JBL Charge 5
Small speaker, big sound.
JBL has a long history of making great Bluetooth speakers and the Charge line has always stood out for its value. Historically, the Charge series offered incredibly impressive sound for its size. Battery life has always been impressive, allowing users to use their Charge speakers as a battery bank in a pinch.
The design of the JBL Charge 5 is an iteration of the cylindrical design it has had for years. The biggest visual change is the large JBL logo on the front of the speaker. On the front, the individual power LEDs have moved from the bottom base to an LED strip under the JBL logo, which looks sleeker.
Physical controls remain the same with slightly raised buttons on top of the speaker. There are buttons to control playback, volume, power, Bluetooth pairing, and “Party Boost”.
Around the back, the JBL Charge 5 has a waterproof USB-C charging port as well as a flap hiding the USB-A port that can be used to charge up your smartphone. The
Charge 5 drops support for the 3.5mm aux jack from the JBL Charge 4, which is a bummer for some who have legacy devices they want to hook up.
In terms of technical specs, the Charge 5 includes Bluetooth 5.1, a 7500mAh battery capacity, and a frequency response rated 65 Hz - 20k Hz. However, like other JBL portable speakers, the Charge 5 features the “PartyBoost” mode, which allows users to pair a second JBL speaker to either amplify music or use as a stereo pair.
The feature is great if you want to play music across a large area where multiple speakers can help amplify sound. It’s also nice to get true stereo playback out of a pair of speakers.
Overall, the sound quality of the JBL Charge 5 hasn’t changed much from the Charge 4. There’s an additional tweeter in the Charge 5 that helps with overall clarity, and bass is slightly more impactful than the Charge 4, too.
Tonally, the JBL Charge 5 sounds balanced at medium to low volume.
Bass is impactful and deep, which is surprising for a speaker of this sound. We’ve heard bookshelf speakers that produce less bass than the Charge 5. Mids are clear with vocals given good presence, and highs are rolled off for a warmer presentation, until you start pushing the volume up and up.
For the best sound quality, we recommend keeping the speaker around 50-60% volume – when you have to push beyond this volume, there’s likely so much ambient noise that sound quality isn’t the first priority.
The JBL Charge 5 is an iteration on a winning formula. The Charge series of speakers is known for balanced sound, high volume, and long battery life, and that hasn’t changed in this fifth generation. However, the Charge 5 improves on just about every aspect of what made it great, making it an easy recommendation for those looking for big, balanced sound with all-day battery life.
Lewis Leongr