Bose Soundlink Plus Review: The compromise didn’t sound that good
There are a lot of people Bluetooth speaker Once you arrive there, and almost every day, it’s easy to underestimate what lives in the middle ground. It’s stuck between the packages SoundLink Flex And beef SoundLink Max (9/10, Wired recommends)Bose’s new Midsize Soundlink Plus (no, these are not streaming services) carves out its own niche primarily thanks to equal parts nuances and gaining Bravado-rich sounds.
Like its siblings, Plus looks like a premium speaker with a premium price accordingly. It dresses the Nines and fetches in particular the citrus yellow colour I reviewed, but has dust and waterproofness for good protection against the elements. Despite the medium build, this is still a huge package, but if you’re making a good compromise between Boombox Might and Breezy Portability, Soundlink Plus Plus will adhere to it.
Premium Protection
Photo: Ryan Waniata
The Sound Plus minimalism is styled, with a sophisticated and powerful powder-coated steel grille, supple touch keys along the rubber topside, and heartfelt checkered nylon handles on the sides for easy transport (or hang).
On the back there are four base radiators and open USB-C port vents. There’s a point to note: Plus is fine to dunk given it IP67 evaluationand that’s floating, but you’ll have to wait for the port to dry before charging. This is even more noteworthy considering that, like Max, Plus is five hours behind charging a 20-hour battery from zero. That said, it didn’t take long to let the orange and white flashes go back to solid white following my laundry sink bus, informing me of the clear and ready port.
Measures 9.1 x 3.94 x 3.4 inches (wxhxd) and weighs over 3 pounds. This is not the most packable speaker, but it’s an open road game. It took me a while to get used to its weight, but it worked well on my first post-unboxing task, a camping trip in the Columbia River Valley. If it appears that there is a risk of bringing a shiny new lemon meringue speaker into a dusty forest, you are not wrong, but I was surprised at how well the speaker cleans up. But you will inevitably attract some marks, and the blue and black at dusk should age better.
Whatever the colour is, I dig into a positive aesthetic. And so did most of the people I showed (though they mostly spoke with great sounds). It feels good to touch, and the quality of both the look and build looks like a step above the rivals of the flack jacket JBL Charge 6 and UE MegaBoom 4. I’m still looking for a hard fall, as Bose won’t survive and is likely to get nicks and dents. The IP68 rating on the Charge 6 theoretically gives you the right to brag of water resistance, but it is dunkable, just like most speakers that all three test.
A solid extra
Photo: Ryan Waniata
SoundLink Plus features may seem a bit harsh at first glance, but it’s enough to avoid envy features here. The Unified Bose App’s compact interface is familiar to anyone using a Bose Headphone, with options such as Bluetooth multipoint, the ability to connect to two devices via 3-band EQ and presets, battery and volume monitoring and more.