Bose SoundLink Flex review - Mini but mighty good

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey there this is bose's soundlink flex bluetooth speaker i apologize for being a little late reviewing it but i got waylaid by the airpods third generation and beats fit pro earbuds reviews but this guy should definitely be on your radar if you're looking for a portable wireless speaker it's 149 sounds really good for its size and may just be the best compact water speaker out there right now let's talk about that okay so when it launched bose made some bold claims about the speaker's sound quality particularly its base performance i think the exact quote was something along the lines of it has astonishing bass that you can feel in your chest there's a bit of marketing hyperbole going on there but i gotta say it mostly lives up to the hype as i said for its size it does pack some really good punch but before i dig into sound quality compared to some other top bluetooth speakers i'm going to go over its design and features it's available in three color options black white smoke and stone blue and the speaker is ip67 dust and waterproof it also floats and that's an important feature if you're in the habit of dropping your bluetooth speakers in your pool or another body of water i personally wouldn't want to drop it anywhere but bose says that thanks to its soft silicone back and powder coated steel grille that won't peel or flake and is resistant to corrosion and uv light it's designed to be pretty durable and can survive small drops that silicone finish is indeed soft to the touch but i'll note that it does attract a bit of dust and lint and it shows more on the black version i like the speaker in blue but the white one was a close second there are buttons on top for controlling playback which is always good to have although most people will just use their phone as a remote to play music one thing that's missing is an audio input so you can't connect an audio device via an auxiliary cable this is strictly a bluetooth speaker bose's soundlink micro also delivers impressive sound for its tiny size this does feel like it's in the same family but is almost twice as big weighing just over a pound or 0.45 kilograms and it sounds significantly better than the micro with better battery life for some reason it used the older bluetooth 4.2 instead of 5.0 i didn't have any problems with connectivity it was generally rock solid but for those looking for extended wireless range this is only listed as having the standard bluetooth range of 30 feet or 10 meters battery life is rated at 12 hours at moderate volume levels which is pretty good it's basically got twice the battery life of the soundlink micro and charges via usbc instead of micro usb the speaker is designed to be propped up horizontally laid down flat or hung vertically by its integrated loop bose shows it in pictures with a carabiner attached loop but no carabiner is included you have to supply your own but it's good that there's a loop and it does seem pretty sturdy the speaker sound is automatically optimized according to the position you have it in i tended to keep it upright but it does have a built-in microphone so you can use it as a speakerphone and you may want to lay it down flat if you're using the speakerphone with a few people sitting around it it works pretty well picking up your voice and it puts out a lot more sound than your phone's tiny speakers how do i sound overall so initially your voice was strong and as you're walking away the speaker's still doing a good job of focusing on your voice how far are you now from the speaker yeah your voice is starting to become a little faint but the speaker's still doing a good job of picking up your voice bose says it can fill a living room with sound from my test i'd say it would have to be a relatively small living room it can only output so much sound and be clear this is a mono speaker but the key with it is that it does manage to produce more bass than you think it can also it avoids distorting at higher volumes and delivers good clarity in the treble and mid-range with overall well-balanced sound that's only slightly base forward did you see him riding into town did you see his dusty you're going to be immediately impressed by how much sound it throws off and decent sound at that but it can't totally see it being a small speaker the sound stage only gets so wide and it can sound a little constrained with more complicated music tracks that have a lot of instruments playing at the same time to avoid distorting certain frequencies do get ratcheted back just a little bit particularly at higher volumes i compared it to several other compact portable speakers the one that seems to get compared to the most is the jbl charge which costs 180 the charge is a bit bulkier speaker and puts out a little more sound its base is bigger but arguably boomier and more forward so the mids where vocals lift can sound a little recessed i think the bose has a better overall tunnel balance and the bass has more definition i prefer to sound overall just so you guys know that you can't tweak it sound like the jbl both of these speakers lack eq settings so you have to go with their