The biggest difference between these two Bluetooth speakers is the form factor. The only product that we tested that comes near the quality and utility of the Charge 4 was the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM, which retails for slightly less at $99.99. Even at retail price, this device is a great deal in our estimation.īut if $150 still feels steep, you can find this speaker for around $120 from a lot of online retailers.Ĭompetition: JBL Charge 4 vs. When we tested it, we were surprised it wasn’t closer to $200 for the power, utility, and performance you get. Lifewire / Danny Chadwick Price: The good kind of sticker shock But as part of our testing, we let some ocean surf wash over it and the speaker was fine-the music kept playing, and it was no worse for the wear after we dried it off. The speakers doesn’t really look “waterproof” on account the side-mounted woofers. This is a convenient feature, but it’s not surprising that the Charge 4 doesn’t have it since it’s not really designed for up-close-and-personal use. Many similar speakers allow you to take calls from your smartphone with a built-in mic. The same applies to indoor use-if you intend to take advantage of the waterproof capabilities and use it as a shower speaker, note that there’s no suction cup to attach it to the wall, and it’s sure to take up some valuable real estate on your shower shelves.Īnother feature this device lacks is a speakerphone. It takes up a good amount of space in a day-bag and it doesn’t lend well to carrying around in your hand. While the Charge 4 is a very portable speaker, it’s bulkier than competitors like the Swimmer Duo. If you want a unified, branded experience, these apps are invaluable tools. These apps give you much more control over both your media and the performance of your speaker. You can download JBL Music and JBL Tools. In addition to the Connect app, JBL has a couple of others to compliment your speaker. (We don’t know when you’d ever need that number, but it’s there.) Similar speakers like the Ultimate Ears WONDERBOOM and Polk BOOM Swimmer Duo have similar capabilities, but only JBL has the app that can network more than 100 devices. If you have more than one Charge 4, you can use the JBL Connect mobile app to network them together. You can expect this speaker to stand up to the elements, endure heavy usage, and last all day. This was great when we took it to the beach since it allowed us to extend our time by the waves without our devices dying. The speaker’s back panel includes a USB port that you can use to charge smartphones and other devices. We also found the charging bank to be very convenient. The male-to-male charging cable has a USB-C connection on the speaker end and USB to connect to the power supply. You can tell this is a next-generation device due to its charging cable, which utilizes the relatively new USB-C technology. (And if you charge it overnight, it doesn’t really matter anyway.) That’s still on the longer side for charging time, but this should be expected considering the Charge 4’s battery capacity. It took our test unit about four hours to go from completely dead to fully charged, which is 90 minutes faster than JBL advertises on the included materials. It not only gives you a general idea of how much juice it has left, but also indicates its charging progress when the speaker is plugged in. The battery meter is one convenient feature on the JBL Charge 4 that isn’t found on many other speakers. We took this speaker on a road trip to the beach and let it play constantly throughout the day and it never quit. JBL claims the Charge 4 gets 20 hours of battery life, which is definitely on the long side compared to similar products. Unfortunately, there’s no way to skip to a previously-played song with the speaker’s control panel. You can control the volume of the speaker and skip songs either from the speaker itself or the device it’s paired with. It costs less than you would expect for the quality you get.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |