The Bose Home Speaker 500 is a powerful chunky black anodised aluminium addition to the list of Alexa powered smart speakers at a premium price of $599 RRP. I listened to it for a week before it had to be returned to Bose but that was enough time to get a good impression of it's capabilities.

I purchased the Bose Home Speaker 500 to replace a very old Bose Sound Dock that I was using with an old iPod touch. I selected the Silver unit, and it is beautiful. A very pleasing esthetic design. The sound is wonderful and more importantly is in stereo.

Beautifully designed unit Superior sound quality Stereo playback LCD screen w/clock Aux input

Problematic Alexa setup Control buttons flush with surface/no tactile feel for buttons Setup exclusively via smartphone or tablet/no manual setup Pricey

Unbelievable that this is not backwards compatible with the sound touch series! If you sit like me with such and want to expand the system, you are smoked! If at least one had been able to add old speakers just to be able to play songs.

Was given as a gift to my boyf who is a bit of an ‘audiophile'! :p He says the sound quality is great so he's happy - and it looks great in our front room, not too big and very stylish so I'm happy too!

The idea seemed silly at first. Bose made an Alexa-powered wireless speaker with a little screen, a big $400 price tag and a promise "to fill any room with an astonishing stereo performance.

Great sound quality

Too expensive; limited

Sound quality amazing as it always is with Bose

The main problem is that the speaker has a very nice colour screen but it is impossible to get the album artwork on the display, so you never get to see the screen in action; Mine only shows volume or which device is connected, in black and white.

I didn't' see a clear disclaimer that Alexa will not gonna work in the Philippines. SO I can't use the voice control. Totally useless because I also have OTHER BOSE device. What attracted me to buy this product is the ALEXA FEATURE. CAN ANYONE IN BOSE OR AMAZON HELP ME THANKS.

It is a very good Speaker but it is not easy to complete all the functions of it specially Alexa, because we are not able to put French Canadian language!

Does this smart speaker debut justify the wallet-melting price tag? Bose Home Speaker 500 rivals Bose Home Speaker 500 rivals

Top-tier audio quality, Sturdy, classy design, Bose Music app is neat

Grossly expensive, Limited mini-screen, Mild Alexa hiccups

Bose has a long history of producing high-quality wireless speakers - like, for example, the Bose SoundLink Revolve+ - and with the launch of its latest, the Bose Home Speaker 500, the company shows no signs of slowing down.

Fantastic audio quality; Sleek design; Alexa built-in; Sensitive microphones

Very expensive; WiFi setup doesn't always work