In an age of smart speakers, sometimes Bluetooth is still king

A JBL Flip 6 Bluetooth speaker sitting on wet sand by the ocean.

Credit: Zak Khan / Android Authority

There can be a natural gravity towards smart speakers if you’re shopping for home audio in 2022. Voice and casting controls are inherently useful — even Sonos has its own voice assistant, now — and companies like Amazon and Google offer low-cost speakers that punch above their weight to get you in the door of their smart home ecosystems. Yes, plenty of audiophile speakers still omit smart functions, but even prestige labels like Bang & Olufsen are implementing tech such as AirPlay and Google Cast.

There are, however, drawbacks to smart speakers, and sometimes, a straightforward Bluetooth speaker may be the better option. Here’s why.

LATEST ARTICLE

See Our Latest

Blog Posts

admin June 24th, 2026

The foundation for an agentic control plane in life sciences includes four levels of capabilities working together: Infrastructure provides the […]

admin June 24th, 2026

How teams are building on Snowflake Postgres The Snowflake Online Feature Store is just one example. Companies across the globe […]

admin June 24th, 2026

Before the spark In early 2025, Snowflake’s marketing organization probably looked pretty similar to its peers in the tech space […]