While Bose is more well known for premium audio products, the Bose Soundlink Color is their attempt at creating a more affordable option that’s designed to appeal to a much younger customer base. The Soundlink Color is a compact, portable, Bluetooth speaker that is regarded as the company’s lightest and least expensive offering. It’s got a decent 8-hour battery life, impressive Bluetooth capabilities, and much better sound quality compared to what you’ll get with other Bluetooth speakers of a similar size. To see what else the Blue Soundlink Color is capable of, make sure you get to the end of this review and see for yourself whether or not it can hold its own against other picks in our list of the best Bluetooth speakers.
Why We Like It – Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker
As the predecessor to the Bose Soundlink Color II, there’re certainly some things that you won’t find with the Soundlink Color, but all in all, its 8-hour battery life, advanced Bluetooth technology, and great sound make it a force to be reckoned with. Read about the Bose Soundlink Color II review to learn more about the older model.
- Great sound quality
- Voice prompts
- Compact size
- No built-in mic
Performance
The Soundlink Color Bluetooth speaker has one of the most advanced Bluetooth pairing capabilities that you’ll find for portable Bluetooth speakers of its size and category. The speaker can remember up to 8 devices that it was previously paired with, and connect to at least two at once. Playback is only possible from one connection, but switching between devices is easier thanks to its advanced capabilities. Its little voice prompts also let you know which device it’s connecting to, as well as the status of the connection – you won’t get this even with the JBL Charge 4. In terms of sound quality, the Soundlink Color Bluetooth speaker is also well ahead of its competition. It produces great-sounding lows, clear mids, and crisp highs, and does all that without breaking a sweat.
Design
As far as design goes, the Soundlink Color Bluetooth speaker succeeds at packing so many features inside such a small-sized speaker and still keeping it looking good – almost as good as the oontz angle 3 Bluetooth speaker. The Bose speaker weighs around 1.25 pounds so it’s easy to carry around, and has a rubberized panel on its top side where you’ll find 6 buttons. You can choose to have it in either black, red, white, mint, or blue depending on your color taste, though you will have to find your own case to be able to carry it in because it doesn’t come with one. Other than that, the speaker also features its audio inputs and USB ports on the back, and includes a wall charger coupled with a micro USB cable inside its packaging. For a Bose speaker with a retro look that will easily be an ice-breaker with your friends, check out our Bose Soundlink 3 review.
Value
Despite not being water-resistant like the Bose Soundlink Color 2 Bluetooth speaker, the Color Bluetooth Speaker is still great for outdoor listening, and has a rubberized strip wrapped around it to make it easier to hold and protect it from impact damage when dropped. If you want to have even more control over this speaker, you might want to consider downloading the Bose Connect app on your iOS or Android device. This allows for more hands-free handling of the speaker. Also, some people would find it quite difficult to spend over $100 for such a small speaker when there are much larger alternatives for that price range, but if you value high sound quality over anything else, then this should be your pick.
Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker Wrap Up
Whenever we review Bose products, the one thing always comes out is the consistent focus on sound performance. Bose always keeps a sharp focus on this, and this is why their products are charged slightly higher than you would expect.
