The wireless speaker is the norm now. We’ve reviewed quite a bit here. But it’s great to see what a trusted brand has in store. JBL is one of these brands. We’ve reviewed the JBL Pulse wireless bluetooth speaker and the JBL Synchros S700 headphones. Today I am reviewing the JBL Charge 2 Wireless speaker:
Design
If you’re familiar with JBL, you will be familiar with the design of the Charge 2. It has cylindrical shape with a bit of a flat side so you can stand it whichever way you’d like. It’s a little over 7 inches long and 3 inches high. Easy to grip and feels sturdy when you carry it around since it just weighs a little over a pound. It has rubber frame with the metallic grille. The bass radiators can be found at both ends of the cylinder.
When placing the speaker horizontally on the flat end you will see the controls on top. The power button, Bluetooth activation, volume down, volume up, Social Mode button, and Call button. There’s also a battery indicator by the volume buttons (5 lights), to show you your battery life. On the bottom you have the micro USB port, auxiliary port and USB 2.0 port.
The JBL Charge 2 starts at $145. You can buy it from JBL.com or Amazon.com
Experience
Sound
What’s most impressive to me about the Charge 2 speaker is the bass. It has clean bass even at very loud volumes on most songs. On songs that are super bass heavy, the Charge 2 can handle it with no problem unless you put the volume at 100%. Depending on the track you may hear a slight distortion or you may hear the bass drown out everything making it sound unbalanced.That rarely happened though.
But for the most part the Charge 2 handles all frequencies well, which give you full sound. I love having the extra bass kick without it taking over the track. It does a good job of keeping the sound balance and having a strong bass presence.
As for taking calls with the Charge 2 speaker, you can hear the party clearly. They can hear me as well even with quite a distance from the speaker. The microphone does a great job of isolating my voice against other background sound.
Social Mode
Social Mode allows for up to 3 devices to connect to the Charge 2. This is an awesome idea, because usually if you’re using a portable wireless speaker it’s in social settings or in parts of the house that more than one person has access to. I’ll use me as an example. I have 2 phones and 2 tablets. Having most of these devices connected to the Charge 2 makes it easier to change. Quick and painless
Battery Life
The Charge 2 battery life is important not only for the music, but for charging your device as well. It has a 6000 mAh battery to charge your device. You can charge your phones (depending on how big) at least 1.5 times which should be more than enough On my battery draining tests I got 9 – 12 hours of use which is great for the amount of power the JBL Charge 2 has. The Charge 2 can charge your devices pretty quickly since it has a 2.1 USB port.
Overall
For it’s portable size, the JBL Charge 2 Wireless speaker gets the job done. For those who are afraid of losing bass on wireless speakers, I highly recommend the Charge 2. Great for little gatherings with Social Mode. Unfortunately you won’t get a carrying case and the ports are not covered, so you will have to protect it from the daily. But that’s nothing really big as most speakers have the ports out.
It’s a great speaker if you’re looking for full, powerful sound and a long lasting battery life!
The JBL Charge 2 starts at $145. You can buy it from JBL.com or Amazon.com
