JBL Charge 5: https://amzn.to/4gyOC90
Bose Flex 2: https://amzn.to/4gxzN6D
The Bose Soundlink Flex Gen 2 is a very portable, very durable, and very premium feeling speaker, and it performs very well. However, this is another example of bose adding some very minor upgrades to their products, and slapping a new name on them. And for 2025, I feel the Bose Flex 2 is a little hard to justify when compared to its direct price competitors… so today we’re going to see how the Bose Flex 2 compares to the JBL Charge 5 which admiditly is pretty old now, but its still a solid mid sized speaker to recommend.
Regarding pricing, the Bose Flex 2 has a retail price of $150, pretty up there if you ask me. But it can be found on sale for $120… a little more reasonable, but a little hard to justify if you ask me. Where as the JBL Charge 5 has a retail price of $180 but it likes to go on sale for $140. And even though the charge 5 is 4 years old now, its still a great speaker. Nonetheless, if you want to pick either of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the design of these speakers. Now the the Charge 5 is a mid sized speaker and its easy enough to take on the go with you. You can easily throw it in your backpack’s water bottle holder. However, the Flex 2 is more portable than the Charge 5 cause its flatter and it has a built in loop, so you can attach it to things. However, this loop is not flexible so you’ll might need to get creative. But more importantly, both of these speakers are waterproof and dust proof, however, I do feel the Bose I more durable and premium feeling than the Charge 5 cause it has a powered coated grill and a silicon wrapped body where as the charge 5 has a fabric wrapped body. But more importantly, the rubber feet on this speaker are prone to peeling off after awhile. So portability and durability wise, the Bose wins here.
But when it comes to battery life, the Bose has an advertised battery life of 12 hours, which I feel I a little low for this speaker’s price and size. And this advertised battery life of 12 hours is with this speaker playing at 50% volume. Real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume, its going to be good for about 7 hours of playback time.
But then theres Charge 5 which has an advertised battery life of 20 hours, which is a lot better and real world use with this speaker playing at 80% volume its going to be good for about 10 hours of playback time and 80% volume on the charge 5 is louder than 80% volume on the bose.
And to charge these speakers, they all charge via a USB C port as they should. But also, the charge 5 has a USB A port so that you an charge your own devices. Now I think its great and all that this speaker has a USB A port… but in 2025, you need to be able to use the USB C port on your speaker to charge your own devices. So personally I think the USB A port on the Charge 5 is something thats rarely ever going to get used.
And when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, both of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, and latency is not an issue for any of these speakers so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone. But when it comes to audio codecs, the JBL Charge 5 only has support for SBC where as the Bose Flex which has support for snapdragon sound.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now the Bose has a very simple set up here. This speaker has a frontward firing driver and dual passive radiators that shoot out the front and out the back of this speaker. Where as the charge 5 has a frontward firing woofer, a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And the fact that the Charge has a woofer and a tweeter set up is a big deal cause this helps these speakers have better instrument separation and better openess cause the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, like this.
Tweeter Test
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs so this helps the Charge 5 with its instrument separation and it helps it sound more open. And for 2025, I feel that this type of speaker set up is the standard for premium speaker brands. So the Bose Flex Gen 2 not having this is a bit of a problem. But something that Bose Flex 2 does have is an adjustable EQ, so at least theres that. And yes, you can also adjust the EQ on the charge 5. But now we’re going to jump into the soundtest. All of these speakers are playing at 75% volume with their stock EQ’s.
Sound test
So, the Bose likes to lean towards a warmer sound signature where as the Charge 5 leans more towards a brighter sound signature that puts and emphasis on the mids and vocals. But form a perfjoamcne standpoint, the Charge 5 does sound more open than the Bose due to its woofer and tweeter set up but also, this speaker gets noticeable louder than the Bose. Personally, I really feel that if bose really wanted to call this the Flex 2, they should have added a tweeter on this speaker to help it with its instuemnet seperation, cause I feel that a woofer and tweeter set up is now expected on a premium small or mid sized speaker for 2025.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers with other speakers. Now with both of these speakers, if you have 2 of the exact same speakers, you can pair them up and get them to play in left and right stero mode or you can get them to play in sync. But with the Flex 2, you can only pair up a total of 2 speakers together, and if you want you can pair your flex 2 up to a Bose Max… and maybe bose will release more speakers in the future.
Where as with the JBL Charge 5, this is a party boost speaker and you can pair it up to other party boost speakers like either a Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, and xtreme 3, a charge 5, a pulse 5, a pulse 4, a flip 5 or to a flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together, and you can also pair it up to the JBL Xtreme 4 which is backwards compatible with partyboost.
However, JBL’s newer speakers are moving over to Aura cast. Now aura cast is supposed to be universal… but personally I prefer JBL’s party boost over aurcast cause I find that it just a lot easier to use, its a lot more stable and its a lot faster. Now every though the JBL Xtreme 4 is aura cast and it is backwards compatible with party boost, theres no guarantee that’s JBL’s future aura cast speakers will also be backwards compatible. Cause the Charges 5 wont connect to the Clip 5 or Go 4 which are also using aura cast.
But with all of that being said, the Bose Flex gen 2 is very portable, durable and it feels very premium. But for me it is hard to justify this speaker because of its size, price and lack luster upgrades from its predecessor. I really feel that if bose wanted to jusifty calling this Gen 2, they should have at least added a tweeter to help with instrument seperation. A longer battery life would have been great as well and being able to use it as a power bank would have made this speaker truly Gen 2. Personally I still feel that if you’re looking for a mid sized speaker, I think you are better off going with the JBL Charge 5 cause it gets louder, it sounds more open and it has a longer lasting battery life.