Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker Review — How Does It Compare to Sonos?
Bose is no stranger to wireless speakers, but the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker arrives with a different intent than the company’s previous models. Part of the same Lifestyle Collection as the Ultra Soundbar and Ultra Subwoofer, it’s not only conceived as a starting point for something bigger — a speaker you build a surround system around — but there’s a focus on design.
At £299.95, it’s the same price as the latest portable Sonos Play (if you’re in the habit of comparing Sonos vs Bose), nestling between the Sonos Era 100, which is £100 cheaper than both, and the Sonos Era 300, which is more expensive at £449. The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker, therefore, very much positions itself as a premium smart speaker designed for home use.
I had the Black model in for review, but this speaker is also available in White Smoke and a limited-edition Driftwood Sand. The Driftwood Sand offers pale, earthier tones over a solid natural oak base, and while it’s an extra £50, it’s the one I’d recommend for those really looking to blend their hi-fi with their décor. Still, the standard two do the job rather beautifully, too, but are they worth the £300 price point?
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Lifestyle Ultra Speaker
First Impressions
(Image credit: Future / Britta O’Boyle)
Unpack this smart speaker from Bose’s new Lifestyle collection and the first thing you appreciate is its build quality. Its rounded cabinet has a reassuring solidity — not heavy, but substantial enough to (somewhat) justify its price tag from the get-go. The knit fabric wrap is soft and tightly woven, floating in front of the main body; the touch-sensitive controls on top are satisfying to use; and there are no hollow panels or obvious joins you might occasionally spot on cheaper smart speakers.
At 184 x 121 x 167mm, it’s smaller than I expected from online photos, but that allows it to slot into almost any room in the home, from a kitchen counter or bedside table, to a home office desk or a sideboard in the living room, and it looks good in all of them. The White Smoke version, which is more of a warm light grey, would be my preference of the two standard colours, but the black earns its place on display too. Like the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar, this is a speaker you’ll be happy to leave out rather than tuck it into a cupboard out of sight, which is lucky, really, as out in the open is exactly where it performs best.
Features
(Image credit: Future / Britta O’Boyle)
The Lifestyle Ultra Speaker features a three-driver array inside its compact body. A 3-inch main driver and a 1-inch tweeter handle the bulk of the frequency range, and then there’s the element that differentiates this speaker from its rivals: a 1.5-inch upfiring driver, with its positioning clearly visible from the grille on top.
Bose combines this with TrueSpatial processing — a proprietary algorithm that splits the audio signal between the forward and upward drivers, to push sound toward the ceiling and back down into the room, adding a sense of height that most conventional speakers aren’t able to produce from one position. CleanBass technology handles the lower end, working in combination with a rear-mounted QuietPort to coax more low-frequency depth than the size of this speaker would suggest it was capable of.
Those features mean placement is more important here than with a typical speaker, however. The company advises keeping at least 5cm of clearance between the speaker and any wall behind it to stop bass from building up unevenly, and the upfiring driver needs open space above it — a closed shelf or the underside of a TV cabinet or sideboard will muffle those upper frequencies considerably, so don’t go trying to hide it. On display with space around it, and it will thrive, but you might want to have a spot in mind before you buy.
From a connectivity perspective, Wi-Fi is unsurprisingly supported, delivering lossless audio for those using compatible streaming services like Apple Music or Tidal, and Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect are also among its accolades. You’ll also find Bluetooth 5.3 for direct pairing, though the supported codecs top out at AAC and SBC, meaning you won’t find LDAC or aptX, which is a shame given the price point. You will find a 3.5mm analogue input at the rear, though, allowing for connecting this speaker up to a turntable, an older DAC, or anything else with a headphone output. Amazon’s Alexa smart assistant is also built in, and the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is one of the first smart speakers outside Amazon’s own lineup to support Alexa+.
Style
(Image credit: Bose)
The Black version of this speaker sat quietly in my living room without drawing attention to itself, which is exactly what some people want. It’s low-key, traditional in its approach and exudes quality in both the materials and design. The White Smoke is a more deliberate design choice and in a room with light walls, pale wood, or natural textures, it would blend in beautifully, but both are lovely looking.
Controls across the top are capacitive rather than mechanical, grouped neatly toward the rear of the upper surface. Volume is handled by the same circular touch-sensitive wheel used on the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. Similar to the old iPod wheel but without physical feedback, you trace a circle to adjust and tap for fine increments with it responding quickly. Separate buttons cover playback, Bluetooth pairing, muting the microphone (in case you’d rather turn Alexa off), and a configurable shortcut that can be set in the Bose app to jump to a specific playlist or speaker group. Status is communicated through two small LED indicators: one on the front, one on top for the mic mute, though both are discreet enough that you’d miss them if you weren’t looking.
