Since streaming music services have become the norm it seems like everyone has some sort of bluetooth speaker. You can buy them in a huge variety of sizes and at a huge price range. Personally I tend to lean towards smaller, more portable speakers since to me they are just more versatile. If you agree the JBL Go2 is a great one to consider.
Design
Like I mentioned in the opening paragraph the JBL Go2 is a small, portable bluetooth speaker. It comes in 12 different colors. So everyone will be able to find one that is the color that they prefer. It is 3.35” X 2.625” X 1” so it can easily fit in basically any bag or even your pocket.
The entire outside has a rubberized feel. This helps it be very slip resistant on smooth surfaces and helps it be very easy to grip. Even if you have wet hands. The Go2 is all one color except for a large JBL logo on the front grill. The back also has a large JBL logo. It is indented into the case though as opposed to a different color like the logo on the front.
The entire front is a grill design with the logo. The top contains all of the controls. It has the standard on/off, bluetooth, -, + and play buttons. They all work fine. The left hand side is blank and the bottom just has some very small feet. The right hand side contains a plug that covers the 3.5mm audio port and the micro-usb charging port.
Tech Specs
When it comes to specs the Go2 won’t jump off the page. Then again you probably shouldn’t expect a sub $50 bluetooth speaker too. The speaker itself is 3W. This may seem really low but it provides adequate sound. Small bluetooth speakers like the Go2 aren’t meant to have room filling sound. They are made to give audio to you and a couple of other people who are in close vicinity to you.
The speaker connects via bluetooth 4.1 or with a 3.5mm audio cable if bluetooth is not available to you. The battery life is pretty good especially for such a small speaker. Even with it’s small size JBL managed to pack in a battery that lasts 5 hrs. Also since this speaker is meant to be portable it has an IPX7 waterproof rating. So you don’t need to worry about using it by the pool or at the beach. There is also an internal noise cancelling microphone for hands free calls.
Performance
The JBL Go2 performs pretty well. The sound is as loud as you can expect for a compact speaker. In a quiet environment it will be pretty good for quite a few people. In a noisier environment it will be more useful for a few people at the same table or sitting near each other. This is what the speaker is designed to do so I feel JBL hit the mark here.
The water rating seems accurate. I haven’t tried dropping the speaker in a pool or anything but I did give it a few splashes and put it under a running tap. It continued to play fine and showed no signs of damage. One thing to note is that the 3.5mm audio jack is under a plug so I don’t think the water rating will apply if using a cable.
The battery life seems to be accurate as well. After giving it a full charge you do get a lot of play time out of the Go2. The bluetooth is not the latest version (5.0) but it connects easily to your device. Like most speakers you hold down the bluetooth button for a few seconds to put it into pairing mode and connect it to your device. It was quickly found by my phone and connected flawlessly. The charging port is micro-usb. I would have liked to see USB-C instead but there is nothing wrong with micro-usb. The included charging cable is a flat design and seems to be built well. The internal mic sounds good and does an adequate job of cancelling out background noise while on a call.
Let’s be honest though. All of the tech specs in the world are great but what really matters is the sound quality of the speaker. As I have mentioned before the volume is pretty good. It gets adequately loud for a small portable speaker. The mid-range sounds nice and crisp and the treble is very clean. Where the Go2 lacks a bit is in the bass. This is expected with a small speaker like this but it is noticeable. You can hear the music fine but you will notice that the bass is lacking. The sound stays true through most of the volume but does distort at the top end of the volume adjustment. Again not unexpected but it does distort noticeably.
Conclusion
The JBL Go2 is a decent, small bluetooth speaker. It has a nice design and feel and is very portable. The sound quality is decent and the overall volume level is ok. The water resistant rating is great and the battery life is very long. For the price the speaker is a good buy. It doesn’t really stand out in any way though. It holds up well against its competition at this price range but I have found some other speakers that have better sound quality. Mind you those speakers are larger and less portable so you have to decide what is more important when purchasing a speaker.
If you can fit the larger size I would probably go for a larger, better sounding speaker. If you want something that you can easily throw into your pocket and gives great battery life the JBL Go2 is a great choice. Especially if you get it on sale.
Click the pic on the left to see an unboxing video of the JBL Go2.
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