I found the one thing your summer backyard movie nights are missing

Summer is here, and with it comes more time in the outdoors. Kids are home from school. Backyard parties galore. And if you’re near a beach, maybe a bonfire or two? Then there’s one of my favorite activities during the warmer months, the backyard movie night. And while some of the smaller Bluetooth speakers are fine for just you and the kids or a date night for two, what if your favorite pastime is being a party host? Maybe you’re the one who enjoys being the DJ at group beach gatherings?

If that’s you, if you’re the one who loves supplying the entertainment, then SOUNDBOKS 4 is a game changer. It’s pricey, but for the right host/DJ/emcee, it’s all you’ll ever need to keep the bonfire properly lit, or the backyard cinema-scapes immersive and enjoyable to watch.

4.5/5

Brand

SOUNDBOKS

Speaker Type

2 × 10” 96 dB / 1W / 1m woofers and 1 × 1” 104 dB/ 1W / 1m compression driver tweeter

Maximum output power

126dB

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.0;
TeamUP connection (SKAA) for up to 5 SKAA-enabled speakers;
Pro Panel:
– 2 × Combo (XLR, 1/4”) balanced inputs,
1 × 3.5mm stereo input, 1 × 3.5mm stereo output

Pros & Cons

• Durability
• VERY loud
• Strong battery life
• Great connectivity options
• Doesn’t sacrifice clarity for volume

All-day battery life

Depending on how you use it

Powering this beast is a 99.84Wh swappable battery pack that slides into a dedicated slot on the left side. It takes about 3.5 hours to juice it back up from zero using a USB-C PD fast charger. It doesn’t come with one, and I think it should at this price, but if you’ve been following us for any length of time, I hope you already have one at home.

A nice added touch is that the battery pulls double duty, functioning as a portable power bank via its USB-C port to keep your phone or playback devices alive during extended soirées.

When it comes to actual stamina, it completely depends on how hard you’re pushing those woofers. If you keep the volume at a respectable halfway mark—which is more than enough for a backyard movie night or a relaxed gathering—you can expect 40 hours of playback. However, if you decide to turn it up to 11 for a good ol’ East Coast block party, that battery life drops to about six hours. Heavy, sub-bass-dominant tracks will also drain it faster, since pushing that low end requires more current. If you plan on hosting all-day block parties or weekend group camping trips, you can pick up spare batteries for $150 a piece to keep the music going as long as you do.

Durability

From the sea to the Sequoias….

The SOUNDBOKS 4 is built like a tank, designed to be here for a long time and a good time! The cabinet itself is constructed from durable poplar wood, fronted by a rugged, swappable steel grille. To shield it from the inevitable bumps and drops of transit, the corners are brilliantly fitted with massive, rounded silicone bumpers that absorb impact like a champ.

In addition to its physical toughness, the internal electronics are fully coated with a chemical that complies with an IP65 rating for water and dust ingress — the product itself isn’t actually IP-rated. Whether you’re dealing with beach sand, morning dew, or an unexpected splash by the pool, the speaker can take it. Just keep in mind that while it’s portable, it isn’t light for most people. Weighing in at 35.5 pounds (16.1 kg), carrying it over long distances can be a chore unless you have a heavy-duty wagon or their custom backpack accessory to help haul it from the car to a bonfire site, across the sand.

Excellent sound

Block rocking beats

Acoustically, this big boy delivers a massive audio experience powered by dual front-facing 10-inch woofers and a 1-inch compression-driver tweeter, capable of pushing a seriously loud output of 126 dB. But what makes it a premium piece of gear isn’t just its ability to shake the party—it’s the remarkable clarity. Even when you are standing 200 feet away in an open field, vocals and mid-range frequencies carry cleanly without getting lost in the wind.

That clarity is consistent across genres! I’ve played everything from Skrillex’s bass canon of a track, “Mumbai Power,” to The Roots banger, “Do You Want More?!?!?!” to Moana’s “You’re Welcome” and Thelonius Monk’s “Monk’s Dream (Take 8),” at full volume, which was an absolute delight. The only downside was due to the physics of playing music outside with no subwoofer: The deep, resonant sub-bass in “Mumbai Power” wasn’t reproduced. You’ll experience that with just about any Bluetooth speaker outdoors.

