Bose SoundLink Micro review

Watch this: Bose's SoundLink Micro brings the bass

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The Good The Bose SoundLink Micro is a pocket-sized Bluetooth speaker that is able to play louder and produce richer and louder sound than competing micro wireless speakers. It's fully waterproof, has a built-in microphone for speakerphone calls, plus an integrated strap for clipping the speaker onto a bag or other objects.

The Bad A little pricey and battery life is only average.

The Bottom Line While it may not be a bargain at its price point, the travel-friendly Bose SoundLink Micro is well-built and arguably the best sounding speaker in its size class.

A tiny Bluetooth speaker you can literally carry in your pocket sounds like a great concept, but going small -- and I mean really small -- usually means sacrificing sound quality, or more specifically bass performance. Bose's SoundLink Micro, the company's smallest and least expensive Bluetooth model yet, at $110, £100 or $AU170, aims to defy those small speaker conventions. It mostly pulls it off.

Available in three color options -- black, midnight blue and bright orange -- the speaker is IPX7 certified, which means it's totally waterproof and can be completely submerged. (We dunked it in a vase full of water and it continued to output sound.)  While it may be small it does have a bit of heft to it, weighing in at 10 ounces (290 grams). It has a built-in speakerphone for making calls.

Bose SoundLink Micro

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Overall I was impressed by its build quality and liked its integrated "tear-resistant" flexible rubber strap, which you can use to clip the speaker onto a bag or just about anything else you want to clip it onto, including your bike's handlebars. That said, the speaker has a bass port on its underside and is designed to sit on a flat surface to maximize bass performance. (I clipped the speaker to the front strap on a backpack and could feel the bass on my chest.)

There's a battery-life indicator near the Micro-USB charging port and volume controls on the speaker, plus a multifunction button for controlling playback. Battery life is rated at 6 hours, which is pretty standard for this type of speaker.

In my tests the speaker maintained a rock-solid Bluetooth connection and you can wirelessly link it with other Bose SoundLink speakers using the Bose Connect app.

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As far as the sound goes, I was most impressed by how much bass this little guy was able to output for its size. It doesn't offer the sound quality of Bose's larger, more expensive Bluetooth speakers, including the SoundLink Mini 2. But in terms of low-end performance it delivers significantly more bass and volume than JBL's Clip 2 and other essentially pocketable speakers.

Although its sound quality should exceed most people's expectations, I don't want to raise those hopes too much. With one of our demanding, bass-heavy test tracks, 3WW's "alt-J," the speaker distorted slightly and like a lot of these small wireless speakers, the speaker's performance isn't entirely consistent -- it sounds quite good with some tracks, less so with others. 

I didn't think it outclassed larger, similarly priced speakers like the JBL Flip 4 or Bose's slightly more expensive SoundLink Color II. However, it's not a big downgrade in sound and is a lot smaller and easier to carry around. So if that's what you're after -- maximum portability -- this is probably the best sounding tiny wireless speaker currently available.  

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Here are the SoundLink Micro's key specs, according to Bose.   

• Size: 1.5 inches (38 mm) high by 3.75 inches (95 mm) wide and deep
  
• Weight: 10 ounces (290 grams)
  
• Battery life: 6 hours
  
• IPX rating: IPX7 (waterproof, and designed to withstand more than the rating entails)
  
• Charger: Micro-USB
  
• Price: $110, £100 or $AU170
  
• Colors: Black, midnight blue and bright orange
  

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