Bose SoundLink Micro: Small Portable Bluetooth Speaker (Waterproof), Midnight Blue

Austin galUnited States

Finally my search is over!!!

I am so excited about this portable, Bluetooth speaker that I'm writing this review less than 24 hours after receiving it. This device also seems to support hands free calling per the instructions, but I haven't tried that yet. As soon as I have time I'll post a video proving what I'm saying here, but for now I am just blown away with the sound quality and volume I can get from this compared to MANY other portable Bluetooth speakers I've tried. I bought 2 off Amazon and returned them (I left the worst review I've ever written for one and just couldn't be bothered with the other). It takes a lot to get me into an actual store, but I even went to Best Buy and a very sharp sales guy pointed me to the 3 best options they have. After listening to them I was underwhelmed and disappointed. I almost gave up on finding a small, portable speaker that was significantly better than my iPhone speakers so I can listen to audiobooks/music off my phone while driving. My 2005 SUV is in amazingly great shape, but it doesn't have Bluetooth or hands free calling built in. I struggle to hear my iPhone speakers over road noise and I don't like wearing earphones every time I get in the car, which is why I was looking at portable Bluetooth speakers. Plus I can use the speaker around the house for my iPhone, tablet, etc. This thing quite literally rocks! It gets so loud that I didn't even get to the max volume before it actually hurt my ears, and that was with the speaker on the other side of the living room. No other portable Bluetooth speaker I tried even came close to this! And even at a very loud volume the sound quality is shockingly good, especially considering this is such a small device. I am just thrilled with this purchase. I can hold it in the palm of my hand and there's a rubber strap to "mount" it on an umbrella pole or other small diameter item. I wouldn't trust the strap to hold tight on a bike or other moving object, as the Bose documentation suggests, but it's a nice little feature. The only two "cons" are price and setup, but these are minor in context. Most competing products I found range from $30-$60, but everything I found in this range is about on par in terms of sound quality/volume...they suck. So the $109 price point for this Bose speaker is high in comparison, but well worth it when you consider the vastly better sound. FWIW, some of the speakers I tried at Best Buy were also around $100 and they were terrible. As to the setup, Bose instructs you to start by downloading a mobile app, but to be honest, I haven't yet figured out why you even need that app since it's so straight forward to connect a phone/tablet/etc. to a Bluetooth speaker. I feel like the Bose app complicates that process for no good reason, but there may be something super cool you can do via the app that I just haven't found yet. I'm going to play with it over the weekend and will update this review if I find something. Either way, this more odd than a big deal so I wouldn't take away a star for it. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a portable Bluetooth speaker with outstanding sound quality and volume. Many others claim you can use their speaker to add music to an impromptu get together, but this is the first I've seen that stands up to that claim!

CathyUnited States

Best Bang for the Buck from Bose!

Full transparency - I'm a huge Bose fan. It wasn't until later in life that I was able to afford their products, but now given the choice I prefer to go with Bose. This little speaker is just the latest in my history of Bose products. I had an older Bose Sound Link Mini that worked well but was starting to show its age. It was also a bit clunky and very, very delicate. I was perusing Amazon and came across this little gem and bought one for my wife. She was so impressed with hers that I bought one for me. What I like - well, obviously, it's Bose. The sound is crisp and rich in replicating lows and highs and is characteristic Bose. Obviously bass is somewhat less than other speakers, but for this size speaker the sound is incredible and I'm not a huge fan of "thumpy" bass anyway. I also like the portability. I used the strap to attach the speaker to my belt while doing my evening walk at work and loved that I was able to listen to my MP3 player without having to worry about headphones and potentially getting hit by some of the maintenance vehicles in the factory. I like the Bose app that indicates remaining battery life and bluetooth connections. I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface with the available features, but for what I use it for I'm extremely pleased. As awesome as this little gem is, not all is perfect. There are some issues with the speaker wanting to connect to everything in sight. I love that you can connect to two gadgets simultaneously, but sometimes I don't want that feature and only want one. It takes a little doing but it can connect to just the one, but it's not intuitive. Not a deal breaker. Also there is no feature to plug in an analog MP3 player or device, but since I'm using the bluetooth capability as my excuse to the Mrs. for upgrading my portable capability that really is a non-issue. I've only had the speaker a very short time, but already love it. At some point I would like to test the stereo feature when you connect two speakers to one device, but at the moment my wife and I love having our own discrete speakers. Battery life is rated at 6 hours, but anecdotally it seems to last longer than that. I also don't blast my music at loud volume, so I'm not certain if there's a correlation there. I may have to update my review at a later date after I collect more data and get more enjoyment from the speaker. In summary, the buyer should know that this is what it is...a small, portable and extremely capable Bose speaker. If you're looking for incredibly high highs and rap lows, this may not fill your bill. But if you like your music on the go and with pleasant sound, this is your recommended default.

