Two of the best new portable speakers

Apple’s Beats by Dre audio brand recently relaunched one of its most iconic devices, the Pill Bluetooth speaker. The new product launch comes just as Logitech’s audio brand Ultimate Ears is launching new versions of its popular speakers for the summer in the US. So, how do these speakers compare?

The Bluetooth speaker market is obviously huge and broad, ranging from small speakers that clip to the handlebars of a bike to large speakers and ultra-high-end audiophile products. But both of these speakers are mid-range portable devices that need to balance good sound quality with excellent durability. Both speakers do this well at roughly the same price and with some extra connectivity features, but they clearly have their own advantages.

The Beats Pill, which launched in 2012, and the Pill Plus, which launched in 2015, were very popular, but the market landscape has changed so much that their return is a bit surprising. Fortunately, the new Pill is a thoroughly modern device that retains the iconic shape without feeling like a relic.

I just started using it and I’m already impressed with how it sounds. It’s loud and a little aggressive, but still clear, and the bass is deep and very articulate. The midrange is nice and forward, so fast-paced or heavy metal music with lyrics sounds great, and there’s a lot of liveliness and energy overall. Audiophiles might consider it a little unbalanced, and obviously for close listening or more complex tracks I’d prefer a pair of dedicated bookshelf speakers, but for most situations where you’re using a Bluetooth speaker, I think this speaker sounds great considering the $250 price tag.

The next thing that surprised me was that, despite being essentially made by Apple, this speaker is platform-agnostic. I set it up and used it on both an iPhone and an Android and found them to be pretty close. It supports Quick Pairing on both, so you don’t have to worry about Bluetooth settings. It supports Find My (or Find My Device) on both, in case you lose it. You can take calls through the speaker with either phone. When using an iPhone, the little Bluetooth speaker icon in the settings turns into a Beats logo, which is cute, but doesn’t really have any Apple-specific benefits.

I remember one of the selling points of the Pill Plus was that you could charge your iPhone using the Lightning port on the back. The new Pill has a USB-C port, of course, but it will still charge your phone as long as it’s plugged into a power source. What’s more, it can actually receive audio over USB, making it capable of playing wired high-resolution lossless audio from any device that can send audio. That includes iPhones and Androids, but also laptops and many other devices.

From the outside, it’s a rugged device with an IP67 rating, which means water and dust won’t get in, although the metal mesh feels like something that would dent if it was dropped for the first time. It comes with a detachable lanyard if you want to hang it from a backpack, or just want to make sure it doesn’t fall off a party table. My one gripe with the design is the buttons, which are barely visible and a little too complicated. You need to press for three seconds when turning the device off, and pressing the same button for shorter or longer than three seconds activates different functions, which you should add more. Similarly, triple-pressing the button goes back to the previous track.

Overall, this isn’t the flashiest or most feature-rich Bluetooth speaker, but it looks and sounds good enough to take to a party or keep on your desk to liven up your laptop’s audio. And it lasts for 24 hours on a charge.