Bluetooth speakers in 2024: the 5 biggest launches so far and what’s coming next
The finest new Bluetooth speakers and the ones en route
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The market for thebest Bluetooth speakersis incredibly crowded, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be interesting. As we’ll discover, 2024 has been a good year so far for people who like their speakers to be really weird, really loud, or both.
As you can see below, some of our previous favorites have been updated this year. TheSonos Roam 2launch was overshadowed a bit by the launch ofSonos’s first headphones, theSonos Ace, and by thecontroversyover the dramatic changes to the Sonos app. But our first impressions of the new speaker are very positive. It’s not dramatically different but it’s easier to connect over Bluetooth and it’s had a bit of a redesign, too.
We’ve also seen updates from JBL, which updated theJBL Clipand the JBL Go and also turbo-charged its Extreme speaker. There was also one surprising release this summer: a new Beats Pill speaker fromApple.
Before its rather blatant Instagram product placement began in May we wouldn’t have put money on a new Pill this year: the last model was discontinued in 2022 and hadn’t been updated since 2015, so Beats Bluetooth speakers didn’t appear to be an Apple priority. It’s nice to be proved wrong, and to see not just a spec bump but a price cut, too.
Here are all of the big Bluetooth speaker launches so far in 2024 – and the ones that may also be worth waiting for in the months to come…
Bluetooth speakers in 2024: what have been this year’s biggest launches so far?
Unveiled in January, theSamsung Music Frameis by far the strangest Bluetooth speaker of the year so far – and likely to retain its crown for the rest of the year, too.
It’s a similar idea to theIKEA and Sonos Symfonisk Picture Frame, but instead of being a wireless speaker that looks like a picture, it’s an actual picture frame. It can be integrated with your home cinema setup or used as a stand-alone Bluetooth or Wi-Fi speaker, and it boasts twin woofers, tweeters and mid-range drivers. It’s a bit more expensive than your average picture frame, however: it’s $399 / £499 / AU$499.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
The similarly pricey ($399 / £399 / AU$599) but less strangeBose SoundLink Max(below), which we reviewed just this month, is one of our favorite speakers of the year so far thanks to its seriously powerful sound. It’s the biggest, baddest member of the SoundLink family and it’s particularly impressive at the low end. But that doesn’t mean it’s unsubtle: it’s an excellent-sounding speaker.
Another interesting model launched just in time for summer is the newUltimate Ears Everboom, and it’s another monster: this 360-degree speaker (meaning it blasts sound outwards evenly in every direction) can reach maximum volumes of around 89dB. And you can boost it further with Outdoor Boost, which emphasises the most audible frequencies and ups the volume to 91dB. Like the Bose it doesn’t sacrifice sound quality for sheer sonic power, but it’s a little more affordable at $249 / £249 / AU$349.
It feels like all of the big manufacturers have been focused on outdoor speakers this year, and JBL is no exception: theJBL Extreme 4, which we reviewed last month, is another great-sounding and rather loud outdoor speaker with a fairly hefty price tag: it’s $379 / £329 / AU$499. It’s also one of the first speakers to include something we’ll probably be heartily sick of hearing about from other firms by the end of this year: AI. JBL says its AI algorithm predicts speaker movement and response and tweaks the sound accordingly to make it “better and more powerful.”
Last but not least, Apple has snuck into our round-up at the very last minute: the newBeats Pillspeaker (above) is the first new Beats speaker in nearly a decade and only launched the same week we’re writing this.
It looks like previous models but brings Bluetooth 5.3, USB-C and up to 24 hours of battery life, double that of the previous model. And in a rare example of Apple kit coming down in price, at $149 / £149 / AU$ tbc, it’s $50 cheaper than its predecessor, too.
Bluetooth speakers in 2024: what speakers are worth getting excited about later this year?
We’d hoped to see the JBL Flip 7 earlier this year but it didn’t appear among the firm’s other speaker updates. We’re now approaching three years since theJBL Flip 6appeared and we’re hoping to see a new version in the latter half of 2024 that will addAuracast, the mass-connection tech that JBL has added to several of its other speakers. Faster charging would be nice to have, too.
Auracast isn’t the only significant upgrade that should be coming to more Bluetooth speakers later this year. The latest aptX codecs such as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless deliver significantly better audio quality over Bluetooth connections.
aptX Adaptive is starting to appear in some premium models, such as the second generation of theB&O Beosound A1, the newly launched Bose SoundLink Max and the Dali Katch G2. However, while aptX Adaptive is increasingly common in some of thebest Bluetooth headphonesit’s still a rather rare sight, or rather sound, in the affordable Bluetooth speaker market.
aptX Adaptive could mean more traditional speakers getting the Bluetooth treatment too. So far that’s largely been limited to premium models such as the $3K JBL 4329P Studio Monitors and desktop speakers such asRuark’s MR1 Mk2, but in May 2024 Fiio introduced new bookshelf speakers with aptX Adaptive streaming over Bluetooth for £319 / €379 / $349 per pair.
You might also like…
Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir,Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock bandUnquiet Mind.
The most mind-blowing portable speaker of 2024 is now cheaper, and finally coming to the UK too
JBL Authentics 200 review: a punchy smart speaker with vintage style
Another reason to avoid edge-lit 4K TVs: they may fail faster than others, according to this report