mijagourlayUnited States

Exceeds expectations, super fun, cool accessories available

I use this while sailing and doing other outdoor water sports. I love that they're waterproof, floating, droppable, easy to hang up on sailboat parts, and highly visible. Their form factor is great -- small and packable. They sound better than they need to for their size and the circumstances in which they get used. I get the impression Bose applies sophisticated digital signal processing for these, which, to some degree, compensates for the smaller form factor and corrects the frequency response appropriate to the acoustic properties of the enclosure, and also to the volume level. I have multiple Bose products (2 of these, Frames, QC35, QC20, Soundwear Companion, SoundLink Revolve+, Companion 2 series III) and they are consistently very good across the product family. Not always the very very best, but consistently good. And I'd rather remain in the ecosystem than get individual speakers piecemeal to get slightly better sounds. Plus, the worst aspect of music acoustics experience while sailing isn't limited by this speaker anyway. (It's windy! And splashy! And people are yelling!) I eventually got a second to make a stereo pair. The stereo pairing sounds great and is okay to set up, but unfortunately if you turn off the speakers, they go back into single-speaker mode and you have to go through the semi-obscure button-pressing sequence to re-enter stereo mode. I wish they just remained in stereo mode after you put them into it once. This is a software/firmware feature so I'm hoping eventually Bose makes an update where the stereo mode persists across speaker reboots. I also love that this, like other Bose Bluetooth speakers, work well together. I don't use that feature very often, but I love the attention to detail that Bose provides. Third parties sell accessories for them. My favorite (which is unfortunately no longer available) is the "AmazonBasics Case with Kickstand for Bose SoundLink Micro Bluetooth Speaker - Orange". I got one for my first of these speakers, but by the time I got a second speaker, Amazon stopped selling these. So instead I got "Portable Carrying Case for Bose SoundLink Micro Speaker, MENEEA..." for my second one. That one feels like a lower-quality item plus it doesn't match the other, so I'm disappointed with the mismatch. First-world problems.

Andrea, Jole, Giugiu e LilliItaly

Prodotto eccellente...da tenere a mezzo metro da sé

Tralascio ogni considerazione tecnica sulle caratteristiche del prodotto e il numero di watt, già ampiamente trattate dalla scheda del prodotto. Piuttosto preferisco dare un'impressione generale di qualità audio percepita e facilità di utilizzo e di configurazione. La potenza e la purezza del suono sono decisamente incomparabili con altri dispositivi simili che ho provato. Questo speaker Bose ha caratteristiche qualitative più simili a modelli di wattaggio ben superiore. La conclusione su questo aspetto è che a rispetto delle dimensioni extra-small, la resa sonora è davvero notevole. A livello di prima configurazione, possiamo dire che lo speaker Bose è quasi plug & play. Si accende, si attiva il bluetooth sul telefono (o comunque sul dispositivo trasmittente) e si procede al pairing. A quel punto lo speaker sarà pronto a riprodurre l'audio. Sì può anche scaricare Bose Connect, l'app per Android e iOS utile per una più ampia configurazione dei dispositivi Bose. Tramite l'app ad esempio è possibile assegnare un nome ad ogni dispositivo, impostare la lingua o raggruppare diversi dispositivi per farli suonare in stereo in modalità Party (eventualmente invertendo L e R). Bose Connect non è assolutamente indispensabile per il corretto utilizzo dello speaker, ma dà opportunità non più. Molto comoda la fascetta che si stacca e riattacca posteriormente per fissare in modo sicuro lo speaker. Utilizzo il prodotto come speaker da doccia, viste le sue caratteristiche di totale impermeabilità all'acqua. Non ho avuto alcun problema di tenuta né tantomeno di resa sonora. Visto che genera un campo magnetico di elevata intensità, che degrada allontanandosi fino a 30-40cm, il consiglio è di tenerlo in po' distante da sé, in riproduzione. A mezzo metro il campo magnetico è pari a zero. Prodotto eccellente...da tenere in po' distante.