Bose Takes on Sonos With New Lifestyle Smart Speakers

Bose has reintroduced its Lifestyle brand for a new family of cross-platform smart speakers. Like Sonos, these speakers offer whole-house audio capabilities, but with a twist: Instead of relying on its own app, Bose is offering integration with Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, and Spotify Connect.

“With the Lifestyle Collection, we wanted every detail to serve a singular purpose, making exceptional sound easy to enjoy,” Bose president Raza Haider says. “The flexibility, refined aesthetic, and experience are all built to fit into life at home, delivering on the one central promise that has defined Bose for decades, that sound matters.”

The new Lifestyle product line includes three speakers:

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Speaker. Available in White Smoke, Black, and Driftwood Sand, this $349 speaker offers TrueSpatial immersive sound and can be stereo paired or used with the other speakers as part of a home theater experience.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Soundbar. Available in Black and White, this Dolby Atmos-compatible soundbar costs $1099.

Bose Lifestyle Ultra Subwoofer. Also available in Black and White, this $899 subwoofer pairs with the other Lifestyle speakers in a home theater setup.

The Lifestyle speakers all support Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and line-in, and can be controlled by voice using Amazon Alexa. The updated Bose app is used only to configure or update the speakers, and to create stereo pairs, but Bose designed these speakers to work with whatever music system you’re alredy using, so you can control playback and speaker groups through AirPlay, Google Cast, or Spotify. Or just use Bluetooth to access a single speaker.