Review: JBL Charge 4

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Are you looking to for a loud quality portable speaker the with quality across the board with with waterproofing and keep the tunes playing for hours? If so, you need to check out the JBL Charge 4. Its has everything you need in a high quality speaker in a small speaker, plus it will charge your phone while you listen to music!

JBL Charge 4 Features

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The JBL Charge 4 comes with a lot of features that you do not see on similarly prices portable speakers. Below are features and specs taken directly from the Amazon Sales for the JBL Charge 4.

• Hear the bass, feel the bass, see the bass. Dual external passive radiators demonstrate just how powerful your speakers are
• Splash proof means no more worrying about rain or spills; you can even clean it with running tap water. Just don’t submerge it
• Take Crystal clear calls from your speaker with the touch of a button thanks to the noise and Echo cancelling speakerphone
• Built-in rechargeable li-ion battery supports up to 15 hours of playtime and charges devices via dual USB ports

Wirelessly connect up to 3 Smartphones or Tablets to the speaker and take turns playing earth-shaking, powerful stereo sound. To reset the unit, hold onto the power button and Bluetooth at the same time.

JBL Charge 3 Vs Charge 4 Specs

After pulling the speaker out and inspecting it. My first thought it looks like a JBL Charge 3. But I found the JBL Charge 4 to be slightly larger but I needed to check the specs. According to JBL, the JBL Charge 3 weighs 1.76 lbs and 8.38 x 3.42 x 3.48 inches. Where as the JBL 4 is 2.12 lbs and 8.66 x 3.4 x 3.66  inches Also the JBL Charge 4 comes with a large battery with better playback times. With the Charge 4 you get a 7800mAH battery that will  get you up to 20 hours of playback. But the Charge 3 gets 6000mAH that will get you up to 20 hours of playback as well. JBL also removed the microphone from the Charge 4. For me this isn’t a big deal. I really don’t use speaker phone on my speakers. For those that use the speaker phone this could be a deal breaker. Both speakers can be operated via Bluetooth to about 30 feet in the house and even further away outside. But the Charge 4 has been upgraded Bluetooth 4.2 instead the Bluetooth 4.1 that comes on the charge 3. If your friends and family have the JBL Charge 3 and you purchase the JBL 4, you won’t be able to sync your speaker with theirs. The Charge 4 uses JBL Connect+ to connect to the speaker. This app is a better version of the original JBL Connect. Since the Charge 3 uses the original JBL Connect and doesn’t work with the newer app you won’t be able to run the two different speakers at the same time.

JBL Charge 4 the Review

Back around Christmas my mother asked me to look into getting her a portable music solution so she can carry the music/pod casts from room to room or take it outside while she works in the yard or out at the farm. Her only requirements were good sound, base, and easy setup. I originally purchased her a set of Anker Flares and she loved them but getting the two to pair was to much for her. So I ended up with that set. After several months of research I decided on the JBL Charge 4. Its a very simple setup, large enough to produce the sound needed, easy to setup, and its possible to link other JBL Speakers with JBL Link (speakers must be JBL Link Capable) for future expansion.

Unboxing

The speaker comes in an expansive box with pictures of the speakers in action and with features/specs about the speaker. When you open the box up you will find more pictures of the speaker. Once you open the last part of the box you will find the speaker on display and waiting for you take it out.

Fist Impressions I found that the speaker to be made well.  The speaker barrel sits on a small pedestal that helps lift the barrel off the surface. On the top of the barrel sits the controls. The Power button and the Bluetooth button light up when active. On each side of the barrel you will find the external radiators and you can see them vibrate. On the back you will find the rubber cover that protects the USB port, USB-C Charging port, and the AUX port. When I first turned it on it made a loud annoying noise. At the bottom of the barrel near the pedestal you will find the LED power status. It was at about half charge. I found that adjusting the sound levels or powering it on/off it makes noise.

Testing

For testing process, I tested sound quality charge time, playback time (inside/outside), and how long charging my phone took via the charging port on the JBL Charge 4.

Playing Music

I went ahead and connected the the speaker via Bluetooth to my Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and it paired in only few seconds. Once connected, I opened Spotify and played sounds from classic rock, heavy metal, rock, rap, country, and a few other genres. I found that sound in a small to medium sized room the sound was good. A nice amount of base. At times the base was a little much and may even drowned out the vocals if I had the music on a lower setting.

In larger rooms and the outdoors the speaker preformed better than I thought it would. The base dropped a little but I sounded good and the base didn’t over power everything.

Watching Movies

Watching moves is pretty cool. Better than my other portable speakers and that includes my Anker Soundcore Boost. It’s a prefect companion for laptop or tablet movie viewing where you do not need to be using a set of earbuds or the home theater system. I watched Aquaman and a couple of other movies at 80% volume connected via the AUX port and it shook my desk. Its not a premium desktop computer speaker replacement but its perfect for watching moves on your laptop in a hotel room or where you can’t use your surround sound system.

The speaker was able to stay synced to movies and did a great job with the movie sound effects and the base was perfect. It was loud when it needed to be but never drowned out the dialog.

Charging

Unlike the JBL Charge 3, the New JBL Charge 4 does not come with a wall charger, it only comes with a USB-C cable. When it comes to charging it does take some time to charge from 0% to 100%. You will need a high speed wall charger to charge it. Something more powerful than your average cell phone charger. I used an Anker PowerPort Elite 2 charge my speaker and it did it in about 4 hours and from what I can tell, it doesn’t support quick charge.

Using the USB-C charger and the USB port on the back of the speaker to charge my  phone was on the slower side. It took roughly 2 and half hours to charge verses the hour forty five minutes to charge using the Anker PowerPort Elite 2.

Thoughts and Opinions

You might not think the size on the JBL Charge 4 will not make much of  a difference. It isn’t a bid difference if you are throwing a pool party or a house party where the speaker will sit stationary the whole time. But packing this in your travel bag, hiking gear, or carrying it in your bag with other stuff to your camp site could make a difference that you don’t want to deal with. Remember, the longer you have to carry it the heavier it gets…

Charge time on one of these a bit much for a “party speaker” and the size of the battery makes up for that. But larger batter does cause it to take longer to charge, so make to fully charge your speaker before the party. JBL could have added quick charge or “Power Delivery” instead of a USB-C connection that charges on USB 3.1. From what I found, you can take advantage a faster charge by using an 18 to 25 watt wall charger. Below are few options from several reliable charger companies.

If you find the power up/off chimes annoying. You can download the JBL Connect App for iOS or Android and upgrade the firmware. Once upgraded, you can turn off the chimes.

Should you get a JBL Charge 3 or a JBL Charge 4? There isn’t much difference in quality of music from what other reviewers have mentioned. If you can still find the older discontinued models in the store on Amazon I would pick one of those up and save some money. Just keep in mind these old speakers have limited color options and it won’t be able to connect and sync with newer units.

But if you want to throw a crazy party and need/want to connect to 100 other JBL speakers at a party or the beach, you want the option to choose from ten different colors, and want a slightly bigger/newest Charge speaker  on the market, then this one is the way to go. I highly recommend both speakers (I haven’t tested the JBL Charge 3, but all the reviewers are impressed with it, my brother loves his, and listening to the demo model sounds good). Just keep in mind the sound quality can’t be compared to premium sound systems such as the Sonsos Sound Systems. Make sure to check out the JBL Charge 4 Amazon sales page to learn more and purchase yours today.