Bose SoundLink Home review: not quite a home run

It's not easy standing out in the speaker world right now; everyone and their nan seems to make a portable speaker, and while the best Bluetooth speakers hold up to sustained use amazingly, they're just a few of the thousands that you could opt for once you start to do some research into the market.

Bose has long been one of the most trustworthy brands in the game, and its SoundLink line of speakers has a whole heap of different sizes on offer. After testing the SoundLink Plus, I've now used the SoundLink Home for many weeks too, and it makes a very similar case – albeit with a different aesthetic and a weaker features offering.

Price & Availability

The Bose SoundLink Home is now available in most regions, after launching in late September (although it's been available in the US since 2024). The speaker is priced at £219.95 / $229.

That's quite a chunky price for a speaker of this sort, and it's a marker of the fact that Bose isn't trying to compete with budget speaker-makers – this is aimed at a premium slice of the market.

Design & Features

The SoundLink Home is a pretty classy bit of desktop design – while this is a portable speaker in many of the ways that count, it's pretty clear both from how it's made and indeed its name that it's aimed at home use. This is a Bluetooth speaker that will likely live on a shelf, countertop, desk or some other surface in your home, but which can moved around easily.

The speaker sits on a sort of rail that has a rubber bottom to anchor it. Above this is a small gap, and then the main body of the speaker. This is covered in a cloth mesh on the front, with one big depression where the main driver resides, while the back is similar, with a long divot that makes it easier to pick the speaker up.

The top of the speaker houses some button controls, including a power button, pairing button, volume keys, and a multifunction button that can pause tracks, summon voice control for the built-in microphone and more. You can, with some funky button presses, also pair the speaker to another SoundLink Home if you have one.

One tiny gripe here is that those buttons take quite a bit of pressure to actually actuate – that might sound minute, and it is, but tactility matters on a device like this.

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Crucially, though, the SoundLink Home is all made of really nice materials, with metal and fabric being the two most prominent, making for a speaker that feels extremely solid in the hand and which looks great in situ.

It's available in black, cream and silver, and I do think it seems really mature compared to many of the more rugged-looking options on the market right now.

That said, this comes with a huge tradeoff – Bose doesn't describe the SoundLink Home as having any water- or dust-resistance, which means it basically shouldn't ever leave your home and isn't great for kitchen use if you're a splashy washer-upper. That's a true shame, and perhaps a surprise at this price.

Battery life is rated at 9 hours on a charge, something that I found held up to use, and a USB-C port on one side is the charging method. This can also be an audio input, though, which could be handy in a pinch.

I'll say that 9 hours is pretty much the bare minimum I'd expect from a speaker of this size, at this price – and I'd really rather it got at least 12 hours or more.

Finally, the Bluetooth version on hand here is 5.3, which means you're not likely to miss out on any major connectivity features going forward.

Sound & Performance

With no water resistance and battery life that can only be called "fine", a lot rides on the SoundLink Home's sound performance, which is thankfully very solid. Bose has carved out a reputation for noise-cancelling excellence in the world of headphones, but in portable speakers that crutch doesn't exist.

Here, then, it's all about neutrality and balance, which is where it errs in sound terms – music you know really well won't sound blown out or over-bassy through the SoundLink Home, instead hitting pretty much all the right notes.

It's also got a decent amount of delicacy when needed, and I've been able to pick out details in tracks I know inside and out (like Dire Straits' Money for Nothing, which has the layers I need it to). That said, this isn't the sort of sound quality to blow your socks off, and I think it arguably needs to be given the shortcomings in other areas.

It's also worth saying that this is a very directional speaker – it has a clear front and back, and is aimed at sitting on a shelf facing into the room. Place it on a table in the middle and you'll find its sound is completely different, depending on where you sit or stand, which isn't a flaw as much as it is a tasting note.

Bose SoundLink Home review: Verdict

I've had a perfectly solid time with the Bose SoundLink Home, but that doesn't mean I can ignore some weird flaws in its design. To have a portable speaker of this sort without any water resistance at all in 2025 is baffling in my view, and for its portability to cap out at 9 hours of battery also simply doesn't impress me much.

The speaker looks really classy, I'll give it that, and I'd rather look at it than the SoundLink Plus I tested before it, but that chunkier speaker is better in every conceivable way and is barely any more cash. Before you even think about the non-Bose competition, that leaves the SoundLink Plus looking a little like an also-ran, from here.

Also consider

As I've mentioned, those who know they really like how Bose tunes a speaker should probably save up or rummage around to find the extra cash and get the SoundLink Plus, which is more useful and practical in every way.

If you're more brand-agnostic, I think the obvious comparative choice is actually the B&O Beoplay A1 V3, which is pricier but sounds phenomenal and, more importantly, has an even more impressive design that should look classy in tasteful home setups.