A good solid water and dustproof portable speaker that works well.
This Skullcandy Session 540 is a great portable Bluetooth speaker that is compact and has a few special features. It is described as having a 17 hour battery life and a quick charge feature that gives 2 hours of playtime with a 10 minute charge. It is listed as being IP67 waterproof, dustproof and shock resistant. It has a flexible strap that allows you to hang it on various things or you can use the strap to attach to something thin. The most unique feature to me is that the back has magnetic mounts and it will attach fairly well to any flat surface. Mine even stuck to a stainless steel tool chest. It will also stick to round steel poles. You can pair two of these together and have a stereo system. They allow you to connect up to 99 of them in a party mode. There is a bass boost mode and several equalizer modes that can be set from the device. It comes with instructions and a quick start guide.

This is probably the easiest and quickest Bluetooth device I have ever setup. It is very intuitive and you can start listening to music within seconds. I put it on a USB C charger and it started charging at 1.27 amps and it finished charging with a total capacity of 547 milliamperes. Since there isn’t a battery level indicator I don’t know the state of charge for the battery when I started charging. It does have a green light that comes on when the unit is charged. The sound is loud but the bass is what I would call muddy. It does have the bass boost feature and equalization so I will have to try that. My wife has a similar JBL unit that is price about the same and I would describe the sound on her unit as being much better. That being said, I do have hearing impairment and wear hearing aids. Overall I would describe the sound as good and you can always use the Skullcandy app to make additional adjustments. This is a good solid product with loud sound and easy to use. I wanted it to use around my granddaughter so being waterproof and shock resistant (it is drop tested) were desirable features for me. This is a great speaker and since it has a magnetic mount it will be great when doing car repairs because I can stick it anywhere.

sounds great!
I bought the Skullcandy Session 540 in Plasma because I wanted a portable Bluetooth speaker that was small enough to take outside or throw in a travel bag but still had enough sound to use for backyard gatherings. I already have a larger speaker that sounds great, but it’s not something I want to carry around every time we go to the park, pool, or on a weekend trip. This one has been a much better balance between portability and sound.

The Plasma color was one of the first things that caught my attention. I have enough black electronics that all look exactly the same, so I liked having something with a little more personality. It has a modern, fun appearance without looking like a toy.

Pairing it with my phone was quick and straightforward. I connected it through Bluetooth and was playing music within a few minutes. I’ve used it with both iPhone and Android devices, which is convenient when different people want to control the playlist.

For its size, the sound genuinely surprised me. I wasn’t expecting a lightweight portable speaker to replace a large home audio system, but it produces a much bigger sound than its compact size suggests. Vocals come through clearly, music has good energy, and it gets loud enough for the situations where I normally use it.

I’ve used it while cleaning the house, cooking, sitting on the patio, and working in the garage. Indoors, I rarely need to turn it all the way up. Outside, the extra volume is helpful because music can disappear quickly once you’re in an open space.

The bass is also better than I expected from a speaker this portable. You’re obviously not getting the same room-shaking low end as a large dedicated subwoofer, but songs don’t sound thin or completely flat. For casual listening, outdoor use, and travel, I’ve been very satisfied with the overall balance.

Portability is probably where this speaker makes the most sense for me. It’s lightweight enough that I don’t hesitate to bring it somewhere. I can put it in a backpack or travel bag without feeling like I’ve added a piece of luggage just for music.

The waterproof and dustproof design gives me much more confidence using it outdoors. I’ve taken it near the pool and used it on the patio where I’m always worried about someone knocking over a drink or unexpected weather. I still take care of my electronics and don’t intentionally abuse them, but I don’t feel like I have to panic over every splash or bit of outdoor dust.

Battery life has also been excellent for the way I use it. The advertised playtime is up to 17 hours, although actual battery life naturally depends on things like volume and usage. For me, the important part is that I’m not constantly looking for a charger after every listening session. I’ve been able to use it across multiple activities before needing to recharge.

That longer battery life has been especially useful when traveling. I don’t want another electronic device that needs to occupy an outlet every night along with our phones, watches, and everything else. I can charge this ahead of time and get plenty of listening time from it.

We recently used it during a small outdoor get-together, and it handled the job better than I expected. I placed it near the seating area rather than trying to blast music across the entire yard, and everyone could hear it comfortably without conversation becoming difficult.

I also like having it around the house because I’m not tied to one room. If I’m listening to a podcast while getting ready and then move into the kitchen, I just pick up the speaker and bring it with me. That sounds obvious for a portable speaker, but the lightweight design means I actually do it rather than leaving the speaker behind because it’s inconvenient to move.

