JBL - Charge Portable Indoor/Outdoor Bluetooth Speaker - Black

The JBL Charge is a fantastic solution to any portable music dilemma. It possesses a greatly impressive sound quality while maintaining a very high volume. The bass port is a unique feature to a portable bluetooth speaker that is greatly appreciated. It allows for strong clear bass even at high volumes. The bluetooth capabilities themselves could not be any better. Very easy to pair and over 30 feet in range. I was able to stand on the clear opposite side of my house and still hear it, as well as not having any distortion or interference from the bluetooth connectivity. This was something my JBL Flip could not do. Unlike the JBL Flip, it does not have a speaker phone option and does not come in black. Two features I enjoyed on the JBL Flip, but was very much willing to exchange for the built in portable charging ability of the JBL Charge. With a 6000mAh battery and USB charging port, This Bluetooth speaker crushes the competition. Richer sound quality, innovative multifunctionality and steady bluetooth connectivity. Great for any one who loves to entertain or go out on adventures. Highly recommended.

So if this really is the 7th, 8th or 9th great review you are reading do yourself a favor and stop at this one and just go and buy one. If it's on sale GREAT... If it's not WHO cares!! You still won't be disappointed with the money you spent on this speaker when compared to all others in its price range and higher... Yeah Bose I'm talking bout ya... You sound great but your not worth the extra money when compared with the JBL charge. Go get it now and share your comments with me after you have fallin' in love with your new speaker. Enjoy it!!

The JBL Charge portable speak has been a great addition to my music listening. Sound is very good, bluetooth works well, and the battery life has been very good. I bought several of these at Christmas time for my adult children and they have been impressed as well. Of course if you utilize the charging aspect for another device it will affect the battery life. JBL did a nice job with the Charge for a mid-priced device. I much prefer it over the Beats or Jawbone products. I would recommend this product.

The JBL Charge Portable Indoor/Outdoor speaker is the best portable speaker I have ever tried. The quality of the sound, performance, and the power for its size is amazing. I definitely recommend it.

Great device with long battery life and excellent portability.

This is a great portable speaker. Sound quality is great even when volume is maxed out. Battery lasts about 8hrs with Bluetooth on. You can use it to charge your phone or mp3 player. I used it as a back up battery for my phone a few times when i was out and about and there wasn't a place to plug in. Has decent bass. I work in an auto shop and this little thing can fill the shop with music. Overall I highly recommend this speaker. Great sound quality and battery life. Durable too. I have dropped from about 5 ft and it only had scratches dings. No audio issues.

I've spent months reading what I estimate to be several hundred reviews of many different Bluetooth speakers, in my quest to find one which I would deem to have acceptable sound quality to my ears. I don't know if I'd classify myself as an audiophile, but I do like good quality audio (I have a high-end headphone setup with a dedicated DAC and headphone amplifier), and I doubted even the best reviewed speakers could sound good enough to me to justify dropping $150 on one. After doing all this research, I finally stopped by Best Buy this evening to try a couple, with my mp3 player in tow. I also brought an audio cable, because having an auxiliary input was an important criterion for me. The size and portability of Bluetooth speakers is what is attractive to me; the actual Bluetooth connectivity is not, since I'm not a fan of wireless technology, and I don't plan on moving my mp3 player around much. Other criteria for me were a price of around $150, long battery life, and of course, the most important factor: sound quality. I had narrowed my search down to the UE Mini Boom, the JBL Charge, and two Cambridge Soundworks speakers, the Oontz XL and the Minx Go. Best Buy didn't have the CS speakers, so I demoed the UE and the JBL. I tried the JBL first and was immediately very impressed with the excellent (to my ears) sound quality, despite the background noise in the store. I tried many different songs, and all of them sounded fantastic, especially considering the size of the Charge. After being very impressed with the Charge, I tried the Mini Boom, as well. All I needed was a few seconds of one song to confirm it was *not* the one I wanted. The Mini Boom sounded much more like I would expect a relatively inexpensive Bluetooth speaker to sound: tinny, bloated and unfocused bass, et cetera. The difference between the Charge and the Mini Boom was dramatic (although, to be fair, the Charge is $50 more). I immediately purchased the Charge and got it home. I'm still listening to it as I type this (2+ hours) and I continue to be very impressed. It sounds very well balanced. Not too bass heavy, not tinny, and not thin. It is pretty much the opposite of how I would expect a Bluetooth speaker to sound (and that's a very good thing). Vocals sound very realistic (get out of my room, Mumford and Sons!), and are a bit forward in the mix. I don't know how loud it goes, but I suspect I don't have it close to the limit. I listen to a lot of acoustic folk rock, so I wasn't looking for ground-shaking bass, but rather clarity, richness, and balance. The Charge exhibits all these qualities very well. I'm so impressed that I'm selling my amplifier and bookshelf speakers. I often listen to music using headphones, but for the times when I just want to have music playing in the background while moving around, the JBL Charge is an absolute delight. Well done, JBL!

JBL is on a roll. I love everything about the Micro Wireless - amazing sound for such a small, inexpensive package - and the Flip consistently has consistently been singled out as the best portable speaker in its somewhat larger / pricier class. The Charge picks up where the Flip left off, featuring the same basic speaker configuration but with a much more powerful battery and with the bass port more prominently / effectively placed. It does lose the speakerphone, should that matter to you. But I bought this to play music, not to talk to. The inability to charge the Flip via USB was one reason I never bought one myself, and the relatively short battery life is another. The Charge addresses both of those concerns, and it also adds the ability to charge your phone or mp3 player. Do be aware, the advertised 12 hour life is kind of a best case scenario - wired connection, medium volume level, and of course, don't expect to get maximum battery life if you are using the Charge to power another device. But still, the effort to improve capacity and charging over the Flip is much appreciated. Regarding the sound - I did a fair amount of in-store comparison (I love Best Buy for that, and will buy from them where possible just because I value the hands-on experience so much#. Really, the portable speakers available today are all pretty amazing, and differences in sound quality are mostly subjective. You can really buy based on price, forrm factor, or features and not be disappointed no matter what you choose. But there is no question that the Flip was until now the loudest of the commonly available portable speakers in this size / price range, and it produces impressively low distortion even when cranked. I do agree with those reviewers who have pointed out that the Flip is very treble-heavy, though. The Charge is at least as loud overall, but the change in bass port configuration makes it noticeably less treble-heavy. So the sound is warmer, better balanced, with more pronounced bass. I consider this a good thing, although I am aware that others apparently prefer "brighter" speakers. Again, pretty much all of the portable speakers in this price are very good, so we're really quibbling here. But the Charge is really the only portable speaker in this size / price range that I think is loud enough, warm enough, and provides enough bass to transcend comparison with other portable speakers and invite comparison with small / bookshelf / table home stereo systems. I can bring this speaker with me when teaching classes or lessons in different locations and not feel like I am missing out on anything if there is no decent sound system there I can use. If I didn't care about size or price, I might have chosen the Logitech UE Boombox #not the "Mobile" version, although that is very good too for what it is# or perhaps the somewhat Big Jambox or Bose SoundLink, which are all excellent but are larger and cost around twice as much. If I preferred a "bright" speaker over a "warm" one or if I didn't especially value bass response for harmonic analysis and playalong purposes, and if I didn't mind the battery capacity and charging issues, I guess the Flip would have been more in consideration. But as it is, nothing else under $200 or that fits in my briefcase really suits my needs nearly as well as the Charge does.