So over the last few months or so… bose has really been killing it when it came to their Soundbars and smart speakers meant for the home. But I feel that they have been neglecting their smaller, more portable speakers. But now we’ve got the Bose Soundlink Flex… now even though this thing does have a price premium to it… the Bose Soundlink Flex easily sounds way better than its direct competitors the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23.

Now regarding pricing… the Bose Flex retails for $150… pretty steep if you ask me for a speaker of this size… but I feel the Flex does justify its price. But for comparison sake, the JBL Flip 5 retails for $130 but does like to go on sale on a regular basis… and the Sony XB23 retails for $100. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below. 

Now first lets talk about the design of this speaker… now I will admit the flex is a little larger than I expected. Its not thick… but it does have a large foot print. Simply put, it does dwarf the JBL Flip 5, but the Sony XB23… not so much cause this is a pretty large speaker as well. Now when it comes to materials… its very refreshing to see that the flex has a mostly silicon wrapped body and a powered coated steel grill on the front. It feels very durable… but it also feels very premium. Because for comparison sake… most other portable Bluetooth speakers just have a fabric wrapped body. Now I actually really like fabric wrapped bodies… but the use of silicon and steel on the Flex just feels way more premium and does help to justify its more premium price tag. Now when it comes to durability the Flex is rocking an IP67 ratting. Meaning that it is dust proof and water proof. So if this thing where to get wet or submerged in water its not going to be an issue. And it even floats. However I do want to address the fabric loop on this speaker. Its nice that its there… but its not the most useful. This loop is not elastic… and if you really want to use it then you’re going to have to use a carabineer. And unfortunately this speaker doesn’t come included with a carabiner. So I do think this a minor short coming on Bose’s part. Because for comparison sake, both the Flip 5 and XB23 have built in loops as well. And these things are much easier to attach to things. But with that minor short coming aside… the bose flex has spectacular build quality that is both durable and premium… but this speaker is also very portable. The only thing is… I don’t think you can fit this into a water bottle holder like some many people like doing with their Flip 5 and XB23.

But now lets talk about tech specs. Regarding battery life the Bose Flex has an advertised battery life of 12 hours… and given its sheer size… I would have liked to have seen a 20 hour battery life or at the very least a 15 hour battery life. But real world use with this speaker playing at 80% im getting around 8 hours of playback time which is not bad at all. 

And again for comparison sake, the flip 5 also has an advertised battery life 12 hours… but real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume its also good for around 7 to 8 hours of playback time… and then there’s the XB23 which has an advertised battery life of 10 hours with its extra bass mode turned on… which is how you should use that speaker… but with it playing at 80% volume its really only good for about 6 hours of playback time. 

Now when it comes to charging this speaker… the flex charges via a USB C port as it should. But unfortunately… this is the only port found on the Flex. The Flex doesn’t have an audio jack. Now this is pretty standard now a days… but I do feel that this speaker should have an audio jack just in case. And unfortunately, you can’t use this USB C port as a wired connection. You can only use this speaker wirelessly. 

Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, this speaker is using bluetooth 4.2 but more importantly it can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ and this speaker has zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device. 

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with this speaker. Regarding speaker setups the Bose Soundlink Flex has a pretty basic speaker set up. Its has a single frontward firing transducer and a pair of passive radiators that shoots out the front and back of the speaker. The JBL flip 5 has a single frontward firing transducer with dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides… and then there’s the XB23 which has dual frontward firing transducers and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides as well. Now for this soundtest all of these speakers are using their stock EQ’s and when it comes to volume both the Bose Flex and Flip 5 are playing at 87% volume… where as the XB23 is plying at 94% volume. 

So im just going to be blunt here… and I really think the Flex just sounds perfect. From an instrument separation stand point the Flex just sounds the most open. Where as the Flip 5 also sounds fairly open… but then there’s the XB23 which does sound pretty narrow. The flex also has has the deepest and hardest hitting bass here… but the vocals are also well defined. Because if we were to compare the Flex to the Flip 5… even though the Flip 5 also has a decent amount of of bass… the vocals do sound a little tinny by comparison. And then there’s also max volume to consider. The Bose Flex get noticeably louder than both the Flip 5 and XB23. And even at those higher volumes, the Bose Flex continues sound very balanced and with good instrument separation. Where as even though the Flip 5 also gets decently loud… it can sound a little tinny and compressed at those higher volumes. And then theres the XB23 which does struggle to keep up when it comes to max volume mainly because it does have a warmer sound signature to it. So simply put, the Bose Flex easily out performs both the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23 when it comes to both sound quality and max volume. 

However, one key detail that I do have to point out about the Bose Flex is that it doesn’t have an adjustable EQ like other bose smart speakers or bose Soundbars. Now personally I think the Flex sounds perfect just the way it is… strong vocals and strong bass… but there are a lot of other speakers out there that have an adjustable EQ so you can tune them to your liking. 

But now lets talk about pairing this speaker up with other speakers. The Flex is a soundlink speaker. Meaning that you can pair it up to one other bose soundlink speaker and either get them to play in sync or you can get them to play in left and right stereo mode. And the easiest way to do this is through Bose’s Connect app. Or if you have one of Bose’s smart sound bars or smart speakers… you can pair a Flex to them though Bose’s Music app using simple sync. 

So even though you can’t pair like 5 flex’s together… the flex does give you a good amount of flexibility if you’ve already invested into Bose’s eco system some how. And im just putting it out there… I still love my Bose smart soundbar. 

However, when compared to your staples like the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23… with the Flip 5 you can pair it up either to a JBL Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, JBL Charge 5, another JBL Flip 5 or to a JBL Pulse 4. And you can pair up to 100 speakers together. Which is obviously over kill. And personally I do feel JBL has the best speaker pairing protocol out there.

Now with the Sony… you can also pair up to 100 speakers together and you can pair your XB23 either to an XG500, XB43, XB33, or to another XB23… and if you’re feeling very adventurous… you can even pair your XB23 up to an XP500 or XP700. Now I don’t know why you would want to do this… but you can. 

But finally here’s the microphone test for the Bose Soundlink flex. Now over the last few years most portable Bluetooth speakers like these have removed their microphones. And personally I just wouldn’t bother taking phone calls with this speaker. The microphone on this speaker is really just so that you can interact with your voice assistant. 

But with all that being said, even though the Bose Soundlink Flex does have a rather premium price tag when compared to its most direct competitors like the JBL Flip 5 and Sony XB23… I feel the flex justifies its price. The flex really does just sound more open, has better clarity, and better bass than these other two speakers. But the flex also just feels way more durable and premium as well. The only draw back that I can point out about this speaker is that I wish it had a longer battery life just given its size. And even though this speaker is meant to be ultra portable… its not as portable as the flip 5.