Tired of product names that don’t exactly say what a product is? It seems like Bose is, too, and is getting a little more direct in what it calls products, like with a new wireless speaker.
When you’re buying technology, it’s not unusual to feel like product marketing departments are having a bit of a lend of you.
While model names can be descriptive, they can also be led by particularly long model names filled with sequences of numbers and letters that only mean things to people working at the company and the reviewers forced to memorise. This not only makes for a confusing situation, but a less direct one, and model names like this may not make as much sense in the real world.
We’re not sure if this is the particular angle we’re seeing from Bose, but certainly in its latest portable speaker range, it is definitely being more direct.
Rather than call its new speakers the SoundLink Mini 2 or the SoundLink 3 and expect customers to know what a “soundlink” is, the company is being a little more obvious in its approach.
Next week, it’s launching the “Portable Home Speaker”, a product that seems to say what it does from the name: it’s portable, and it’s a home speaker.
In fact, the Bose Portable Home Speaker is a little more than just another Bluetooth speaker, launching with WiFi support, as well.
Weighing just over a kilogram (1.04kg), the Bose Portable Home Speaker works as both a Bluetooth speaker for your phone to connect to outside of your WiFi network, while back at home, can connect to your wireless network and use an app or voice system to control it.
On the voice side of things, Bose has built a new voice system to work with both Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant to control playback, meaning you can trigger music, news, weather, and control smart devices around the home when you’re on WiFi. App control is also a possibility, and it will even play nicely with the Spotify app, meaning if you use Spotify Premium, you can control the speaker from the Spotify app.
Inside the speaker, there are three passive radiators and a high excursion subwoofer driver, coming together at a deflector made by Bose to send the audio three ways. If that reads like the sort of jargon the new name was meant to break apart, think of it as the technology made to deliver sound in 360 degrees, catering for the highs, mids, and lows music typically offers.
Bose also says it includes a technology used to make corrections to sound rendition in real time as the speaker brings together everything from the left and right channels and packs it together.
There’s also a slight water resistance rating of IPX4, meaning it will survive the odd spot of rain or spill, and can be charged through USB Type C, unless you opt for a charging cradle for $39.95.
And that brings us to the price, because at $499.95, the Bose Portable Home Speaker isn’t necessarily a cheap model, but it is offering sound at home and about.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen a product like this offered, and seems to be going up against the upcoming Sonos Move, with a similar price point (just below it, actually) and similar features. Like the Sonos multiroom experience, other Bose smart speakers can be linked up together in much the same way, creating sound across a home, while two Bose Portable Home Speakers can be linked together for stereo sound, as well.
You’ll find the $499.95 Bose Portable Home Speaker in stores from September 26.
