The market for a good portable Bluetooth speaker may have been eclipsed by the grossly oversaturated rat race to create the best Bluetooth earbuds in recent years. But make no mistake; there are still brands pumping out some great options for anyone seeking a mini Bluetooth speaker, ideal for taking with you while you travel, camp, hike or simply just to shift around the house while you listen to podcasts. Considering Bose has been responsible for some of the better options on the market to date, like the excellent Bose SoundLink Micro, this yearโs Bose SoundLink Flex arrives to a fairly high standard. Does it match up? Our Bose SoundLink Flex review will let you know if this Bose Bluetooth speaker is worth its $250 price tag or not.
Other Bose speakers like the aforementioned Bose SoundLink Micro and much larger Bose Home Speaker 300 have already reiterated Boseโs penchant for great sound quality and seamless design. This has positioned the SoundLink series as a particularly worthwhile line for the brand, which is perhaps better known for personal audio devices like the Bose QuietComfort headphones, Bose QuietComfort earbuds and โ my personal favourite โ the Bose NC 700s (also a pair of over-ear Bose headphones).
Add to that the Bose Connect app is one of the easiest and most uncluttered in the game and itโs not hard to see why Bose is still one of the more popular brands for audiophiles. And while Boseโs headphones still seem to be the breadwinners for the US company, thereโs clearly much more worth looking at here than just some noise cancelling cans.
But the market for portable Bluetooth speakers is still quite competitive. Sony and Bang & Olufsen have some great ones, Sonos and JBL have some better ones, and then youโve also got the wildly popular UE Boom line from Ultimate Ears. There are numerous choices here, so whatโs to stop you from going with something like a Sonos Roam or JBL Charge 5 over the Bose SoundLink Flex?
The answer is, not much. It all comes down to what design you like the best. For this, Bose has done a respectable job offering a Bluetooth speaker thatโs attractive to look at and could fit well with any design, as well as give off an impressive performance thatโs largely credited to sturdy materials โ that powder coated steel grille feels super premium โ and a newly calibrated software feature that Bose is calling Position IQ that works in a slightly similar way to Sonosโ TruePlay.
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Bose SoundLink Flex Review โ Table Of Contents
- Design
- Features
- Sound
- Verdict & Value
Design
Boseโs marketing efforts surrounding the Bose SoundLink Flex have been hinged on the idea that this particular speaker is not only impressively waterproofed (a solid IP67 rating protects well against moisture and dust) but it can also float. I wouldnโt go leaving it soaking in a pool for too long, but the claim isnโt far from the truth. This thing floats to the surface immediately when submerged in a pool. The weather hasnโt been very nice in Sydney lately so Iโd only tested the claim once, but itโs rare to have a portable Bluetooth speaker that can actually float alongside. Consider that a big tick in Boseโs favour. However, donโt expect performance to remain clear in the deep-end.
But letโs backtrack a bit here. The design is smooth and Bose deserves to take a bit of a bow here. The light stone blue, carmine red and black colourways are the most head-turning while the grey is a bit boring. Thatโs the unit I have, and while it lacks personality thereโs no shortage of punch.
The size could be a bit too bulky for some. In the market of portable Bluetooth speakers, this would be considered one of the most sizable at 20.1 cm x 9 cm x 5.2 cm with a weight of 0.6 kg. You wonโt be able to walk around with this in a jacket pocket like you would the SoundLink Micro, but there should be no issues sliding this into a backpack or cabin bag without worrying itโd take up much room (or add much weight).
The overall build of the Bose SoundLink Flex is clearly geared to the outdoors, presenting a rather rugged and protective silicone rubber shell without feeling too harsh. The smooth, curved edges help the speaker feel premium and weighty in the hand, while that aforementioned powder coated steel grille helps greatly with drop protection. I havenโt gone and smashed this thing on surfaces intentionally โ Iโm quite fond of it โ but I have little concern about this picking up one big scratch if I knock it off a table.
Bose has made a hikerโs speaker, essentially, right in line with Sonos Roam and the Bang & Olufsen Explore. Itโs around the same size as the Sonos Roam, just with a more likeable shape thatโs leaning towards the pill form that was popularised back when everyone had a Beats by Dre speaker sliding around in their backpack.
That being said, the body is quite a fingerprint magnet, and it really shows in the grey colourway. This makes black or red even more attractive options. Youโll also want to avoid wedging this thing into the sand if youโre taking it to the beach. The IP67 rating doesnโt mean debris canโt get stuck in the grille, which is a common issue for most portable speakers.
Before I get to the most bitterly disappointing thing about the Bose Soundlink Flexโs design, the carrying strap attached to the right side of the speaker is nice and unobtrusive. Plus, it expands the use case if youโve got a separate carabiner. In which case, youโd want a fairly tight carabiner if youโre affixing the Bose SoundLink Flex to a backpack while youโre hiking, for example. Otherwise, the shell can twist around, and since itโs a forward-firing speaker the constant movement can ruin the listening experience when youโre on the move.
And hereโs the most disappointing part. Bose has messed up when it comes to the physical button on the speaker. The five buttons โ power, volume up and down, a multi function button and a Bluetooth button โ work just fine, but the tactile experience just feels flat. Not only is it tough to press down on these buttons, but if youโre fumbling around without looking at the speaker itโs hard to distinguish the buttons from one another. There are no backlights either save for two very faint white LEDs behind the power and Bluetooth pairing mode buttons.
Other than that, youโve got a USB-C port on the right side of the Bose speaker for charging, but no AUX port. A necessary sacrifice, of course, to help bump up that all-important IP rating and dial in a more rugged design for the portable speaker.