The speaker grilles are fixed rather than removable, which keeps the speaker looking neat over time, but that does mean it needs to stay out of reach of the small humans in your home and their grubby hands. My children are six and eight, and I don’t let them anywhere near the tech in my home, not least a speaker that can’t be cleaned easily. The Sonos Era 100 would be a better option if you want something you can wipe down. There’s no built-in battery in the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker either — this one lives plugged into the mains, which is another thing worth considering before you buy, especially if you’re someone who enjoys a garden party and would benefit more from a portable speaker.
Sound Quality
Put your favorite track on the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker and the upfiring driver immediately makes itself known. There’s a lovely spaciousness to the sound that you don’t expect from a single speaker, especially not one as compact as this. It doesn’t just fill the room, but it gives the sense that the audio has somewhere to go above as well as out.
Vocals in particular feel elevated rather than anchored at speaker height, which gives certain tracks real depth. It’s most noticeable on tracks with clean, separated mixes — acoustic recordings, orchestral, and anything with clearly defined instruments, where the TrueSpatial processing has decent material to work with.
Mid-range and treble are handled with confidence and precision throughout, too. The top end has bite without becoming wearing, and the overall tonal balance holds steady across genres rather than flattering one at the expense of another. Bass is tighter and more controlled than the Era 100 can manage at comparable volumes, though the Sonos digs deeper and plays louder overall — push the Bose beyond roughly 80 per cent and the dynamics start to compress. Within a sensible listening level, though, the quality of what the Lifestyle Ultra delivers is notably higher than what you’d get from most speakers in this bracket.
Its limitation is width — just like most solo speakers of this size. I was testing the Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker on its own but I suspect if you added another for a stereo pair, you’d have a much wider and more immersive experience.
Ease of Use
(Image credit: Future / Britta O’Boyle)
Plug this speaker in, open the Bose app, and follow the prompts to set it up. It’s quick and the app walks you through everything clearly without overcomplicating it. Day to day, you’ll barely need to open the app if you don’t want to, with the controls on the speaker handling the basics, and playback from Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube Music running directly through those respective apps if you’re using Apple AirPlay or Google Cast. That means the whole experience can feel lighter than a lot of multi-room setups if you want it to.
Should you prefer however, the Bose app offers a three-band EQ – bass, mid, treble, plus a dedicated slider for the upfiring height channel. The default tuning is good enough that most won’t feel the need to tinker, but if you do, it’s all straightforward. It’s worth noting, however, that there’s no automatic room calibration like Sonos and its Trueplay, which is a strange omission at this price, especially given the Bose Lifestyle Soundbar has Bose’s respective CustomTune software. It means you can’t automatically adjust the sound output for your room, and while the EQ sliders offer some substitute, that’s all manual rather than automatic.
One last thing to add is that the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker cares less about brand loyalty than other multi room setups. You can group it with speakers from other manufacturers via Google Home and that worked without fuss for me. I also already mentioned Apple AirPlay and Google Cast, which too allow for grouping of speakers no matter what brand.
Extras
(Image credit: Future / Britta O’Boyle)
As I mentioned in my Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar review, the Lifestyle Collection is built to be added to. The speaker works well on its own, but pair two for stereo and there should be a significant improvement in width. Add that stereo pair to the Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar (£999.95) and Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer (£899.95) and the full 7.1.4 home cinema configuration will give you a much more immersive experience that’s far superior to your TV’s built-in speakers.
The total cost for the complete setup runs to close to £2,500, which is a significant commitment, but the modular nature of the collection means you can reach that point gradually, adding pieces as and when it makes sense, or you have the budget, rather than buying everything at once.
For mounting and positioning, both a wall bracket (£79.95) and a floor stand (£149.95) are available separately. The floor stand is the more elegant of the two, with a channel built into the pole that routes the power cable neatly out of sight, which is handy if you’re placing speakers as rear channels in a dedicated listening or cinema room. Software updates arrive automatically when the speaker is connected to Wi-Fi, so there’s nothing manual to manage there.
Bose
Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer
Bose
Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar
Is It Worth It?
At £299.95, the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker sits in an interesting position. It’s the same price as the Sonos Play, but that speaker has the added advantage of being portable, and it’s more expensive than the Sonos Era 100, which remains a superb speaker with a well-established ecosystem behind it. There are also plenty of smart speakers at much lower prices that will play music, respond to Alexa, and join a multi-room group without complaint. The Amazon Echo Dot Max, for example, costs around £100 and covers those bases adequately.
If background audio and voice assistant access are all you need, the Bose Lifestyle Ultra speaker asks you to spend three times as much. But what you’re paying for is sound quality that’s in a different league thanks to that upfiring driver, a design that enhances a room rather than just occupying it, and the option to build toward a full home cinema system over time. If it’s the whole picture you are looking for then – something that sounds excellent, looks the part, and has room to grow, then the Lifestyle Ultra Speaker is a super choice.
