which is to say on the high end of smaller best portable speakers

28/04/2013 16:33

When we did our best portable speakers mega-review (TL;DR: Overall Winner, Best Value, Best Sound, Best Portable/Sound, Apps/Updates, more) a few weeks ago, we neglected to test JBL’s very capable ($99 Flip) and $149 Charge; something our commenters immediately questioned. Not even a day after the review went up, JBL sent us a box full of their new speakers to test against our recommendations (sometimes this is a great job!). JBL also sent us the $100 OnBeat Micro Lightning Dock to compare against so it might also be worth asking the question: Should you get a Bluetooth speaker or a Lightning dock speaker?

With the Flip fan comments on the previous Bluetooth speaker roundup, I figured the JBL Flip would blow me away. I’ll just say it right now: it didn’t. Sound is comparable or maybe slightly better than the $88 Logitech UE Mini Boombox, which is a very good thing. But from here, it goes down hill pretty fast. Instead of USB charging, the Flip takes a proprietary AC adapter that you must carry around with you wherever you go if you want to recharge. What makes that even worse is the battery lasts about half as long as the 8-10 hour long USB-charged Logitech. Like most of the other Bluetooth speakers I reviewed, the Flip allows you to make speakerphone calls and does a great job. It cool gadgets also looks a lot more classy than most of the plastic speakers I reviewed and can be placed flat or on one end. However, unless this thing is going to sit in one place for 95% of its life, you are better off heading below…dsdED23sa

As far as sound quality, it is on par with the Flip, above. which is to say on the high end of smaller speakers. In the rare case you need to take the OnBeat away from an AC outlet, it has 4 AAA battery slots underneath to keep the music going for 5 hours. I hope most people will ever use these.

Popping the iPhone 5 on the dock is extremely easy (and with Lightning you can even get crazy and put it on the dock backwards!). It plays perfectly just as it should, and its simple volume and power buttons work as you’d expect. I’m surprised a remote didn’t come with this; it would have been a nice addition.

While china electronics is nice to have a dock that charges my iPhone 5 while I’m listening to music, the advantages of Bluetooth far outweigh the negatives. You can connect any Bluetooth device to Bluetooth speakers (including Androids, Macs, PCs, iPads, etc etc.), you can hold the device while it is playing music, and you can even in the case of some of the devices like the Charge, continue to charge the device. Oh, and Bluetooth devices are portable, making the great outdoors even greater.