JBL Charge 4 Review: My Favorite Bluetooth Speaker

After weeks of testing, I determined JBL Charge 4 is the best portable speaker option for most people because of its great sound quality, long battery life, and good bang for the buck.

Sound: A-

• Charge 4 is an amazing speaker for this form factor. It has a brilliant sound that offers a deeper bass at all volume levels with better depth than other speakers. You won’t beat it for $150.
• Charge 4 offers one-directional sound, and there’s only one driver. It sounds best when there’s a wall for the sound to reflect off of.
• You need to be in front of the speaker for optimal listening. Although it’ll be fine outdoors, it’s not ideal because it’s not omnidirectional.
• Overall, the sound is brilliant, crisp and deep as long as the volume stays in the 60% range. While under 60%, it has the perfect balance of low, high, and mids, but the highs get screechy above 70%.
• You’re stuck listening to music the way JBL intended because you can’t customize the sound, but this isn’t a bad thing.
• It doesn’t have as much bass as Megaboom 3, but Charge 4’s bass stays stable the whole time, whereas, Megaboom 3 gets too boomy at louder levels.
• Compared to UE Boom 3, it has a better bass and is much richer and louder. Charge 4’s sound is closer to Megaboom 3 than Boom 3. Overall, it’s a brilliant-sounding speaker and provides fantastic value at $150.
• Compared to Charge 3, Charge 4 has more bass and more power (one 30W driver compare to two 10W drivers) with a better treble. Both sound great, but I wouldn’t say the sound is an improvement or that is got worse, just that it’s different. It’s $40 less.

Design: B-

• It weighs 2.1 pounds and is 8.7 inches long. It’s still small enough that it can be held in one hand.
• It looks not the best looking, but at least it has a base to sit on (relative to Flip 4).
• It comes in 10 different colors (Black, Blue, Forest Green, Grey, Pink, Red, Sand, Teal, and White), but the colors are plain and not overly appealing.
• The port cover is perfect. It stays latched (for waterproofing), but it’s easy to open. This is something that Flip 4 could learn from its big brother.
• You can plug in your old school devices because there’s a 3.5mm port.

Durability: B+

• It’s waterproof (IPX7 rating). It can be submerged in water for up to 30 minutes.
• While it’s waterproof, you have to let it air out if it gets wet because the water gets in between the radiators on the sides and makes the sound muffled.
• It’s not listed as shockproof, but it’s going to withstand normal drops.
• It’ll float in water.

Power: A+

• The battery is impressive for its size and loudness delivered. It’s rated for 20 hours of playback and takes four hours to recharge. My real world tests:
• 8.5 hours with 60% volume.
• 6.5 hours with 85% volume.
• It works as a portable phone charger with its 7,500-mAh battery USB port.
• It recharges with USB-C and it takes around four hours.

Software: D+

• The JBL software serves no purpose and should be avoided. There are no benefits, it’s hard to connect, and the interface runs off of the screen.
• You can keep it paired to two different devices at the same time.
• You can pair Charge 4 with other JBL speakers.
• JBL Connect+ works well by pressing the Connect+ button on each speaker that you want to be paired. The connect is stable compared to most Bluetooth connections.
• There’s no way to activate your phone’s voice assistant because there’s no mic, but this function doesn’t work well on most portable speakers anyways.
• It gets an extra five feet of Bluetooth range, and the Bluetooth seems more reliable than SoundLink Color II.

Who is this for?

Get JBL Charge 4 if you want the best sounding speaker at this size and an extra two hours of battery at 60% volume. It has one-directional sound, but it isn’t terrible outside. It can’t charge wirelessly.

Get JBL Charge 3 for $50 less. It sounds similar to Charge 4 and is an incredible value.