So this is the skullcandy kilo, its a solid ultra portable bluetooth speaker from Skullcandy that has a very impressive battery life. But today we’re going to see how it stacks up to both the JBL CLip 4 and the Sony XB100.
Regarding pricing, the Skullcandy kilo has a retail price of $40, where as the Sony XB100 has a retail price of $60 and then there’s the JBL Clip 4 which is the oldest speaker here and it has a retail price of $80. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. Now all three of these speakers are small so they are very easy to take on the go with you. They’re all very durable, and they’re all water proof. But I am going to have to say that the Skullcandy kilo and clip 4 are more durable than the sony cause of their fabric wrapped bodies. The only thing is that the rubber feet on the clip 4 can fall off after awhile and perhaps the same will happen with the kilo. But when it comes to attach-ability… I feel the XB100 is the clear winner here. With the Sony XB100 you can easily attach it to something thanks to its super versatile fabric loop. Where as with the clip 4, it has a built in carabiner, but this carabinieri can be limiting… and with the kilo, it also has a carabiner, but this carabiner is even smaller than the one on the clip 4. So if you want something that is versatile and you can attach it to multiple things… the Sony XB100 is the clear winner.
But when it comes to battery life, the clip 4 has an advertised battery life of 10 hours… and if you were to use this speaker at 80% volume its going to last you for around 6 hours of playback time.
Where as with the Sony XB100, it has an advertised battery life of 16 hours and that’s with it playing at 72% volume. But this speaker is a little quiet, so if you were to use it at max volume its going to last you around 5 hours…
But then there’s the Skullcandy kilo which has an advertised battery life of 24 hours… and if you were to use it for 8 hours, its going to last you around 8 hours… and max volume on this speaker is decent. So overall the kilo is the clear winner here when it comes to battery life.
And when it comes to chargning these speakers, they all create via a USB C port as they should, and with all of these speakers, they can only be used wirelessly cause none of these speakers have an audio jack on them, which honestly isn’t surprising for speakers of this size and price in 2023.
And when it comes to the Bluetooth connectivity on all of these speakers, they can only be connected to one device at a time… but at least you can watch videos with all of these speakers cause latency isn’t an issue for any of these speakers.
But with the basic stuff out of the way, lets talk about sound. When it comes to speaker set ups, all of these speaker have an upwards firing woofer and a down ward firing passive radiator. But now we’re going to jump into the sound test… both the clip 4 and kilo are playing at 93% volume where as the Sony XB100 is playing at max volume.
Sound test
So first lets address max volume performance… the sony XB100 just doesn’t get as loud as these other 2 speakers, even while it was playing at max volume, its was still having a hard time of keeping up with these other two speakers. Where as with the Slkullcandy Kilo, its actually the loudest speaker here and its a little louder than the Clip 4. Now the max volume preference difference between these two speakers isn’t huge… but here you dont want to take the most that you can get… and it also really helps that the kilo is the most affordable speaker here. And when it comes to sound quality… the clip 4 does have more bass than the kilo where as the kilo sounds a little brighter cause it puts more of an emphasis on the highs than the clip 4… which is part of the reason why its the loudest speaker here. Overall, I do think that sound quality wise, the Kilo is the best preforming speaker here. It might not have as much bass as the clip 4, but it has almost as much and its the loudest speaker here.
And finally lets talk about paring these speakers with other speakers. With the clip 4 it can’t be connected to any other speakers. Where as with both the xb100 and kilo… if you have another of the same speaker, you’ll be able to pair them up and get them to play in left and right stereo mode.
And I will admit, both the xb100 and kilo sound very impressive when they are playing in stereo mode. Just keep in mind that you can’t pair them up with any other speakers, at all.
So with all of that being said… if you’re looking for a small ultra portable bluetooth speaker performance wise I think the Skullcandy kilo is the clear winner here. It sound good, it get impressively loud, and you can pair it up to another kilo and get them to play in stereo mode… but the kilo also has the best preforming battery life here, by a lot. And it also doest hurt that its the most affordable speaker here as well. The only draw back is that it carbenier is very limiting. If you need something that you can attach to a lot of different things, then you’re probably going to want to go with the Sony XB100.