Bose SoundLink Home Review

Design

• Stylish looks
• USB-C charging
• Choice of three colours

This is a well-built speaker. It’s weighty, dense, and the silver finish makes it a product to admire. Made from a combination of aluminium, nylon, plastic, silicone and… steel, these aren’t the materials you’d expect in a portable home speaker, but it ensures that the SoundLink is rock solid.

The stand is integrated so it could also function as a handle to cart around. The indent on the front of the speaker gives it a unique, stylish look, and if you do need to give the speaker a wipe, a soft cloth will help.

Controls are on top and cover power, Bluetooth pairing, playback and volume control. All that’s required to operate the Bose is a press – it’s as simple as that.

The simplicity of operating the speaker makes it accessible too, but there’s a lack of connectivity out of the box that reduces its potential use. There are no other inputs apart from USB-C.

Three finishes are available in Light Silver (this sample), Warm Wood (which looks great) and Cool Grey (more like black). Each one looks premium.

It’s not water resistant, which initially surprised me, but unless you have a habit of spilling water, I don’t think it’s a pressing issue. This isn’t, after all, an outdoor speaker. Bose has other options to fulfil that requirement.

Features

• 9 hours claimed battery
• Bluetooth 5.3 connection

This is where the SoundLink Home feels thin on the ground. There’s a Bluetooth 5.3 wireless connection… and that’s about it.

Well, there’s also Bluetooth multipoint, but the biggest omission – for a home speaker – is the lack of Wi-Fi. Having that onboard would have expanded the capabilities of the SoundLink Home greatly, with the potential for lossless audio. Instead, you stream in SBC and AAC Bluetooth.

It is possible to play audio from a source, say a laptop, through the SoundLink Home’s USB-C input. But strangely, Bose doesn’t include a USB-C audio cable, so you’ll have to purchase one.

There’s no Party mode and no Auracast support, but there is stereo pairing if you buy two SoundLink Home speakers. There’s no app either, so no means of customising the sound. If your phone is connected to the speaker when you get a call, a built-in microphone means you can speak through the speaker. You can also access your mobile device’s voice assistant through it as well.

When it comes to battery life, Bose claims 9 hours. As seems to be the case with many Bluetooth speakers, battery life is a little more complex than that.

A one hour drain playing Spotify at 50% volume saw the SoundLink Home drop to 70%, which I thought was low. Another attempt saw it fall to 80%, which is still short of that 9 hour claim. It’s more likely you’ll get at the very least five hours out of this speaker. Lower the volume and nine hours could be on the cards.

Sound Quality

• Rich bass
• Sharp midrange
• Energetic sound

Audio is where the SoundLink Home puts up more of a fight. It’s a warm sound overall, rich in tone and capable of some thudding bass.

The bass is a meaty performance that belies its size and shape. It positively thumps with the low end in Anderson .Paak’s Fire in the Sky. It’s a big bass performance for a speaker of its size with little to no distortion, though it can struggle describing sub-bass or tracks that extend deep down.

The soundstage doesn’t spread beyond with the width of the speaker itself, and though it sounds warm, the way its tuned means there’s a little sharpness in the midrange of Slipknot’s Duality and Norah Jones’ I Don’t Know Why. But it’s a loud and energetic performance.

Vocals are clear and don’t feel bunched up within the soundstage, and tonally it sounds natural in how it conveys instruments too. Highs aren’t the brightest but they do come across with clarity and detail. There’s dynamism on both a small and large scale with the Home that reminds me of the SoundLink Max’s performance.

It does need space to breathe. Enclosed spaces affect how it sounds, so make sure the SoundLink Home is out in the open and not tucked away on a bookshelf.

Should you buy it?