signature sounds i thought it compared pretty favorably to the 170 dollar sonos roam which is also an excellent wide speaker that has wi-fi as well as bluetooth it connects to your sonos system at home the bose however is more straightforward to use because it's a bluetooth only speaker and comparing this to the ue wonderboom 2 that's a 100 speaker that's also very good for its size the bose does deliver more depth and bigger body to its sound same is true for the bang olufsen dio sound a1 i like that speaker a lot but the bose beat that one as well it offered more full-bodied sound however the a1 does offer multi-point bluetooth pairing so you can pair it simultaneously with your phone and a computer this model does not seem to have that feature some people have asked me how it sounds compared to bose's canister style revolve speaker that model's a bit more expensive and produces a bit more sound but it doesn't really sound any better and i prefer the flex's design the larger revolve plus has the flex speed but that speaker costs twice as much you could buy two flexes for the same price and that might not be a bad idea that's because while the speaker sounds good as a single speaker you get a big increase in sound quality when you pair two flexes together in stereo mode i felt the same way about the sonos roam you just get real stereo separation and both the sound stage and bass seem so much bigger as a pair they sound like real speakers and indeed can fill a decent sized living room with sound i should also note that you can link up the flex with other bose speakers in party mode in other words you can mix and match but to get stereo sound you'll need another flex i'll finish by saying that pricing for bluetooth speakers has been a little weird these days with all the supply chain issues and chip shortages by weird i mean the prices only seem to be going up and not much is on sale so even though 150 bucks might sound like a lot for some people it's a decent price for a top bluetooth speaker and quite reasonable for bose as i said at the beginning if you're looking for a portable bluetooth speaker the flex should definitely be on your radar if not at the top of your list but let me know what you guys think and how the flex might compare to your favorite bluetooth speaker sound off in the comments section and if you're interested in any of the products mentioned check out the description below for links on where to find them and you can get even more details in my text review on cnet lastly if you found this video informative at all hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already i'm david carney for cnet thanks for watchinghey there this is bose's soundlink flex bluetooth speaker i apologize for being a little late reviewing it but i got waylaid by the airpods third generation and beats fit pro earbuds reviews but this guy should definitely be on your radar if you're looking for a portable wireless speaker it's 149 sounds really good for its size and may just be the best compact water speaker out there right now let's talk about that okay so when it launched bose made some bold claims about the speaker's sound quality particularly its base performance i think the exact quote was something along the lines of it has astonishing bass that you can feel in your chest there's a bit of marketing hyperbole going on there but i gotta say it mostly lives up to the hype as i said for its size it does pack some really good punch but before i dig into sound quality compared to some other top bluetooth speakers i'm going to go over its design and features it's available in three color options black white smoke and stone blue and the speaker is ip67 dust and waterproof it also floats and that's an important feature if you're in the habit of dropping your bluetooth speakers in your pool or another body of water i personally wouldn't want to drop it anywhere but bose says that thanks to its soft silicone back and powder coated steel grille that won't peel or flake and is resistant to corrosion and uv light it's designed to be pretty durable and can survive small drops that silicone finish is indeed soft to the touch but i'll note that it does attract a bit of dust and lint and it shows more on the black version i like the speaker in blue but the white one was a close second there are buttons on top for controlling playback which is always good to have although most people will just use their phone as a remote to play music one thing that's missing is an audio input so you can't connect an audio device via an auxiliary cable this is strictly a bluetooth speaker bose's soundlink micro also delivers impressive sound for its tiny size this does feel like it's in the same family but is almost twice as big weighing just over a pound or 0.45 kilograms and it sounds significantly better than the micro with better battery life for some reason it used the older bluetooth 4.2 instead of 5.0 i didn't have any problems with connectivity it was generally rock solid but for those looking for extended wireless range this is only listed as having the standard bluetooth range of 30 feet or 10 meters battery life is rated at 12 hours at moderate volume levels which is pretty good it's