At first glance the new JBL Charge 5 just looks like another redesign with an over done
gaudy logo on the front… but there are actually some very major changes here under the hood.
Some that are great and others that aren’t as good. So today we’re going to check out
the JBL Charge 5 and we’re also going to compare it to the JBL Charge 4 and JBL Charge
3.
But first we’ve got to addressing pricing… the new charge 5 has a retail price $180,
which is $30 more than the charge 4 when it first came out. Now a few months after the
charge 4 came out it got a price increase to $180. But then it would list for $150 making
you think that you got a deal… So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the same deal with
the Charge 5. It has a retail price of $180 but in a few short weeks it’ll start going
on sale for $150… and maybe even a little less on major holidays. And now that the Charge
5 is here the Charge 4 is on sale for $130. Regardless if you want to pick any of these
speakers up they’ll be linked down below… but I would wait for the Charge 5 to go on
sale.
Now when it comes to the design of this speaker…. Size wise the charge 5 isn’t all that different
from the charge 4 and charge 3… the Charge 5 is still your typical mid sized speaker
that you can easily throw into your back pack and take on the go with you. However looks
wise the charge 5 is a shrunken down version of the JBL Xtreme 3 with that new oversized
logo in toe much to a lot of people’s chagrin. Now personally im over JBL’s new design
direction… cause more importantly everything else about the charge 5 is still the same.
We’ve still got those exposed passive radiators on either side… we’ve got these hard plastic
end caps with rubber feet… and we’ve still got this fabric mesh that not only feels premium
and tightly woven… its also going to be able to easily stand up to constant abuse
like bumps and scrapes without any problems. Now just its predecessors the Charge 5 is
still water proof… but this time its rocking and IP67 ratting rather than just your IPX7
rating found on the Charge 4 and Charge 3. Now the 6 just means that the Charge 5 is
also dust proof… but really this is just marketing to get numbers on the board cause
dust and dirt were never a problem for the Charge 4 and Charge 3… and they’re just
as durable. But regardless, if youre looking for a mid sized speaker that you can take
on the go with you and not have to worry about it… then the Charge is a solid candidate.
But now lets talk about tech specs… when it comes to battery life the Charge 5 has
an advertised battery life of 20 hours just like its predecessors. And the Charge 5 even
has a 7500 milliamp hour battery just like the Charge 4. But keep in mind, that 20 hour
battery life is for when these speaker are playing at 50 percent volume. Real world use
with the Charge 5 playing at 80% volume im getting about 10 hours of playback time which
is not bad at all. And also keep in mind if you were to use this speaker at a higher volume
its battery life is going to drain faster.
However for me the Charge 4 has always been good for a little more than 11 hours at 80%
volume. Now personally I don’t mind that the Charge 5 has a slightly shorter real world
battery life cause it does have a new extra 10 watt tweeter to power which we will touch
on in a second and it does get noticeably louder than the Charge 4. So for all intents
and purposes the Charge 5 still has an awesome battery life.
Regarding connectivity, the Charge 5 has been upgraded to Bluetooth 5.1 but more importantly
it can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so you and a friend can both be DJ…
and performance wise there’s zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos
whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device if you’re connected to only one device
at a time… but if you’re connected to 2 devices at the same time then latency does
show up.
But this now lead us to the ports on this speaker… now the Charge 5 charges via a
USB C port just like the Charge 4 as they should. So if you’re an android user this
is great cause you can charge your phone and speaker with the same cable. And just like
its predecessors the Charge 5 still has a USB A out port so you can use it to charge
your own devices.
But unfortunately the Charge 5 no longer has an audio jack… which means you can’t use
it with a wired connection like you can with these older speakers. Cause the USB C port
on this speaker these speakers are strictly used for charging. Now I know less and less
phones these days have audio jacks but I still feel that mid sized speakers like the Charge
5 should still have an audio jack cause you never know.
Personally what I think JBL should have done is gotten rid of the USB A port and kept the
audio jack instead… cause now that more and more phones are coming included with USB
C cables USB A might not be as popular in the near future. Even iPhones now come included
with USB C to lighting cables. So I think JBL should have kept the Audio jack just in
case… and had the USB C port on the Charge 5 both be used for charging and for charging
other devices like you can with the JBL Xtreme 3.
So with all that being said, its great that the charge 5 has USB C charging and you can
still use it as a battery back with its USB A port… but keep in mind there’s no longer
an audio jack so you can only use this speaker wirelessly.
But now lets talk about speaker set ups cause this is the most important upgrade found on
the Charge 5. The JBL Charge 3 has your traditional dual frontward firing transducers and dual
passive radiators shooting out its sides. And this speaker is rated at 20 Watts. Where
as the Charge 4 is rated at 30 watts and when it first came out it did garner a good amount
of criticism cause it only has a single frontward firing transducer but it still kept its dual
passive radiators. But now with the Charge 5 it has a 30 Watt woofer, a new 10 watt tweeter
taking up all that empty space found on the Charge 4 and the Charge 5 still has does dual
passive radiators that shoot out its sides. So the reason why this new tweeter on the
Charge 5 is a big deal is cause it does sound a lot more open than its predecessors cause
the mids are now handled by the woofer and the highs are handled by the tweeter. Where
as with the Charge 4 that single transducer is doing the majority of the work. But let
me just show you.
