This is the review of the comparison between two portable speakers from different brands that are popular in the market for their qualitative products. The comparison here is between the JBL Flip 5 and the Bose SoundLink Mini II. There is a huge difference in their price range currently on Amazon. To know whether the difference in their price makes any better change in their features and performances or not, and to know which one is worth buying for the price go the detailed review.

JBL Flip 5	Bose SoundLink Mini II
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Simple design, Excellent sound,11 color options, Able to pair multiple JBL speakers. Good sound quality, waterproof, long battery life excellent sound quality, and very loud.	Great build quality. Stellar sound. Automatically switches to AUX mode when a device is connected via cable. Can be paired with two Bluetooth devices at the same time.
CONS	CONS
Need compatible models to use PartyBoost, Checking battery life requires you to press the top buttons, No speakerphone or voice assistant functionality.	No aptX or NFC. Lows lack precision and agility. Mediocre battery life. Not water-resistant. Bose missed an opportunity in not allowing for stereo pairing.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

JBL Flip 5

The JBL Flip 5 is the latest Flip series speaker from JBL, which has been actually in the market since 2019. This speaker is retailing for around a hundred and twenty dollars currently on Amazon. This speaker does have quite better features than the Flip 4 such as the USB Type-C for charging but it also lost many good features that are there in the Flip 4. The huge change in this compared to its predecessor is the “party boost”.

Bose SoundLink Mini II

The Bose SoundLink Mini 2 is a nice little small compact speaker. If you’re like looking to clear some more space on your desktop at work, at home, your little area, or even just inside the house it’s something small that doesn’t take up a lot of room, you could just put it somewhere and just let it disappear and hide and it’s not an eyesore. The SoundLink Mini 2 is retailing for around two hundred dollars currently on Amazon.

DESIGN: 

JBL Flip 5

As far as the design and the physical, the JBL Flip 5 looks quite similar to its predecessor, the Flip 4. Same cylindrical shape with two passive radiators facing outward on the left and right of the speaker body, with fabric material covering the speaker grill surface. Also, the same JBL logo in the middle. At the top of the speaker, there is a power button to on/off the speaker and a Bluetooth button for initial pairing. On the back, there are various other buttons such as the volume up and volume down buttons, and the TWS mode button for stereo pairing with another Flip 5. The button’s position is mostly the same as on Flip 4, only the position of the TWS and Bluetooth mode buttons are reversed.

The buttons on the Flip 5 are equipped with LEDs and this is quite helpful when being used in a dim place. On the side of the speaker, there is a battery LED indicator that doesn’t come in the form of dot-type anymore like the one found on the Flip 4, there is also an openly-exposed USB Type-C port, which is a bit concerning due to not having any rubber flap or cover at all, unlike on the Flip 4. So it’s quite vulnerable to water or dust/sand intrusion when you bring this speaker to the beach area.

Bose SoundLink Mini II

As far as the design, look, and feel of the speaker, one thing that you’re going to notice when you open the box is that this thing is kind of heavy, it feels like a little brick. I was really shocked by the size of it, this speaker does have a lot of weight and that’s the first thing you’re definitely going to notice when you take it out. It’s not a little cheap flimsy thing at all, it’s really compact. It’s like all the components feel like they’re just squeezed as close as they can, and it’s really tight, compact, and heavy. If you take a closer look at the speaker itself, you will see the Bose logo as always, you have like a metal mesh right there on the front, and then you have all your little function buttons up there.

You have buttons such as the volume up and down, your Bluetooth button, your multi-function button as well and your power button. Then you’ll have like a little led strip that little LEDs that will light up on there as well, so that is everything on the buttons wise of the speaker. On the side is where you have your ports on the speaker, so you have your aux port, and then you also have your little charging port. On the back of the speaker, you also have the little hard metal mesh as well and then on the other side of the speaker, you have nothing.

FEATURES:

JBL Flip 5

The presentation is nice, the speaker unit is safely placed inside the shock absorber cork-box, besides, we also get a warranty card, user manual, and USB Type-C charging cable in the box. It had moved on from micro USB found on the older Flip 4 to USB Type-C in this. The Flip 4 utilizes dual transducers, on Flip 5 we find only a single, larger than flip 4’s transducer, measuring 44 mm in diameter and producing a total power output of 20 Watts. The older Flip 4 on the other hand comes with a dual driver configuration, measuring 40 mm each, with a combined power output of 16 W.

Unfortunately, the 3.5mm auxiliary jack is missing on the Flip 5 series, and the same happened on the Sony XB23 too. And because the USB-C port can’t be used for wired audio connection, the Flip 5 practically only relies on Bluetooth as the sole connectivity means. On Flip 4 by the way, there is still a 3.5 mm jack. Like Flip 4, the JBL Flip 5 also comes with an IPX7 rating, which means the speaker can be submerged in the water up to 1-meter depth for a maximum of 30 minutes. But in most cases, I believe the Flip 5 is unlikely to be in that depth because Flip 5 does float on the water. So you don’t need to worry when the speaker accidentally falls into the pool or pond, for example.

As far as the connectivity, the JBL Flip 5 is still stuck with Bluetooth 4.2. When I tested the maximum linear distance between the speaker and audio source, I was able to walk up to 50 meters away before the Bluetooth signal started to stutter. For Bluetooth 4.2 in Bluetooth speaker, this is a very good result, though, and this will suit outdoor use as well. Anyway, JBL Flip 5 also supports a multi-device connection and can be connected to up to 2 devices at the same time. When you play music from 1 device, you can immediately play music from another device that is also connected to Flip 5, and the speaker will immediately switch to playing the music from this last device.

