Soundbot SB510 Shower Speaker review

Confession: I really like to listen to music in the shower. It helps me get energized for the day when I shower in the morning and is just a nice mood booster any time. A little dance party while I wash my hair is just plain good vibes. But buying a dedicated speaker for the shower has always felt a bit silly, since it’s not a place I spend a ton of time.

Enter the Soundbot SB510. This compact speaker comes in at $15, making it a much more reasonable price for an occasional-use type of thing. Unfortunately, with the low price comes compromises.

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A better alternative

This budget, waterproof Anker speaker is my perfect audio companion

At under $40, Soundcore’s original Bluetooth speaker delivers clear audio come rain or shine — and even in the shower.

Price, specs, and availability

The Soundbot SB510 is available in black, blue, green, pink, yellow, or white for $15.

Design, playback controls, and size

Simple design leads to simple use

The Soundbot SB510 is quite simple in terms of design. Its spherical shape is roughly the size of my palm, so it doesn’t take up much room on the shower wall. It connects via Bluetooth and is very simple and fast to pair. Five rubberized buttons on the front control the speaker. You have to press the buttons with intention. That’s especially true of the power button, which you have to hold for three seconds to turn it on or off. But, the speaker will play a noise as it powers up or down, and there’s a blue light to signify if it’s on, so at least it’s easy to know the status.

The center button simply plays or pauses music. If you just turn on the speaker, it will play whatever was last playing on your phone. The rest of the buttons are multifunctional. If you hold and press the left and right buttons, they serve as the volume control, while a tap will skip to the next song or go back a track.

There’s a pretty big jump between volume levels, so you don’t get a ton of control there. Finally, the call button allows you to pick up or hand up a call. Pressing and holding it will call redial the last number, and pressing it twice will activate Siri or Google Assistant.

The back of the speaker uses a large suction cup to attach to your shower walls. I have had plenty of terrible shower suction cups before, so I was fully anticipating hearing this crash in the middle of the night. But, to my surprise, it stayed put for weeks. It even did fine on the tile wall with grout lines.

The connection between the speaker and the suction cup is a bit sad, though, and the speaker droops forward when attached. It doesn’t impact any functionality other than moving around when you push the buttons, but it would be nice if it sat more flush with the shower wall.

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The main downside to the speaker’s design is that it is only IPX4 rated, meaning it can only withstand splashes of water. Because of that lower IP rating, you’ll want to put it in a relatively dry corner of your shower.

Another disappointment is that it charges via MicroUSB. That format is far less common than USB-C these days, so don’t lose the charging cable that it comes with. In terms of battery life, Soundbot promises six hours of playtime. I have been using it for a few weeks (though I haven’t used it every day), and as of yet, I haven’t needed to charge it. I didn’t even charge it before the first use, as Soundbot recommends. So, while I haven’t found the limit yet, I have been impressed by the battery life thus far.

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Sound quality and call features

A bit of a letdown honestly

The biggest issue with the Soundbot SB510 is the sound quality. Now, I wasn’t expecting much from a $15 speaker, but I was still disappointed by what I heard. The sound is very hollow, with essentially no bass whatsoever. It’s very tinny sounding, with no detail or warmth.

The call quality, which is much less nuanced, was just fine, though. I could clearly hear the person on the other end of the line, even with the speaker set to a lower volume. The mic seemed to work really well, too, and they could hear me with no problems. Of course, they could also hear the shower noise. I definitely wouldn’t recommend taking any important calls with it. There’s also no display, so you won’t know who is calling, which could make answering calls a risky move.

Beyond calls, the built-in mic allows you to use Siri or Google Assistant. As mentioned, you can press the call button twice to use that. I also was able to say “Hey Google” without pressing a button, allowing for fully hands-free usage. Hands-free use is definitely ideal when a terrible song comes up mid-shampoo lather.

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Verdict: is this shower speaker the right choice, or just trendy?

Affordable, but for a price on quality

The SB510 is definitely an affordable speaker, but that low price comes at a cost. To put it simply, if you are an audio snob and want quality sound, stay away. But, if you just want a cheap device to listen to music in the shower and don’t mind if the sound isn’t world-class (or close), then the Soundbot SB510 will get the job done.