I tested Bose’s smallest Bluetooth speaker and although I enjoyed its balanced audio, its high price feels hard to justify

22 Mar 2026, 13:30 · TechRadar

TechRadar Verdict

The Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 is a small Bluetooth speaker that performs decently, overall. It offers well-balanced sound, a practical yet stylish design, and impressive protection against the elements. It does have some sonic limitations — largely due to its limited confines, and it could have a more expansive feature-set, but it's the speakers' steep asking price that really holds it back in the end.

Pros

+Compact and practical, yet stylish
+Clear, clean sound overall
+Great waterproofing

Cons

-Loses the value for money war
-Some sonic limitations due to small size
-No microphone; limited EQ options

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Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2: review

The Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 is the sequel to the audio specialist’s 2017-issue mini Bluetooth speaker. And according to Bose, this palm-sized follow-up brings a fair few enhancements to the table: ‘improved audio performance’, ‘enhanced features’, and ‘extended battery life’. But is it actually worth buying? Here are my thoughts after several weeks of testing.

First of all, it has to be said that the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 is a significant improvement over its predecessor — as you’d probably hope given that they were released eight years apart. Now, you get USB-C charging, and up to 12 hours of battery life, which is nothing special, but comparable to some similar-sized rivals from JBL and Ultimate Ears.

On top of that, its new and improved fabric strap is fantastic — it’s so easy to sling around shower heads, bikes, bags… you name it. Pair that with a still-great IP67 dust and waterproof rating — which enables the SoundLink Micro Gen 2 to survive being dunked under a meter of water for 30 minutes — and you’ve got a speaker that can go literally anywhere with you. Combine this with its small size and lightness of build, and Bose’s bijou audio companion is more practical than just about any model out there — even those listed in our best Bluetooth speakers guide.

Something else that has been improved is audio quality. And in fairness, the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 is a pretty solid-sounding model given its small size — but that’s not to say it’s perfect.

(Image credit: Future)

Bose has gone for a relatively balanced sound profile on the SoundLink Gen 2. Bass is pretty punchy, but never boomy or overstated. Mids are clean, but not the sole star. And treble is energetic, but not tinny — unless you’re listening at top volumes, but that’s something I’ll get onto later.

Anyway, when listening to Black Eye by Allie X, I was impressed by the tonality of vocals, and the way that the speaker replicated their almost breathy quality. The attack of violins in the intro wasn’t the most dynamic I’d heard, but it was certainly clean and distortion-free at mid volume levels. And after bumping bass up by a level on the Bose app, the pumping low end came through with decent impact too. Was I wowed by excellent instrument separation, pounding low-end performance, and top-tier detailing? No. But that’s to be expected on a speaker this small.

While we’re on this topic, it’s worth noting that the Bose SoundLink Micro Gen 2 has a fair few sonic limitations, as a direct result of its compact form. You won’t get the bass thump that larger models — like the Bose SoundLink Plus, or even the Bose SoundLink Flex Gen 2 — can muster. And if you push volume all the way to the maximum, you’re going to get pretty thin-sounding audio, with very noticeable compression and slightly shrill treble. But in this model’s defense, this is fairly standard for mini Bluetooth speakers — trust me, I’ve tested tons of them!

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