I’ve tried other brands like Sony for portable speakers but never had any luck as they just kept breaking so I splurged a little and I don’t regret a thing. You get the quality that you pay for and this speaker is incredible. I was worried about having to use the app for everything with this speaker, but you only really need the app for setup and to turn the speaker on from a distance, otherwise it’s self sufficient. Battery lasts a very long time and charging is easy with the added feature of the battery %. Love it.