This is the review of the comparison between two speakers from the two popular brands in the audio market. The comparison here is between the Bose SoundLink Micro and the Sony SRS-XB23. Both of these speakers are retailing for the same price range currently but there are differences in their features which brings the difference in their performance. To know which one is worth buying for the price, go to the detailed review.

Bose SoundLink Micro	Sony SRS-XB23
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Fully waterproof. Ruggedised and portable design. Multiconnect. Massive sound from a palm-sized design. Speakerphone capabilities.	Powerful bass depth and crisp highs in a compact design. Stereo pairing and Party Mode. Very portable and well-built design. Waterproof and dustproof.
CONS	CONS
Average battery life. Doesn’t float. Latency issues. Micro-USB for charging. The Micro-USB port should be USB-C for faster charging times.	Weaker without Extra Bass option on. Doesn’t get very loud. Unclear battery level alerts.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Bose SounLink Micro

The Bose SoundLink Micro is one of the popular speakers from Bose that is retailing for a budget-friendly price range. This speaker is retailing for around a hundred dollars currently on Amazon. At this price range, it offers quite good features such as IPX7 waterproof, built-in microphone, companion app, etc.

Sony SRS-XB23

The Sony SRS-XB23 almost looks like its elder brother XB33. This speaker is retailing for a quite budget-friendly price of around a hundred dollars. This speaker has quite great features at a lower price range. It features an IP67 rating and also, gives you 12 hours of playtime which is really great, and many more.

DESIGN:

Bose SounLink Micro

The speaker looks great and designed with the rubber material covered all around the speaker and it does have a rubber strap behind it that is used to hang the speaker to your bike or bag. Also, the strap in this is tear-resistant as advertised by Bose. The rubber material covered around the speaker not only makes the speaker scratch proof it also makes the speaker waterproof.

On the top of the speaker is where you have got your power button and your Bluetooth button, and in the center of them are where there are your LED lights that indicate battery percentage left in your speaker, and also, there will be your micro USB charging port. On the front of the speaker, there is the Bose logo on the top and below it, there are three buttons. There will be your plus and minus buttons to increase and decrease the volume and the third button is the functional button that plays and pauses your music and also, activates Siri or Google Assistance. 

Sony SRS-XB23

Just like its older brother the XB33, the XB23 got a complete redesign from the ground up. Last year’s XB22 looked a lot like last year’s XB32 and also, they went with more of a cylinder shape. It looks very similar to another speaker in the same category that is the JBL Flip 5. This speaker also has a wrist strap which is actually a much-needed addition, so I can just wrap it around your wrist and carry it as so. That is quite similar to the JBL Flip 5 because they already had a wrist strap, so once again the similarities just keep adding up. But with Sony’s wrist strap they give us a little sliding piece there, so if you want to hook it around something, you can do so.

FEATURES:

Bose SounLink Micro

The speaker comes in a nicely packed box, and inside the box, there will be your speaker itself, then there will be your documentation, manual, and warranty card, and the last thing you get in the box will be your micro USB cable for charging your speaker. On the box, it also claims some of the features such as IPX7 waterproof that means it can be submerged in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The strap that it has is tear-resistant, which means it will not break until you tie it to something that is over-sized. Bose also claims a battery life of up to 6 hours and Bluetooth range up to 30 feet(9cm).

There is also a built-in microphone in this speaker that can be used for taking calls and also, to access your phone’s voice assistance such as Siri or Google assistant. During my test time, the speakerphone worked quite well for both calls and voice assistance. For phone calls, the person on the other side said I sounded like I was talking from distance but pretty good and for voice assistance, it’s good at this price range.

For the pairing process, you need to turn on the speaker first, and then you will see one of the LED lights is blinking it means the speaker is in pairing mode currently. Then go to your mobile phone Bluetooth setting turn on the Bluetooth and select Bose SoundLink Micro from the list, and you are good to go. As far as the Bluetooth connectivity, it was pretty good. As the company claims we go 30 feet away from the connected device and there will be no issue in terms of connection but once you go beyond the limits, you will get the connectivity issues.

Sony SRS-XB23

As far as the button controls on this, we have the power button right there on the top so it’s a one-touch the one-touch operation. Unlike the XB22, we had to hold down the power button to activate the Bluetooth, in this, it has a dedicated Bluetooth button. Right under the Bluetooth button, we have the play/pause button, which does exactly what it sounds you can pause music or play music just by tapping that but it also has another function if you hold it down, you can activate Siri. If you’re streaming music and you get a phone call, you can hit the play/pause button there you can see a little telephone right above it, so you can answer your phone call talk, and listen right through the speaker.

