Skip the all-in-one cooler.

They exist—Igloo’s Party Bar is the most famous one—but they’re a compromise nobody needs.

A cooler with a speaker built in costs more, sounds worse than a $50 JBL, and keeps your drinks less cold because they cram electronics into the insulation space. Same story with USB ports: you’re paying for a low-watt charger that gets less effective as the ice melts. By the time the party’s winding down, you’re trying to charge a phone in a puddle of lukewarm water.

A decent cooler (even a Coleman) plus a separate Bluetooth speaker and a $20 power bank will out-perform any combo unit, last longer, and let you replace pieces as they fail. The combo coolers are a gimmick, not a shortcut.