YOU CAN USE most nice speakers on your patio— if you have outlets in reach—but can you trust them around day-drinking parents or sticky-fingered children who might bump them into a pool or sandbox?
Rest easier with a portable Bluetooth speaker designed to survive water, sand and dirt. In the past, sound quality and portability were often mutually exclusive. More recently, manufacturers have found ways to outfit still-totable shapes with beefier sonic components.
Here, five that are sealed well enough against water and grime to sing through any outdoor listening scenario this summer.
THE EXPENDABLE
At 3 inches square and about the weight of a large lemon, the IKEA Vappeby won’t blow you away with sound. But it’s much punchier than it looks and boasts a battery that can last up to 80 hours. The plastic shell has one button that handles power, pairing and pausing depending on how you press it (the moves are surprisingly well-illustrated in the manual). Get two, knowing that if you lose one, you’re only out the cost of a couple of tubes of sunscreen. $15, Ikea.com
THE PHONE PICK-ME-UP
The Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is a twofer: a capable speaker with a 12-hour runtime that can recharge your phone through USB-C. The size of a Klondike bar, the unit has buttons on its face that let you dictate the action, including a multifunction control for playback, taking calls via the speaker’s microphone or summoning your smartphone’s voice assistant. The accompanying app’s equalizer lets you dial in the sound’s vibrancy, and two speakers can tether together for stereo mode. $60, Tribit.com
THE QUICK CHARGER
The sonic diffuser inside the pentagon-shaped Sony XE200 ensures music comes out evenly from its stacked speakers. The sound profile is pleasantly bass-forward out of the box. If you want it to rumble even harder, the app can take you there. While the 16 hours of play time should last you through even the longest cookout, engineers made this speaker for the chronically forgetful. Just 10 minutes plugged into the wall charges up more than an hour of extra power. $130, Electronics.Sony.com
THE SHOWOFF
The JBL Pulse 5 is tuned well even without the help of its companion app, but you’ll need a phone to manage its flashiest feature: customizable lights. Through 12 hours of power, the display can range from a subtle orange campfire glow to neon hues pulsing with the beat to bright white strobing flashes. (You can turn off the lights via a physical button.) Bonus: If any friends have JBL speakers, you can connect them all together with Party Mode. Just be sure to invite the neighbors. $250, JBL.com
THE SYMPHONIC
The toaster-oven-size Get Together 2 XL lives up to its name with yard-filling vibrations. The bamboo front houses a pair of boisterous boomers that can keep the party going for up to 20 hours on a single charge, with a USB port that can juice up a phone. While it is a little less water-resistant than other speakers (and at 12 ½ pounds, a bit heavy), it will survive taking a water balloon on the chin, if not a dip in the deep end. $400, TheHouseOfMarley.com
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