I brought a Bose, Sony, and JBL speaker to the beach - this one's my new outdoor essential

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As a Georgian, it's customary to travel down to Florida to get some sun on the beach during summer vacation. I figured this year, I'd take a few of the latest Bluetooth speakers with me to better gauge their performance.

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As with the many headphones I test, it's easy to form a positive opinion of a speaker in controlled environments such as my home office, front porch, or parents' backyard. But throw that same speaker into some uneven loose sand, uncontrollable ocean waves, and a nearby naval base and you have some totally different conditions. 

I took the Bose SoundLink Plus, JBL Charge 6, and Sonos Play, outside with me while I relaxed on the shores of Pensacola Beach, using a different speaker each day. Here's how it went.

Day 1: JBL Charge 6

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The good: portability, Auracast

The Charge 6 lies horizontally, and its carrying strap clips one end to the other. Thus, you get a comfortable handle that makes it easy to carry the three-pound speaker. Since JBL supplied the Charge 6 with Auracast, if you have a compatible smartphone, you can play music from one phone to several Auracast-enabled speakers, regardless of manufacturer. 

Review: JBL Charge 6

JBL's implementation of Auracast is a huge plus, considering Bose doesn't support the feature, instead forcing you to purchase another one (keyword, one) of its speakers for Party Mode, while Sonos supports grouping with up to four speakers, but limits this feature to the Move 2 and Play speakers.

The bad: battery

The JBL Charge 6 has the longest advertised battery life out of this trio, promising 24 hours of playtime plus an additional four hours with the Playtime Boost battery-saving feature enabled. Though 28 hours is impressive, Playtime Boost significantly dampens the speaker's bass response, which is no good when noisy waves, children, and military jets are in the equation.

In a noisy environment, like a public beach in the middle of June, the Charge 6 won't offer 24 hours of playtime, let alone 28. To combat environmental noise, I increased the speaker's volume, which consumes more power and shortens your playtime – very common for portable speakers as a whole, not just JBL.

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I used about 45% of the battery over six hours, so I probably could have squeezed out nearly seven more. I didn't need to use the Charge 6's reverse USB-C charging to charge my phone, but if I did, it would also drain the speaker's battery quicker.

Day 2: Bose SoundLink Plus

Jada Jones/ZDNET

The good: style, bass, battery

Bose's SoundLink Plus is a very stylish portable speaker. Its design is sleeker and more minimalist than JBL's Charge 6, and it comes in more fun colors than Sonos's Play. Anytime I've taken the SoundLink Plus out and about with other people, I always get compliments on its look. If you want a portable speaker that looks as good as it sounds, Bose has you covered.

Review: Bose SoundLink Plus

The SoundLink Plus's strong bass is its greatest asset, as increasing the volume and tweaking the highs and mids in the Bose app brought vocals forward, while maintaining its strong bass response. I used the SoundLink Plus for nearly six hours, played it loudly, and had just under 70% battery left, which is on par with Bose's advertised 20 hours. 

The bad: also the bass

Bose fitted the SoundLink Plus with a tweeter, a midwoofer, and four passive radiators. With this speaker configuration, the passive radiators work overtime to deliver a beefed-up bass response. However, with waves constantly crashing and the occasional fighter jet flying over me, at a lower volume, all I could hear was bass, as it cuts through the noise the most. 

Day 3: Sonos Play

Jada Jones/ZDNET

The good: sound, voice assistant, auto EQ

The Sonos Play is a great-sounding speaker, fitted with three Class-H amplifiers that power two tweeters and one midwoofer for the brand's signature smooth, fun sound. The Sonos Play features Automatic Trueplay, which uses the speaker's built-in microphone to optimize its sound for your environment. This feature did help with balancing the Play's sound, and it is available over Bluetooth. 

Review: Sonos Play

Sonos Voice Control also works over Bluetooth, though limited to basic controls, such as track play, pause, skip, and volume up/down. Still, I found this feature useful when I finally washed my hands of sand and didn't want to touch the sandy speaker before eating.

The bad: design, battery

However, unlike the SoundLink Plus and Charge 6, the Play speaker sports a vertical orientation. It was difficult to keep the Play upright on the uneven sand, and laying it horizontally does alter the sound profile.

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After a five-hour day, I used about half of the speaker's battery, which means the Play could have offered me nearly 14 hours instead of its advertised 24. Again, it's not uncommon for Bluetooth speakers' playtime to run a little short when you're using them outdoors and turning up the volume, which is directly related to their power consumption.

Writer's choice

It's tough to choose between the Bose SoundLink Plus and the JBL Charge 6 for outdoor adventures. Objectively, the SoundLink Plus better handled increased power demands, while the Charge 6 has a stronger durability rating and supports Auracast; both speakers support reverse USB-C charging.

Subjectively, I appreciated the SoundLink Plus's stylish design and powerful bass response. For summer days outside, I'll reach for it first.

Though the Sonos Play is a great speaker and offers many of the same features as Bose's and JBL's speakers, it loses much of its coveted features, such as voice assistant support and Wi-Fi streaming, as soon as you leave your home network. It's much better suited for outdoor listening within your property line.

What about waterproofing?

The Bose SoundLink Plus and Sonos Play have an IP67 durability rating, while the JBL Charge 6 has an IP68 rating. All three speakers are waterproof and can withstand submersion in water up to three feet deep for up to 30 minutes, but the JBL charge can withstand submersion in water up to three-and-a-half feet for up to 30 minutes, making it the most durable of the bunch.

With their waterproof ratings, all three speakers can withstand splashes, droplets, jets, and brief, shallow submersion without significant damage. 

Also: I switched to a Bose-Sonos hybrid setup for my home audio - and it worked harmoniously

All three speakers are fully protected from solid objects, which translates to protection against sand, dust, dirt, or gravel in the real world. Based on these speakers' durability ratings, all three responded well to sand exposure and were perfectly fine after a quick rinse with freshwater to remove any residual sand.

Ingress protection (IP) ratings, or durability ratings, are a focal point of Bluetooth speaker specs. These ratings determine how well a specific speaker withstands exposure to water and dust before these particles degrade its performance. The first number signifies solid particle resistance, while the second number indicates liquid resistance.

Manufacturers certify these speakers in controlled labs by blasting them with fine talcum powder and water from different directions at various pressures.