Review on 🔊 JBL Charge 3 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker - Portable & Black (1) by Mark Dahmer

I was looking for a portable travel speaker to complement my Sonos home setup. After Googling ratings and reviews, I picked the UE Boom 2, JBL Charge 3, and Bose SoundLink Mini II as top picks for almost all of the reviewers. All 3 have very high Revain ratings in both the US and UK so the choice will likely come down to personal preference. older, doesn't look as attractive (actually, it looks rather dated), and the audio quality reviews don't put it above the other two. Then I couldn't decide between UE and JBL so I bought both. I compared them side by side over the course of a week with the following observations: 1) The batteries on both last ridiculously long. Yes, JBL lasts longer, but 15 hours on UE is a week of regular use. What other electronics do you rarely charge? 2) Both speakers are very loud. Assuming you're not throwing a proper dance party, it would be surprising if they ended. JBL focuses on the maximum, maybe UE is a notch above the maximum for bass-heavy songs. 3) UE has clearer highs and mids while JBL has deeper and more voluminous bass. It took me a week to decide it was a tie for me, but most people would probably prefer the larger JBL bass. Also, UE gives you 360-degree audio, which is pretty neat: you can put it in the middle of a room instead of against a wall. This can act as an effective sound multiplier as you reduce the distance to people when using it in a group. as UE or JBL. That's not to say that UE or JBL produce inferior sound: both sound surprisingly good for their size. My point is that we shouldn't bother comparing the audio quality between the two since neither of them is a reference sound device. 4) Size matters here. JBL is over 50% larger than UE, which makes a big difference. See photos: JBL is longer, wider and heavier than UE. This was an important factor that allowed UE to declare the winner by a large margin. The speakers are roughly related before size comes into play, and the UE is just a lot smaller. I tend to take it with me when I travel. 5) Other functions. Both speakers are waterproof. The Charge 3 charges your phone, which isn't entirely useless, but probably not a crucial feature. The UE looks a lot slimmer in terms of design, with fewer buttons and better symmetry. Conclusion: The JBL Charge 3 is an excellent speaker that deserves a 5-star rating. In my opinion, however, the UE Boom 2 was the clear winner due to its much more compact size and uncluttered design, as they were close in other areas, including sound quality.