Bose’s excellent SoundLink Flex Bluetooth speaker sells for around $150 and sometimes goes on sale for less (it’s now $119 ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday). The Soundcore Motion 300 is Anker’s answer to that Bose speaker. Around the same size as the Bose, it doesn’t sound quite as good, but it does sound impressive for its compact size and costs only $80 — or $64 as part of an early Black Friday sale (the black model only for now). That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for it to date.
Many retailers start “Black Friday” sales as early as Halloween, or even earlier. The quality of deals can vary early on, but as November progresses, many of the deals are as good as the deep discounts you’ll see during Thanksgiving weekend. See the best Black Friday deals we’ve found, and keep up with all the latest deals with our full Black Friday live blog coverage.
We gave the Soundcore Motion 300 a CNET Editors’ Choice award. You can read our full review to find out why.
Like the SoundLink Flex, the Motion 300 can be laid down flat with its speaker firing up toward the ceiling (or sky) or propped up as shown in the photo above. It’s IPX7 waterproof and delivers up to 13 hours of audio at moderate volume levels. There’s also support for Sony’s LDAC audio codec for Android and other devices that support Bluetooth wireless streaming with LDAC.
Read more: All the Early Black Friday Deals
The speaker has a bass-boost button that does amp up the low end a bit. But I actually thought the speaker sounded a bit better without the bass boost engaged, because it seemed slightly overdriven with the boost on. The bass just doesn’t sound that tight at higher volumes. That’s where the Bose does better.
But aside from that small downside, the Soundcore Motion 300 is a very good mini Bluetooth speaker and a good value, particularly at $65. It’s available in three colors but, as noted, only the black version is on sale for now.
Read more: Best Bluetooth Speakers of 2023
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