Summer sounds: portable speakers to shortlist, from just £30

With prices from just £10 all the way to £300, you've got a wide range of options if you want to add a few playlists to your sunny get-togethers. Our lab testing shows you don't need to spend close to the top-end to get decent sound this summer.

A good portable speaker should be light and small enough to sling in a bag (or even a pocket in some cases) and not give you a sore shoulder, have a battery that lasts as long as you do on a day out, be durable enough to survive a tumble into a pool or a roll around in the sand, and sound good enough to put a smile on your face.

Not everyone needs all these things, especially if you just want a basic speaker to sit by your favourite sun lounger in the garden, so we've picked models that excel at each thing. You can see our full reviews to learn if they're the full package.

Best portable speakers: check out our favourite models 

The best Bluetooth speaker for portability

When it comes to Bluetooth speakers, portability is in the eye (or the arm) of the beholder. We've tested plenty of enormous Bluetooth speakers that their manufacturers bill as portable because they've got a handle or a shoulder strap. 

We consider a Bluetooth speaker to be portable if it weighs less than a kilo and isn't more than 20cm wide, high or deep, and Which? members agree with us.

The more lightweight and dinky a speaker is, the more portable it is. But, unsurprisingly, making a speaker as small as possible isn't without its trade-offs. Small speakers rarely sound as good as bigger ones.

Still, if you want to travel light, portability is key. So here's a speaker that weighs so little you might think you forgot it.

Marshall Willen II

Whatever size Marshall speaker you're looking at, they all have that familiar guitar amp styling, and the tiny Willen II is no exception.

Measuring just 10cm high and wide, this is one of the smallest portable speakers around. It weighs a bit more than a tin of soup, so it's ideal if you want to pack light for a trip. You might prefer to get it in black if you want that classic amp look, or if the cream colour combined with our soup comparison has embedded the image of cream of mushroom in your head.

Concessions have been made to get the speaker into such a diminutive and stylish case, so read our Marshall Willen II review to find out how it sounds and what the battery's like.

The best portable Bluetooth speaker for battery life

It's no good carting around a wonderful-sounding Bluetooth speaker if it stops playing three hours into your day out. 

One speaker we tested lasted just 3 hours 13 minutes on a single charge, and there are plenty of other models that don't last much longer.

True, you can bring a battery pack with you, but every extra device you cart along is reducing the portability of your speaker.

While some speakers only just scrape past the three-hour mark, we've tested others that last 10 times that.

Rienok S1

With its 33-hour battery life, the S1 puts many speakers to shame. It's the sort of device we're usually wary of because it's cheap and has about as many four and five-star Amazon reviews as there are people living in Windsor.

Well, in terms of battery life we can't help but agree – 33 hours is five-star battery life and then some.

At 19cm tall it's on the bigger end for a portable speaker, and while some of that extra space may be used for a bigger battery, it also allows for a big speaker.

Is the incredible battery life the only thing this speaker has going for it? Read our Rienok S1 review to see if the sound quality and ease of use makes the speaker worth buying.

The best portable Bluetooth speaker for durability

If you're going off-grid, hacking through jungles, wading through rivers or maybe you just like to have your speaker in a lilo, it pays to have a more robust one.

It's difficult to say how well a speaker will hold up to a drop on concrete. The oft-circular design with spongy plastic will help, but a big measure of durability is its IP rating.

IP stands for ingress protection, and it's followed by a number which tells you how well a device can repel dust and water.

The best rating we've seen on a speaker we've tested is IP68. The '6' tells us it's completely dustproof (take that, sand) and the '8' means the speaker can be submerged in water deeper than a metre for up to 30 minutes. 'Deeper than a metre' is a bit vague, but there isn't an official rating for IP68, while IP67 is rated for submersion in up to a metre of water.

So, while an IP68 speaker can go deeper than a metre, we wouldn't take it scuba diving.

So what speakers are rugged and resistant?

JBL Flip 7

There are plenty of IP67 portable speakers out there, but only one that we've tested can go deeper.

More than its water and dustproofing, JBL even claims the Flip 7 is drop-proof. This isn't something we test for, but JBL reckons the speaker will keep blasting out your favourite tunes after it's been dropped from one-metre onto a concrete floor.

It's at the pricier end for a small portable speaker and on the larger end of what we consider portable, so it should sound a bit fuller than most.

JBL's a capable brand, too. The speaker market is full of unfamiliar names making cheap speakers for Amazon, but JBL has been making headphones, soundbars and speakers for years, so it's got the know-how to create top-quality sound.

Is one of the pricier portable speakers worth your money? Read the JBL Flip 7 review to find out.

The best portable Bluetooth speaker for sound quality

Size does play a big role with sound, but it's not everything. A bigger speaker isn't always better; it's just more likely that a larger Bluetooth speaker will have the edge over a portable one.

One area where smaller speakers struggle is maximum volume. They just don't have the capacity or resonance to really push for high volumes. When poorer speakers try, distortion usually follows.

Volume can be a struggle and so can bass. Bigger speakers have an easier time creating those pounding low thuds and deep rumbles.

But there are speakers that shine despite their diminutive stature, and here's one of them.

Marshall Emberton II

It's a second outing for Marshall, who deftly turned its guitar amp expertise into well-rounded speakers.

The iconic Marshall look is there and the sound is pleasant and detailed. It's bulkier for a portable speaker at 680g, but the extra weight is worth it for the improved sound.

It can't work miracles though. This is still a small speaker, so don't expect volume that will drown out a lively gathering or the sort of bass that makes ripples in your water, Jurassic Park-style. But, there's a richness here that most small speakers don't manage.

Does the extra power needed for the accomplished speaker mean battery life suffers? Check out our Marshall Emberton II review for our expert verdict.

Are more expensive portable speakers better?

Our list has a few conspicuous absences – where are Bose, B&O and Sonos?

These pricey brands are synonymous with impressive audio, but none is immune to the challenge of getting good sound from a very small speaker. 

Speakers from these brands tend to cost more and often have some nice extras to make them a bit more useful. Sonos Bluetooth speakers have wi-fi too, so they can work as part of a multi-room speaker system at home; B&O speakers have a clever audio equaliser in their app, making it easier to tweak the sound. 

You may feel these are worth paying more for, but they don't set themselves apart in any way that's key to what makes a speaker portable.

We've tested dozens of small speakers. Head to our portable speaker reviews to find one that ticks all your boxes.