So after this demo helpfully you can see how big of a deal this new speaker set up on the
Charge 5. Being able to separate the mids and highs is just going to allow the Charge
5 to sound more open than its predecessors. But also due to its new tweeter the Charge
5 does have a brighter sound signature this time around very similar to the JBL Xtreme
3. But so that you can hear for yourself we’re going to jump into the sound test.
So like you may have just heard, the Charge 3 sounds very narrow when compared to the
Charge 4 and especially the Charge 5. The Charge 3 also has the least amount of punch
to its bass and you know this is to be expected given that the Charge 3 doesn’t have as
much out put as the Charge 4 and charge 5. However I do gotta say that the Charge 4 and
Charge 5 do have the same amount of punch in their bass. Now like ive mentioned multiple
times already, the charge 5 does sound more open than the Charge 4 cause it can separate
its mids and highs thanks to its new woofer and tweeter set up. Specifically the highs
are much crisper thanks to the tweeter… but they are more pronounced. So the Charge
5 does have a brighter sound signature than its predecessors which does allow the vocals
to really standout here. But also the new brighter sound signature on the Charge 5 means
that it does sound a little louder than the Charge 4 as well. Now personally I would like
to go in and reduce the highs just a little bit on this speaker… but JBL still doesn’t
allow you to change your speaker’s EQ. Nonetheless the Charge 5’s slightly brighter EQ does
come in handy when used out doors cause with a brighter sound signature your music is going
to travel out farther. However just keep in mind, you are not going to get a performance
bump out of this speaker if you were to use it while its plugged in like you do with the
JBL Xtreme 3 which also charges via a USB C port.
But finally lets talk about speaker pairing protocols… now that the Charge 5 is here
party boost is finally complete. Meaning that you can pair the Charge 5 either to a JBL
Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Flip 5, another Charge 5 or to a JBL Pulse 4. And like ive mentioned
in the past, JBL does speaker pairing protocols very well. You just press one button on each
speaker, they pair themselves up, you don’t gotta open an other apps, you can pair up
to 100 speakers together which is way more than what you need… but more importantly
it just works.
However just keep in mind, you can not pair up any party boost speakers to any other JBL
speakers using JBL Connect Plus or JBL Connect. So if you’ve got a Charge 5 you can’t
pair it up either to an original boombox, an Xtreme 2, a Flip 4, a Charge 4, a Charge
3, or a JBL Pulse 3. Now even though this isn’t ideal, there are some performance
benefits with Partyboost over JBL Connect Plus. Specifically with party boost you can
have a lot more range in between your speakers.
And also for my Partybox owners… no you can’t pair any of JBL’s Partyboost speakers
with any Partybox speakers. Which I think is pretty unfortunate cause I think it would
be pretty cool to be able to pair a Charge 5 with a Partybox 310.
But now that the Partyboost family is complete does that mean we’re going to see some new
speaker pairing protocol come out with the next JBL speaker to come out. Which personally
I hope is a flip 5 with a new tiny tweeter. Personally I hope JBL doesn’t come out with
a new speaker pairing protocol with their next speaker cause when we went from JBL Connect
Plus to Partyboost it did look and feel like forced obsolesces. And the community really
didn’t like that.
Personally I would like to see JBL continue to support Partyboost and bring party boost
to their partybox line up. This way you can easily pair multiple partybox speakers together
and even pair them up to JBL’s smaller speakers. And instead of forcing people to upgrade with
a new speaker pairing protocol… you can incentivize people to upgrade by improving
your speaker set ups like you did with the Charge 5, add new software features like an
adjustable EQ, improve battery life, and maybe even introduce wireless charging.
But with all the being said, at first glance the JBL Charge 5 may seem like a simple redesign…
but there are some major changes here. The most crucial of which is this new speaker
set up. Thanks to the addition of a new tweeter this speaker does sound more open and has
better instrument separation cause it now has a dedicated driver for the mids and a
dedicated driver for the highs. Although just like the Xtreme 3… the Charge 5 does have
a slightly brighter sound signature which does put an emphasis on the vocals but it
does come in handy when used out doors. But nonetheless the Charge 5 sounds good. Theres
also the addition of Partyboost meaning that the party boost family is complete. So overall
if you’re an adventurer looking for a mid sized speaker to use on your camping trips
and or hikes… then the Charge 5 can definitely keep up thanks to its rugged body and long
real world battery life. However just keep in mind you can no longer use a wired connection
with this speaker. Personally I would happily trade the USB A port on the Charge 5 for an
Audio jack.