Like the Home Speaker 300 and 500 models, the Portable Home Speaker offers 360-degree sound, meaning that you can place it anywhere in the room and still hear the sound clearly.
Though the audio quality doesn't quite stand up to the 300 and 500 models, it definitely beats that of the Revolve+, giving you a really full, well-balanced sound. And when compared to its biggest rival, the Sonos Move, it certainly proves itself a force to be reckoned with.
While the Sonos Move may be slightly more powerful and punchier on the bass, there isn't actually a huge amount of difference sound-wise. This is quite surprising given that the Portable Home Speaker is notably smaller than the Move.
Similar to the Move too, the Portable Home Speaker can be used with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, giving you the flexibility to access your music wherever you are.
As with many of Bose's speakers, the Portable Home Speaker is able to be integrated into a system with other speakers that use the Bose Music App. This makes it great both as a home speaker and as a portable one.
The Portable Home Speaker also connects to an array of popular music services like Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer and AirPlay 2, making it pretty simple to play your favourite tunes. Unfortunately, it doesn't have aux connectivity, which will likely disappoint some users.
App
As will all Bose products, to get your Portable Home Speaker set up, you will need to download an app. In this case, it's the free Bose Music App which comes complete with step-by-step instructions on how to set up your speaker and connect to your Wi-Fi and streaming services.
Despite what should have been a simple set-up though, I initially had a lot of difficulty getting the virtual assistant set up. After countless error messages, I actually gave up and spent the first few weeks using the speaker with Bluetooth enabled, which was incredibly frustrating.

Whether or not this was a bug is still unclear, but after the next app update rolled out, I removed the speaker from the app, set the whole thing up again and finally managed to get it to connect.
Once the app is properly set up though, it is very simple to use and offers convenient features like music browsing and easy speaker grouping.
Smart home
Possibly one of the most convenient things about the Bose Portable Home Speaker is the option to choose your virtual assistant. Offering both Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, you can easily connect the speaker to any device to get the music playing.
In addition to streaming music, your assistant can do all the usual things including giving you news and weather updates and setting timers and reminders, making it a great multi-use product.
Admittedly, I only tested the speaker with the Google Assistant, but found the experience to be fairly painless once I finally got it working.
Unlike with some smart home devices, the in-built microphones were able to pick up my voice quite easily from anywhere in the room, even when I had music playing. And, while I wouldn't expect much else from a speaker worth $500, it is still nice to know that it does its job efficiently.
Battery
Offering 12 hours of play from a single charge, this Bose speaker gives you a decidedly decent run for a portable model, especially when compared to the 10 hours of play that you get from the Sonos Move. Of course, like all portable speakers, this timeframe is largely dependent on how you use it (I've personally found that it's closer to 10-11 hours).
In terms of charging, the speaker comes complete with a USB-C cable. However, the more convenient option of using a charging cradle comes at an additional cost of $39.95, which is a little disappointing given the already expensive price point of the speaker.