Bose SoundLink Mini II Review
Bose has a long history of creating high fidelity audio devices with great build quality and room filling sound. Bose speakers fit a very specific niche in the audio market, providing big sound from a small space. To that end the SoundLink Mini II is no exception. It is one of the newest and smallest members of the Bose portable wireless speaker lineup.
As an owner of the original SoundLink, I had mixed feeling about trying the SoundLink Mini II. The first portable Bluetooth speaker that Bose released was more than twice the size of the Mini II and produced amazing room filling sound but unfortunately it didn’t possess the best Bluetooth receiver. As a result, the sound would frequently cut out if the audio source was more than 6 feet away… or for no reason at all. In order to use it, I had to leave my MP3 player on the table near by. Wireless, yes but not exactly convenient. Since then Bose has come a long way with their wireless technology and it was time for me to try again.
At only 2" tall, 7" wide and 3" deep, this is a pretty small speaker. As I said before, this is less than half the size of it’s big brother, the SoundLink. Weighing in at 1.5 pounds, the Mini II isn’t as light as some of it’s competitors but the superb build quality justifies the extra weight. The outer frame makes this feel very sturdy and solid. Squeeze all you want, this speaker won’t give at all. The front and back grills are a perforated metal giving a strong and unified look across all of it’s surfaces. At it’s base is a rubber footing that ensures the Mini II won’t scratch up anything you put it on. The rubber also gives the speaker grip and prevents any rattling at high volume. This is also true of it’s included docking station.
Though made of a less sexy plastic, the dock is also very well designed. There is no plug or cable to attach the speaker. It simply rests atop the base and four small electrical leads allow the speaker to charge. This is very convenient as you can just pick up the Mini II and go. At only 0.6” tall, the base raises the speaker slightly and almost disappears into the overall design. When docked, you can’t tell the pieces apart.
Both the speaker and the dock have a Micro-USB port for charging. I think it was very smart of Bose to include the charging port on the speaker as well as the base. It allows you to charge the Mini II even without it’s dock. This is a great improvement over the SoundLink and SoundLink Mini, which both used a proprietary charging cable. Now you can use any USB port or battery pack to charge the speaker. A USB cable and wall plug are included in the box, just in case you need them. The speaker also has a dedicated 3.5mm audio jack so you can plug it into a wired audio source.
Across the top of the Mini II’s frame you will find a strip of smooth rubber buttons to control the various features of the unit. Power, volume up and down are all exactly as you would expect. You will also find a dedicated Bluetooth pairing button and a multi-function button. The multi-function button can play, pause, skip tracks and even answer calls when paired with a phone. The Mini II has a built in microphone so calls will ring though the speaker and it can be used for conference calls.
This time around Bose is using the modern Bluetooth 4.2 spec, allowing it to be synced with 8 devices and connected to any 2 at the same time. It will remember the last 2 input sources it was connected to and will automatically reconnect if those devices are in range. Speaking of range I am proud to say that Bose has stepped up their game. The Mini II is rated for 33ft of Bluetooth range, which is pretty standard, but anywhere within that 33ft you will find crystal clear, uninterrupted reception. I’ve got about 80 hours of solid playback under my belt and I’m happy to say that I haven’t had the Mini II cut out on me once.
To pair this speaker with a new audio source, just tap the dedicated Bluetooth button and a voice will prompt you to begin pairing. A blue light will also flash above the button to indicate that is is ready to pair. Simply open your sound source and select the speaker from the list of available devices and you are ready to go. Including NFC would have been a nice bonus for this price point but manual pairing isn’t exactly hard. When you do have two devices connected, the Mini II will play audio from which ever device is currently streaming. In my case that is an Amazon Echo Dot and my iPhone. I play Spotify though the Echo and when a phone call comes in the music pauses and the phone call takes over. Once I hang up the music just resumes with no effort on my part.
To help with all this functionally, Bose has included a simple voice assistant feature. When you first power on the Mini II it will speak in English but the language can be changed. After that initial language selection, the power button will always announce the current battery level and the name(s) of any Bluetooth devices it has connected to. It will even announce the name of the caller when a phone call comes though. These voice indicators make the speaker much easier to use than most of it’s competitors, who use beeps or flashing lights to try and tell you what’s going on.
Bose lists the Mini II’s built in lithium-ion battery at 10 hours of continuous playback, which is plenty of time for a full day of music. In my testing, running for about 3 hours a day, I was able to get a full week of music out of the device before needing to recharge. Recharging the speaker from empty will take about 4 hours so don’t wait to the last minute to charge it before taking it out. You will need a good bit of time to get it back to full.
Now, to the meat and potatoes. How does this little thing sound? The short answer is huge and heavy. I will however elaborate. For that I will turn to my trusty Headphone Testing playlist on Spotify. As always, I listened to the same 2 hours and 44 minutes of tunes that I use on all my reviews. These 36 tracks may not represent the best in musical history but they cover a wide variety of genres and each has a little something special about it that I feel helps show off the capabilities of a pair or speakers.
Ben Howard’s Old Pine does an amazing job of showcasing the crisp and clear notes of the acoustic guitar. Even at a low volume, the sound envelopes you and fills the room, more so than any portable speaker I have tried before. I found myself surrounded by beautifully smooth sound. I closed my eyes and it felt like I was in the room for a live recording.
Alex Clare’s vocals in Relax My Beloved, are very clean and sharp, even with the deep bass line slithering around the sound stage. The bass is loud but never bleeds into the vocals. The rolling bass line in Massive Attack’s Angel is a great example of of the balance in this speaker. The bass hits you in the gut but it doesn’t muddy up the mids or vocals. It isn’t a super deep thumping bass but the Mini II does provide a huge amount of bass for a speaker of it’s size. I would even say it has a bit of a bass bias. It isn’t a reference speaker but it isn’t a pair of Beats either.
One thing that caught me off guard was the noticeable stereo separation in songs like Monster Magnet’s Power Trip. You can feel each instrument in space and clearly tell the left, right and center stage apart. A lot of portable speakers suffer from a very narrow sound stage and many don’t sound like they are stereo speakers at all. Providing a wide sound stage from a small speaker is something that Bose has always been amazing at.
The SoundLink Mini II is a great choice for adding music to any room that doesn’t have a lot of space for a full sized stereo receiver and speakers. It’s portability means that you can move it around with ease. Though the battery isn’t best in class, it will provide plenty of hours of music for a full day of tunes. The speakerphone functionality makes it perfect for a small office where you may need to take a conference call. This is the biggest little speaker I have tried to date and I think it will be on my desk for a long time to come.
You can purchase the Bose SoundLink Mini II on Amazon.