Equally impressive is how the speaker performs when you aren’t trying to get the police called out for disrupting the peace. Thanks to well-engineered digital signal processing (DSP), the audio remains incredibly full, warm, and clear even at low volumes (like level 5 or 60% phone volume). Whether you’re playing acoustic arrangements, orchestral film scores, or bass-heavy hip-hop tracks, the sound signature is balanced and satisfying. If you want to customize the sound profile, the companion app offers robust EQ controls to tweak the audio to your environment. At maximum volume on extreme sub-bass tracks, you might catch a tiny hint of distortion standing directly in front of the grille, but it completely disappears as you step back into the crowd.

Because of the beautiful clarity of Soundboks 4, your backyard movie nights will be a winner, no matter how loud or how quiet you want to get. Thanks to the EQ, you can even tailor the sound to your environment, so that if you need to push dialog clarity even further, you can just adjust the appropriate bands in the 6-band EQ that you’ll find in the app. There are also presets for you to choose from, so you can start there and see if one of those helps with whatever sound you’re trying to achieve for your movie night. Then you can hit that EQ if its necesary and further fine tune things to your liking.

Connectivity

Connect to all the things for: beach bonfires, karaoke, block parties

For wireless playback, the speaker uses Bluetooth 5.0 with SBC codec support only – BOO! While it doesn’t feature HiRes wireless codecs like aptX or LDAC out of the box, you can bypass this by plugging a device directly into the physical inputs for an instantly audible jump in fidelity, playing back your party tunes via HiRes FLAC files, or the uncompressed audio output of a 4k UHD Blu-ray player — YAY!

If you’re a baller with a good disposable income, wireless expansion is handled beautifully by the built-in TeamUP feature, which uses low-latency 2.4GHz SKAA wireless technology. This allows you to wirelessly link a host speaker with up to four additional SOUNDBOKS units, or pair two together for an immersive, stereo experience.

For professional-grade wired setups, the “Pro Panel” on the back gives you great flexibility to accommodate a plethora of scenarios — bonus points if you read that in El Guapo’s henchman’s voice. The input and output configuration, as well as some of the other specs includes:

Usability

It’s expensive, so you’ll need to get your money’s worth

Let’s be clear: this is a large speaker, standing a little over two feet tall and a foot and 17 inches wide, but it’s as confident inside your house as it is outside. I’ve played music in my living room using this speaker, and while it may seem like overkill, at low volumes, the digital signal processing works its magic like Dr. Strange and still gives you what you want from your playlists and audiobooks.

You’ll enjoy SOUNDBOKS 4 for your backyard movie nights because of its great clarity. Dialog and nuanced audio cut through competing outdoor sounds like the Riders of Rohirrim in The Lord of the Rings. Then, throw in the wonderful depth of highs and lows, and your movie’s scoring and sound design should also sound gloriously immersive.

The SOUNDBOKS 4’s biggest weakness for some people is going to be its price. When I first reviewed it in January 2025, it was being sold for $1,000 on Amazon, and you could find it as low as $750 during holiday sales. Today, a little over a year and some interesting economic times later, its price has increased by $200, and it now retails for $1,200. Given the previous sales, I’m guessing we’ll see it go for around $900 at some point.

The good news is that SOUNDBOKS recently released a smaller, more affordable unit for $800. Though I haven’t had the chance to review it yet, I wouldn’t be surprised to find, given SOUNDBOKS’ attention to engineering, that its audio quality is just as good. But I won’t know for sure until I’ve had the chance to listen in person.

Brand

SOUNDBOKS

Speaker Type

2 × 10” 96 dB / 1W / 1m woofers and 1 × 1” 104 dB/ 1W / 1m compression driver tweeter

Maximum output power

126dB

Connectivity

Bluetooth 5.0;
TeamUP connection (SKAA) for up to 5 SKAA-enabled speakers;
Pro Panel:
– 2 × Combo (XLR, 1/4”) balanced inputs,
1 × 3.5mm stereo input, 1 × 3.5mm stereo output

Weight

35.5 lbs, 16.1 kg

Dimensions

25.6 × 17 × 13 inches (H × W × D)