Right under that, you have the plus and minus buttons which act as volume up and volume down but also doubles as track forward and trackback. Right under that one of my favorite changes, Sony did in this is it has put the three buttons from underneath the flap to right there right on the speaker. So, the first one is the battery button, if you want to hear your battery life just press it but if you hold down the battery button it’ll activate stamina mode. Right under that is the party connect button used to be a wireless party chain. So, yes you can pair up to 100 Sony speakers to this XB23 but it has to be the XB23, 33, or 43 unfortunately, it’s not compatible with any older models. Right under that is your stereo pair button that is used to be your old add button and you cannot pair an older speaker to this XB23 it has to be another XB23 only.

Bluetooth technology is so fast, so it’s probably the reason they just stopped including the NFC. I tested out the Bluetooth connectivity on this, I basically walked about 20 feet from the speaker with my phone still sounded perfect. So, it looks like the latency with that Bluetooth 5.0, it’s pretty spot-on. This speaker has an app called, the Sony Music Center app. So, when we open it we have my library where all your store music on your phone would be, there’s a music app, and then you have Spotify. when you go to the settings, you have the sound settings there. So, if you click the sound button right there, you can see we have clear Audio plus and extra bass mode. The XB22 didn’t have clear Audio plus but it did have live mode and extra bass mode. Then, when we go to sound effects there in the settings, you can just see stamina or extra bass. Then we have the three-channel equalizer right there on the settings, so we have our bass, mids, and treble, so we can adjust our three-channel equalizer here.

SOUND QUALITY:

Bose SounLink Micro

 As far as the sound quality of this speaker is really good at this price range and it gets much loud than I expected for its size. It sounds crystal clear and the bass is punch and it’s overwhelming at all. But when I hit the 2/3 volume or higher, some of that bass gets really muddy and almost disappears, and especially, if you’re listening to any kind of rock music, when you hear like some hi-hat cymbals when they’re open that’s when that buzzing and that weird sound gets just awful. 

Sony SRS-XB23

Even though the addition of the side passive radiators makes that bass a little more clear, it almost sounds like it has too much power for its own good, where it’s trying to push out that clear sound but it just can’t handle it. With certain hip-hop songs, the sound and the voice came through crystal clear, and with other songs the voice sounded so distorted, it sounded terrible. As far as the rock songs, with some songs the drums in the guitar sounded crystal clear but then when the guitars got too heavy, it just sounded super distorted. But with some songs, the mids and the treble sounded very clear.

WHICH ONE IS WORTH BUYING?

In my opinion, the Sony SRS-XB23 is worth buying than the Bose SoundLink Micro because it has better battery life than the SoundLink Micro, and the sound quality of the XB23 is much better than the SoundLink Micro. But if you want, a compact speaker, then you can go for the Bose SoundLink Micro.

Expert Reviews of Bose SoundLink Micro:

By Expert Reviews
If you told me this speaker was £40, I’d excuse its poor sound for its multifunctional voice-assistant button and…

By cnet
The well-built and travel-friendly Bose SoundLink Micro is arguably the best-sounding speaker in its tiny size class.

By Sound Guys
If you’re knee-deep in the Bose ecosystem and want a travel-friendly speaker that can withstand nearly anything, the SoundLink Micro is a great addition…

By Pocket-lint
As small-scale Bluetooth speakers go, the Bose SoundLink Micro brings mega sound and volume…

By Craving Tech
Bose SoundLink Micro is a compact and lightweight portable speaker with the power to deliver sound, perfect for outdoor adventures…

Expert Reviews of Sony SRS-XB23:

By PCMag
Sony’s $100 SRS-XB23 speaker delivers solid audio for its size and price in an outdoor-friendly, waterproof design.

By Tech Radar
The entry-level Sony SRS-XB23 boasts a new design that moves the passive radiators to the top and bottom of the speaker…

By rtings.com
The Sony XB23 is decent for outdoor use. It has a great build quality with an IP67 rating for dust and water resistance, although…

By techguide.com.au
The Sony Extra Bass XB23 ticks all the boxes for durability, design, value, and audio quality and should be the first thing in your bag…