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Features
As you could tell from the name, the key feature of the Bose SoundLink Flex is that it can be used in tandem with other Bose SoundLink speakers. Given the reasonable price point, itโs not absurd to fork out for two of these speakers and use the Bose Connect app to create a stereo pair. In stereo mode, the speakers should easily be able to fill a large room with a fairly dynamic soundstage, even if just one speaker can sound quite narrow (more on that below) and directional.
The beauty of having multiple devices is why these more affordable portable Bluetooth speakers are so attractive in the first place. JBL is still the leader in multi-speaker connectivity as far as Iโm concerned, but the SoundLink line competes just fine even if you can only connect a very limited amount of speakers to each other when compared to JBLโs 100-speaker capacity.
I would have liked some better battery life, but the marketed 12 hours from a single four-hour charge is spot-on. If you start your hike with a full charge then youโll get plenty of use out of the Bose SoundLink Flex before it needs some juicing. That being said, the charging process does take longer than I would have liked, especially when fast-charging is so common in technology nowadays.
There arenโt too many features for the Bose SoundLink Flex other than offering a straightforward portable speaker with reasonably good sound quality and rugged design. You arenโt getting any built-in voice assistant (although the speaker just makes use of your phoneโs voice assistant) and thereโs not even a customisable EQ to switch from the out-of-box sound signature (more on that below). Thatโs disappointing, but I wouldnโt really have expected much more from a portable speaker priced at a nice and tidy $250.
One feature that I like is, as mentioned above, Position IQ. While the Bose Connect app doesnโt have a dedicated EQ that you can use to manually customise the sound, the speaker will effectively change the sound mix depending on how youโve oriented the shell, auto-adjusting to maximise sound quality depending on whether youโre standing the speaker upright or dangling it via the loop.
I would have liked the built in microphone to be a bit better at noise isolation, though. Call quality is fine when youโre listening to something else, but Iโve had reports of my voice sounding distant and slightly glitchy, with background noise always washing through.
In terms of codecs and latency issues, Android seems to fare much better than iOS when it comes to listening to streaming shows over the speaker. Iโd much prefer this to using a phoneโs speaker as voices sound richer and more detailed, but the narrow soundstage also cuts how rich and full this would otherwise sound when using in tandem with a streaming service like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
Sound
Iโve always been a fan of Bose speakers. The Bose SoundLink Micro is perhaps my most used portable Bluetooth speaker given it sounds impressively rich considering how tiny it is. Plus, itโs cheap enough to justify buying two and having them play on each side of a hotel bed.
Sound is similarly impressive for the Bose SoundLink Flex but the directivity makes the soundstage come across as quite narrow. The audio is very obviously downmixed to mono when youโre using just one of the Bose SoundLink Flex units, which is fine but cuts out the immersion quite a lot.
In terms of sound signature, I wouldnโt go expecting anything but a very natural, clean-sounding profile with just a bit of lift in the low end. The speaker doesnโt really handle dense bass patterns well, so something like OutKastโs โB.O.Bโ would sound messy and overstrung, but something calmer like Funkadelicโs โMaggot Brainโ would reiterate how clear and well-balanced the mids and highs are. Youโre missing out on a low of detail, but instrument separation is fine.
However, bass sounds fine if the low-end is spread out. Pusha Tโs โCoke Dietโ sounds great, as does Clipseโs โGrindinโ. At low volumes, bass is incredibly expressive and has a textural element if youโre gripping the speaker.
I wouldnโt really want to be pumping EDM on this, given denser bass lines donโt sound as good as they should on this speaker. If bass means a lot to you, then Sony, Samsung or JBL are better options. The Bose SoundLink Flex is, instead, better if you need some well-balanced sound for softer music like rock, soul or folk. Jazz can be hit or miss here; I tried to play through some Kamasi Washington songs but the dense soundscapes would come across as too muddy. Something cleaner and more minimal like a John Coltrane track, however, would sound just fine.
With volume, youโve obviously got some compression at max so Iโd prefer to keep this around 70%, which is loud enough to fill a hotel room quite nicely.
To sum up, the Bose SoundLink Flex sounds good, but the soundstage is narrow if youโre using just one speaker and the signature is rather thin when it comes to the low-end. And thatโs surprising, seeing as most speaker manufacturers nowadays stuff more detail into the bass to lend to more contemporary styles like hip hop and EDM.
Verdict & Value
Hopefully this Bose SoundLink Flex review has given you a better idea of whether or not this $250 portable Bluetooth speaker is the right one for you.
Boseโs shade of grey has always been quite boring, but if youโre going for the black, blue or red then youโve got a well-designed, rugged and outdoorsy speaker that can seamlessly slide into backpacks, hang off hooks and pump fairly decent sound quality. If thatโs all you need, then this ainโt a bad flex at all. In an ideal world, Iโd be pricing this around the $200 mark, but the sturdy built and solid materials used to help make this speaker a bit more water and fall-proof should justify that bit extra.
However, if you want something that can also go a step further with call clarity, offer some EQ to play around with and more of a stereo experience without you having to buy an extra speaker, you may want to approach another brand โ you already know there are plenty of choices out there when it comes to Bluetooth speakers.
Bose SoundLink Flex Review โ Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Bose SoundLink Flex cost in Australia?
In Australia, the Bose SoundLink Flex is available for an RRP of $249.95
Is the Bose SoundLink Flex worth it?
The Bose SoundLink flex is very portable and sports a sturdy design that should protect it from scratches and scuffs on your next hiking trick. Itโs an outdoors speaker that sounds reasonably good, with a lot of crisp mids and highs until you reach max volume. The lack of features chips away at the value here, but $250 is a fairly reasonable price to pay for a such a well-built speaker.
What app do you use with the Bose SoundLink Flex?
Like all Bose products, the Bose SoundLink Flex uses the Bose Connect app for both Android and iOS.