In my experience, having the Flip 5 connected to both my laptop and my iPad at the same time, this feature works perfectly. Streaming video on both YouTube and Netflix I’ve got no problem at all, both on my Galaxy Note 9, and on my iPad too, there is no noticeable video-audio delay in my casual observation. So, I still can recommend this for those who like to use Bluetooth speakers for video streaming. As for the Bluetooth audio codec, the Flip 5 supports the SBC codec only. Unfortunately, the Flip 5 is not equipped with any microphone, so you can’t use Flip 5 as a speakerphone.

Bose SoundLink Mini II

You don’t really have too many ports just those two and your multifunction buttons at the top. You’re gonna feel that weight when you take it out of the box, and you’ll feel the metal of the Bose speaker. It’s really good, high quality, also that’s what you get with Bose all the time. You can really feel the quality of this speaker, that is the first thing you would definitely notice and it looks pretty nice. As well with that with the compactness, you could also take this on the go if you wanted to but these are mostly made for home, these are the homebody speakers these don’t like to go out, these want to be at home all day. But these are the type of speakers that you can take on the go if you want because it’s a nice really small compact portable style. You can take if you want but these type of speakers just want to stay home and relax.

When it comes to the battery life of this speaker, they promote it lasts about 12 hours and I always say take two or three hours of whatever number that they claim because we’re gonna be playing it full blast pumping loud most of the time. They normally test the volumes at medium to low to see how long it could really last. If you’re one of those people that like to bump your music really loud all the time when you’re listening to music, you always on any product you want to take like two to three hours off of the battery life because it definitely kills it way quicker.

The Bluetooth pairing of this speaker is really easy. You just need to press the power button, and it starts to connect to everything and it also can connect to multiple devices. When you turn this on it’ll also say what it’s connected to and your battery level. It does connect to multiple things and it will switch it whenever something stops on the other end. When it comes to the call quality on the speaker, the call quality is really good especially, when I’m listening to people talk to me, it sounds professional like I’m on a business call and the speaker and stuff but it sounds really crispy. When I talk to other people, they said I sound good they can’t believe that I was using a speaker.

SOUND QUALITY:

JBL Flip 5

As far as the sound quality on this, starting with volume, for a small speaker in its size, the JBL Flip 5 does get loud. In my 4×3 meter room, I only use this speaker at 50-55% volume and that’s been enough most of the time. Volume-wise it is as loud as the Flip 4 and it’s a bit louder than the Sony XB23 with about a 10% volume difference. And I believe the JBL Flip 5 is enough to fill most private rooms, or for a casual listening session to accompany your small-group outdoor picnic/ camping, for example. In terms of audio, JBL Flip 5 has an “alive/lively” audio character in my opinion, as we can expect from most JBL Bluetooth speakers.

Bose SoundLink Mini II

The sound quality is really good when it comes to this small compact speaker. It’s really small and compact and it does have a loud sound that pumps out of these, and I was really impressed with the sound that comes out of these but you never really expect less from Bose. When it comes to the mids and the highs, the vocals and instruments, that’s the ranges they always play in, you get a nice clear sound. You don’t get any distortion at all, on the max volume your highs don’t distort and give you that crappy little sound where you will feel like I got to turn it down a little bit. But it sounds clear, it handles it really well, the mids and highs work together, fairly good to give you a nice full rich sound with the bass.

WHICH ONE IS WORTH BUYING?

If you are looking to upgrade from your small little budget speaker to something more stylish and nicer looking for your house or your desktop or your office, the Bose SounLink Mini II is really worth buying than the JBL Flip 5. It’s a nice little loudspeaker for the size, really nice design, easy connect, and it sounds really good when you’re talking to people on the phone as well so that if you’re connected to your phone you can easily just talk to them through this.

Expert Reviews of JBL Flip 5:

By Tech Radar
The JBL Flip 5 is a simple soul – perhaps too simple for some in this world – but that minimalist approach has allowed JBL to focus on performance and create one of the best-sounding budget portable speakers around. Thanks to its neat design and IPX7…

By What Hi-Fi?
JBL’s latest offering sounds great for the price. If you don’t mind the lack of in-app EQ settings, aux-in port, battery life, inbuilt microphones, or partnering with older JBL speakers, it’s an excellent proposition for the money. It may be low on added…

By Pocket-lint
If you’re looking for a small, portable, and waterproof Bluetooth speaker then your options are many. The JBL Flip 5 delivers ample audio output and ticks all those boxes too, making it a tempting little portable. It also updates the design over the…

By TheStreamingBlog
JBL is a company known for producing affordable yet durable audio devices that deliver excellent sounds, and the JBL Flip 5 is not an exception. It may not be the perfect speaker, but for its price, it offers a lot more than what we expected. The JBL…

By techgearlab.com
Finding a reasonable balance between sound quality/volume and portability/ruggedness, the JBL Flip 5 is the quintessential jack of all trades, master of none. It’s melodious enough that you’re almost certainly going to enjoy listening to any type of…

Expert Reviews of Bose SounLink Mini II:

By TechRadar
The Bose SoundLink Mini II is showing its age with its average battery life and lack of features like NFC and…

By goodhousekeeping.com
The SoundLink Mini II is a compact and lightweight speaker (it’s only about 15 square inches and weighs one pound) with…

By expert Reviews
Available now at around £130, the Bose SoundLink Mini 2 is a great choice overall. It sounds excellent for the money and provided you’re not looking for a ruggedized speaker…

By What Hi-Fi?
If you’re after a fully portable speaker that doesn’t scrimp on bass weight, the SoundLink Mini II could be for you.

By Trusted Reviews
There are plenty of cheaper alternatives out there, but the Bose SoundLink Mini II is the best wireless speaker in this class right now.