basically got twice the battery life of the soundlink micro and charges via usbc instead of micro usb the speaker is designed to be propped up horizontally laid down flat or hung vertically by its integrated loop bose shows it in pictures with a carabiner attached loop but no carabiner is included you have to supply your own but it's good that there's a loop and it does seem pretty sturdy the speaker sound is automatically optimized according to the position you have it in i tended to keep it upright but it does have a built-in microphone so you can use it as a speakerphone and you may want to lay it down flat if you're using the speakerphone with a few people sitting around it it works pretty well picking up your voice and it puts out a lot more sound than your phone's tiny speakers how do i sound overall so initially your voice was strong and as you're walking away the speaker's still doing a good job of focusing on your voice how far are you now from the speaker yeah your voice is starting to become a little faint but the speaker's still doing a good job of picking up your voice bose says it can fill a living room with sound from my test i'd say it would have to be a relatively small living room it can only output so much sound and be clear this is a mono speaker but the key with it is that it does manage to produce more bass than you think it can also it avoids distorting at higher volumes and delivers good clarity in the treble and mid-range with overall well-balanced sound that's only slightly base forward did you see him riding into town did you see his dusty you're going to be immediately impressed by how much sound it throws off and decent sound at that but it can't totally see it being a small speaker the sound stage only gets so wide and it can sound a little constrained with more complicated music tracks that have a lot of instruments playing at the same time to avoid distorting certain frequencies do get ratcheted back just a little bit particularly at higher volumes i compared it to several other compact portable speakers the one that seems to get compared to the most is the jbl charge which costs 180 the charge is a bit bulkier speaker and puts out a little more sound its base is bigger but arguably boomier and more forward so the mids where vocals lift can sound a little recessed i think the bose has a better overall tunnel balance and the bass has more definition i prefer to sound overall just so you guys know that you can't tweak it sound like the jbl both of these speakers lack eq settings so you have to go with their signature sounds i thought it compared pretty favorably to the 170 dollar sonos roam which is also an excellent wide speaker that has wi-fi as well as bluetooth it connects to your sonos system at home the bose however is more straightforward to use because it's a bluetooth only speaker and comparing this to the ue wonderboom 2 that's a 100 speaker that's also very good for its size the bose does deliver more depth and bigger body to its sound same is true for the bang olufsen dio sound a1 i like that speaker a lot but the bose beat that one as well it offered more full-bodied sound however the a1 does offer multi-point bluetooth pairing so you can pair it simultaneously with your phone and a computer this model does not seem to have that feature some people have asked me how it sounds compared to bose's canister style revolve speaker that model's a bit more expensive and produces a bit more sound but it doesn't really sound any better and i prefer the flex's design the larger revolve plus has the flex speed but that speaker costs twice as much you could buy two flexes for the same price and that might not be a bad idea that's because while the speaker sounds good as a single speaker you get a big increase in sound quality when you pair two flexes together in stereo mode i felt the same way about the sonos roam you just get real stereo separation and both the sound stage and bass seem so much bigger as a pair they sound like real speakers and indeed can fill a decent sized living room with sound i should also note that you can link up the flex with other bose speakers in party mode in other words you can mix and match but to get stereo sound you'll need another flex i'll finish by saying that pricing for bluetooth speakers has been a little weird these days with all the supply chain issues and chip shortages by weird i mean the prices only seem to be going up and not much is on sale so even though 150 bucks might sound like a lot for some people it's a decent price for a top bluetooth speaker and quite reasonable for bose as i said at the beginning if you're looking for a portable bluetooth speaker the flex should definitely be on your radar if not at the top of your list but let me know what you guys think and how the flex might compare to your favorite bluetooth speaker sound off in the comments section and if you're interested in any of the products mentioned check out the description below for links on where to find them and you can get even more details in my text review on cnet lastly if you found this video informative at all hit the like button and subscribe if you haven't already i'm david carney for cnet thanks for watching\n"