depends on whether you're using the speaker to top off your phone's battery. One perk is that the SoundLink Plus also doubles as a huge, USB-C battery bank, which doesn't exactly help my Lightning-clad iPhone 13, but will charge up Android phones and iPhone 15s or newer.
Bose put 'portable' in the official name for this thing, claiming that it's compact enough to fit comfortably in a backpack or a duffel bag, but you never really know until you try for yourself. I'm happy to report that I fully agree with that assessment. I threw this thing in my backpack and brought it to a park a couple of miles from my apartment and even carried it around the city after work, and I can't say I ever felt like I was buckling under the enormous weight of Bluetooth audio. In case you were wondering, the speaker is nine inches wide and weighs 3.29 pounds. But don't let the size fool you; the sound is formidable.
The SoundLink Plus has a subwoofer, a tweeter, and four passive radiators, which may not mean much on the surface, but I can verify that all of those together equal some serious volume. You're not going to rattle the walls of your house or anything, but it should be more than enough for outdoor parties or even going to the crowded-as-f*ck New York beach and competing with your loud-as-f*ck neighbors. I think beyond the volume, though, what I was most impressed with is Bose's audio tuning. Prior to using the SoundLink Plus, I'd been using a similar-sized Bluetooth speaker from JBL (the Charge 5), and the difference is very clear. If you've been using a cheaper Bluetooth speaker and you upgrade to Bose, like I have in this case, I'm going to assume that you'll also hear the difference—I wasn't the only one who did.
Anecdotally, when I brought the SoundLink Plus into the bathroom while my partner was in the shower, she mistook it for me cranking the volume on the multi-speaker sound system in my living room—not just because of the clarity, but because the bass was also formidable. Nearly $300 is a lot to pay for a speaker that you're most likely not going to be using all the time in your apartment or house, but I'm of the opinion that the Bose name still means something when it comes to audio quality after using the SoundLink Plus.
If there's one knock I will give the SoundLink Plus, it's that sometimes the default tuning can be a little too bass-y for my taste, but that can also be easily adjusted via the Bose app, to get the EQ to your liking. That won't be a perk for everyone, but I can get a little finicky about my tuning, so if you're picky like me, you'll be happy to know that you have some freedom here—especially nice to know after you've spent $270 on a portable Bluetooth speaker. And yes, to reiterate, $270 is a lot of money to spend on an outdoor-focused Bluetooth speaker (at least for most people), but in this case, you really do get what you pay for—a nice-sounding speaker in a great color that you can fondle until your fingers' content. If you're comfortable enough financially to pay the Bose premium or just feel like splurging, I think the SoundLink Plus is worth its weight in citrus-yellow gold.