Two of the best new take-anywhere speakers

Apple’s Beats by Dre audio brand has recently revived one of its most iconic devices, the Pill Bluetooth speaker. The new entry comes just as Ultimate Ears, the audio brand owned by Logitech, has new versions of its popular speakers out in time for the US summer. So, how do these speakers compare?

The market for Bluetooth speakers is obviously huge and broad, with everything from tiny models that clip to your bike handlebars to huge boomboxes to ultra-premium audiophile offerings. But both of these speakers belong to the mid-range go-anywhere category of devices, which need to balance good sound with great durability. And both do that very well for around the same price and with a few connectivity extras thrown in, but each clearly has its own strengths.

The original 2012 Beats Pill and the 2015 Pill Plus were very popular, but the landscape has shifted so much that a revival came as something of a surprise. Fortunately, the new Pill is a thoroughly modernised device that keeps the iconic shape but doesn’t feel like a relic.

As soon as I started using it, I was very impressed with the sound. It’s loud and a bit aggressive, but still clear and with deep and very well-defined bass. The mids are nice and forward, so fast or heavy music with lyrics come through great, and it’s just overall dynamic and energetic. It’s the kind of thing an audiophile might consider to be a bit off-balance, and obviously for close listening or more complicated tracks I’d prefer a pair of dedicated bookshelf speakers, but for most situations where you’re busting out a Bluetooth speaker, I think this sounds brilliant given the $250 price tag.

The next thing I was surprised by was how platform-agnostic the speaker is, despite essentially having been made by Apple. I set it up and used it on both an iPhone and an Android, and found as close to parity as you’re going to get. It supports fast pairing on both so you don’t have to bother with Bluetooth settings. It supports Find My (or Find My Device) on both in case you lose it. And you can take calls through the speaker using either kind of phone. When using an iPhone the little Bluetooth speaker icon in your settings does become a Beats logo, which is cute, but there’s not really any Apple-specific advantage.

I remember a selling point for the Pill Plus being that you could charge your iPhone using the Lightning port on the back. The new Pill has USB-C of course, but it will still charge your phone if you plug it in. And what’s more, it will actually receive audio over USB, giving it the ability to play wired high-resolution lossless sound from any device that can send it. That includes iPhones and Androids, but also laptops and many other devices.

Physically it’s a solid-feeling device with an IP67 rating, meaning water and dust won’t get in, although the metal mesh cover feels like something that will get dented with its first really good drop. It comes with a removable lanyard should you want to swing it from a backpack or just make sure it doesn’t tumble off the party table. One grumble I have about the design is the buttons, which are practically invisible and a bit too complicated. When turning the device off requires a three-second push, and pushing that same button for shorter or longer than three seconds activates different functions, you should have added more buttons. Ditto for triple-pressing a button to go back a track.

All up this isn’t the flashiest or most feature-packed Bluetooth speaker, but it looks and sounds good enough for a party or to go on your desk and get more oomph out of your laptop audio. And it lasts a full 24 hours on a charge.