Park life: Portable speaker systems to see you through summer

 

Built from a rock-solid combination of extruded aluminium and a tough plastic polymer, this speaker is the perfect outdoor companion. As you’d expect from Bang & Olufsen, the sound is silky smooth and designed to spread evenly around the device.

 

 

This excellently crafted unit could well be the best pound-for-pound portable speaker on the market. It’s lightweight, handsome and packs a real sonic punch. If you’re competing with noisy neighbours, this bad boy will happily drown them all out. It connects via Bluetooth and the battery will last an unbelievable 18 hours.

 

 

If you’re a sound quality perfectionist but can’t stretch to £300, Bose is an excellent compromise. This compact speaker pairs easily with your smartphone, iPad or other Bluetooth device and delivers the best dynamic range of any portable speaker system. You can also get it in a range of snazzy colours including pink, green, orange and blue. bose.co.uk

 

 

With meaty sound, faultless dynamic range, excellent projection and a stylish finish, Sony’s SRS-X5 almost has it all. If only the battery life was longer than the disappointing eight hours. Still, the hefty sound means this is still one of the best value speakers out there.

 

 

You can’t really expect much from a portable speaker that costs less than £100, and yet the Pure Voca delivers in spades. It’s solid, the sound is punchy and it’s light enough to chuck in a rucksack. Perfect.

 

 

Crafted from lightweight aluminium in a range of colours and patterns, the Jawbone Mini Jambox produces surprisingly loud and basey music for its compact size (and its compact price tag). You’ll get 10 hours of playback on a single charge, making it perfect for a day in the park. There’s also an Android and iOS app and you can stream directly from Spotify.

 

 

Forget flashy branding and sleek visuals, Cambridge Audio focuses on one thing and one thing only: sound quality. The Go offers 18 hours of clear, deep, room-filling sound. The 2 x 2 inch woofers mean there’s clarity at every range. Not bad for a speaker significantly cheaper than most of its competitors.

 

 

After a long winter, beer and music in the park is the ideal medicine. Beats has got the music side of things covered with the Pill, the orb-shaped portable speaker system that delivers on bass. It may not have the crispest quality, but the volume, given its size (under 8 inches long) is phenomenal.