Sound and battery: 20 portable Bluetooth speakers

Braven 705

The Braven 705 is packed with features, which is impressive for a speaker in the sub-£100 bracket. There's no support for NFC, but there is a speakerphone, 12 hour battery life, the ability to charge your smartphone from its battery, and you can pair two of them for stereo output.

If that's not enough, it can also act as a Bluetooth receiver for other audio kit, to which you connect it via a 3.5mm output jack. The rubberised casing is water resistant to IPX5, and its sockets are hidden behind a sealed rubber end cap.

It's remarkably loud for such a small speaker too, though at high volume it didn't shine too well with the rock track test, which sounded harsh. Detail in acoustic tracks, however, was good. Having only one Braven 705 on loan, it wasn't possible to try out stereo pairing on two of these speakers.

The Braven 705 is the most flexible speaker on test, thanks to its ability to act as wireless receiver, and that along with its price, battery life and water resistance makes it worthy of consideration.

Cambridge Audio GO

British hi-fi manufacturer Cambridge Audio hasn't exactly gone overboard on the aesthetics of the GO. It's functional, and fans of sleek white lines will love it. But alongside the likes of the Braven 705 and the SoundLink Colour, it looks a little… er, dull.

Its plastic chassis doesn't feel particularly robust either; this is a speaker clearly designed to be kept at home, rather than taken on the road. The exposed radiator on the rear, which moves when you inadvertently touch it while picking the speaker up, is testament to that.

The 18-hour battery life is almost as good as the Beoplay A2, and it can charge your smartphone from its USB socket. You can pair using NFC, but there's no speakerphone. The only other feature is an aux input jack.

Big booming rock tracks fared very well through the GO, as did quieter acoustic songs, but our classical test track, Holst's Jupiter, as played by the LSO, sounded squashed, mushy even, which was disappointing. There's not a great deal wrong with the Cambridge Audio GO, but it's up against some stiff competition, and at this price, I can't recommend it on the basis of either audio quality or features.