The controls are easy enough to use without constantly reaching for my phone. I appreciate products where the basic functions don’t require me to memorize complicated button combinations just to adjust what I’m listening to.

Connection stability has been reliable during my normal use. I can keep my phone nearby and move around without the music constantly cutting in and out. Obviously, Bluetooth performance can vary depending on walls, distance, and interference, but around my home and outdoor seating areas, it has worked well.

One thing I would keep in mind is that this is still designed as a portable speaker. If your priority is filling a huge outdoor space with extremely deep bass at maximum party volume, you’ll probably want a larger sound system. Where this speaker shines is giving you surprisingly big sound in something that’s much easier to carry.

That’s exactly why I’ve been using it so much. It’s easy enough to grab for an afternoon outside but powerful enough that bringing it actually feels worthwhile.

Overall, I’m very happy with the Skullcandy Session 540. The sound is impressive for the size, the speaker is lightweight and easy to travel with, and the waterproof/dustproof construction makes it much better suited to outdoor use than a speaker I’d be afraid to take beyond the living room. The long battery life is another major advantage.

If you want one Bluetooth speaker that can move between the house, patio, pool, park, parties, and travel, this is a great combination of portability and performance. The Plasma version also has enough personality to stand out from all the plain black speakers out there. I originally bought it mainly for outdoor use, but I’ve ended up carrying it from room to room at home almost every day.

Bluetooth speakers have come a long way since the last time I bought one
I’ll be honest, ever since I installed permanent AirPlay speakers throughout my home and property outdoors, my need for these portable Bluetooth speakers has dropped off precipitously. That said, I do still visit the pool, beach, and go camping a couple of times a year. So I picked this up, and I’ve got to say, it’s a fairly impressive little speaker.

A few things for starters — it feels really sturdy; substantial both in weight and apparent build quality. It has a thick silicone strap on the back with a hook you can use to wrap it around poles (or small trees). And, it’s got a pretty strong magnet as well. These are nice quality-of-life features that none of my Bluetooth speakers in the past had, and it definitely makes it feel like it’s been thoughtfully designed for the lifestyle of the sort of person who needs one.

Connection was exactly like any other Bluetooth speaker. Press and hold the Bluetooth button, connect with your phone, and start listening to music. It also has an app, which is mostly unremarkable, though it does let you do things like turn off the strangely disinterested woman’s voice that announces things. The app also enables a pretty cool “party mode” feature where you can apparently link up to “99 speakers” at once, which would genuinely be a very cool feature in the right circumstances. I only have one of these though, so I have no idea how well it works. The app also has EQ control, though honestly I can’t say that it makes all that much of a difference in such a small speaker.

Also worth noting with the app is that it doesn’t seem to be trying to do any shady data harvesting. It only requests Bluetooth access, and doesn’t ask you to create yet another cloud account. I consider that good corporate behavior.

The device itself has just a few buttons — the normal playback and volume control buttons on the front, as well as Bluetooth, power, and party-mode buttons on the side. All of them are pretty satisfyingly clicky under their thick rubber.

The sound quality is pretty darn good all things considered. Trying to create a point of reference here, it’s not quite as good as one of the big-brand personal assistant speakers you might keep plugged in at home, but it’s quite a lot better than the average Bluetooth speaker. The bass is decent, and the mids and highs are clean, considering the form factor. It’s also capable of getting quite loud, though it’s hard to offer a clear point of comparison for that.

Speaking of form factor, it’s a bit chunky. It’s kind of pill-shaped, like a very big baked potato. So maybe a little thicker than would actually be convenient for carrying around with you everywhere you go, but no big deal for tossing into a camp, beach, or duffle bag. One thing that is conspicuously missing is a place to hook it to a keyring, so you actually will need to have a bag or something to toss it in.

It came mostly charged, and it did play for around 12 hours before I turned it off, which is fairly impressive. It also has a “low power mode” through the app, though I have no idea what the consequences of using it are on longevity or sound quality. For charging, it seems to charge at a fairly average rate. I plugged it in before bed, saw it ticking up steadily for about an hour, and then it finished some time while I was sleeping. So, I wouldn’t expect it to be super fast, but it doesn’t seem to be a trickle either.

From a value standpoint, I think it might be a little on the pricier side for something I’m just not going to use all that frequently, but it does live up to its promises and has some pretty cool features, especially if you decide to buy multiples. While I suspect you might be able to find a satisfactory alternative at a lower price, overall, this is a very solid portable Bluetooth speaker in spite of some very minor drawbacks. I might have rated it 4.5 if that were an option, but it’s not. So, 5/5 stars.