There are hundreds of speakers on the market these days, so how do you find the best Bluetooth speaker? First, you need to figure out if you want something portable, semi-portable, or solely for the home. The JBL Go 4 and JBL Clip 5 are ultra portable, but their size limits their sound quality. The JBL Flip 6 or the JBL Charge 5 are relatively-portable options which don’t sacrifice audio quality. The Sonos Move 2 is a pricey, high-powered option with thumping bass. And the JBL Xtreme 4 is one of the best outdoor speakers with enough bark to match its bite. Although that bite might also take a chunk out of your shoulder, should you be carrying it.
JBL’s newest Xtreme incarnation is an accessory in and of itself. The speaker is large enough to take up an entire bag, so you better be taking two if you’re transporting this around town. But size means power. Size means volume. And boy, does it have both of those things. The max volume on this thing was loud enough to pulsate through my eardrums. I felt the bass in my jaw. My heartbeat leapt and danced along with the thumping bass. I tested this in a soundproofed room, in a park, and at home, and in every setting, I was blown away.
The only thing letting it down is its weight and its eye-watering price tag. But let me tell you why I enjoyed my time with this speaker in this JBL Xtreme 4 review.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Cheat sheet
- What is it? A portable Bluetooth speaker from JBL
- What does it cost? Quite a lot: $379 / £329
- Who is it for? People who take sound quality seriously and want a booming speaker they can listen to at home and outdoors
- What should you use it for? This would be great for house parties, bedroom dance sessions, picnics, and (space permitting) outdoor adventures
- What are its weaknesses? Its weight and its price
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Specs
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Price & availability
At $379 / £329 / AU$429, this isn’t a cheap speaker. It’s a luxury item you’ll want to keep for years to come. It’s priced similarly to the Bose SoundLink Max and the Ultimate Ears EchoBoom, which are also high-capability speakers with great durability ratings. However if you wanted something more affordable, you could check out the Sonos Roam or the JBL Flip 6, but you’d lose some volume with these smaller models.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Design
Ever the sticklers for modern, durable, seemingly indestructible design, JBL have upped their already high bar for this speaker. With the robust-feeling hard mesh outer layer and silicone protective patches, the JBL Xtreme 4 certainly feels extreme. Right out of the box, I feel like the JBL Xtreme 4 could survive a drop off my roof. I’m obviously not going to do that, but you catch my drift. It’s definitely capitalizing on the current Gorpcore trend (wearing hiking/outdoor/workout clothes in everyday life) sweeping the western world, especially the camo version. This would look just as streamlined in a rugged mountainside camp as, say, a sleeping bag carabinered to a ridge. I wouldn’t take it up a mountain, though, given that it weighs 73.76 ounces.
The speaker feels robust and luxurious, with carefully designed casings and tactile, clean controls. You would hope so at $379, but that’s maybe what you’re paying for. The cables and carry strap come in thick felt pouches — not the plastic bags that ship with the Bose SoundLink Flex.
However, as I mentioned earlier, the JBL Xtreme 4 is heavy. And I don’t mean heavy in the same way the UE Megaboom 3 is heavy. The JBL Xtreme 4 weighs double the UE Megaboom (32 ounces). Although it’s lighter than the 105 ounce Sonos Move 2, it’s still a noticeable weight in your bag/on your shoulder.
The JBL Xtreme 4 comes with a handy carry strap, which feels just as robust as the speaker itself, but, my poor shoulder, I wish JBL could’ve found a lighter construction material to ease the load a little. I carried this speaker for 20 minutes and by minute 10 I was grimacing and sweating. If your shoulders have a little more muscle than mine, you might be fine, but for all petite women, I don’t think this is the best for you. Unless you have a stronger companion to offload this onto.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: App & connectivity
As with every other JBL speaker I’ve used, the Xtreme 4 was invariably easy to connect to my phone. It popped up in my Bluetooth options instantly and was a breeze to set up. It seamlessly connected to my MacBook Air M2 (2022) upon pressing the Bluetooth button. The JBL Portable app, available on iOS and Android, is easy to navigate and user-friendly.
The Xtreme 4 has the same PartyBoost functionality you’d expect from a high-end speaker brand like JBL. With AuraCast, introduced with the JBL Pulse 4 and the Flip 5, users can connect supported JBL speakers for a surround sound experience. I tried this in the office with another reviewer’s Xtreme 4 and, while it works, it’s not mind-blowingly amazing. It would probably be most effective in a loud environment, like the party for which the feature is named.
While it wasn’t a loud environment (quite the opposite, actually) I tested the range of the Xtreme 4 in a deserted park. This could have been the lack of trees or the expanse of open space, but I managed to walk a whopping 460 feet (140 meters) before the Bluetooth connection severed. Check out the red circle — that's the speaker. I was impressed.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Features
On top of being durable (although its bulk is an occupational hazard there), the JBL Xtreme 4 comes with a plethora of fun features. You can charge your phone using the speaker, so if you’re caught out in a field somewhere or at the aforementioned mountain ridge campsite, you’ll be able to get a little more juice for your phone.
The Xtreme 4 carries the same durability rating as the Xtreme 3: IP67. This means it’s waterproof for up to 30 minutes in up to 3.2 feet (1 meter) of water and almost completely dustproof.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Sound quality
You’ll need to alter JBL’s standard EQ levels to be as blown away by the sound as I was. If you stick with JBL’s baseline settings, you’ll be left confused by my review. But it is fun to play around on the JBL Portable app to figure out what setting best suits your needs; sometimes what sounds phenomenal on one song sounds lackluster on another.
After I experimented with different levels, I settled on full bass, medium mid, and medium tremble. And I think that’s the way forward.
I know everyone harps on about bass, but holy moly, the JBL Xtreme 4 has bass. Let me set the scene for you: I tested this in a mid-sized soundproofed room, listening to a playlist on Spotify. I was sitting on a chair about 5 feet away from the speaker; during Chase & Status and Bou’s ‘Baddadan’, I could feel the bass through the chair cushion. Sometimes the treble pinched my eardrum a little, as in ‘Boom Boom Back’ by Hinds and Beck, but the bass more than enough made up for it. Even the sultry velvet voice of Billie Eillish in ‘Lunch’ sounded fierce through the thumping woofer. Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like Us’ dominated the room through this speaker; not one layer of its hi-hat heavy beat was lost. When the bass in ‘Shinigami Eyes’ by Grimes came in, my jaw literally dropped. I rounded off the testing with ‘Starburster’ by Fontaines D.C. — I upped the treble and lowered the bass for this track and was blown away by the gut-wrenching emotion that came from the Xtreme 4’s speakers.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Battery life
Where JBL has really improved over the Xtreme 3 is the battery life. The Xtreme 3 maxed out at 15 hours, but you can listen for an entire day with the Xtreme 4. The 24 hour playback time is one of the best on the market. Longer than the Bose SoundLink Max’s 20 hours and the Ultimate Ears Epicboom’s 17 hours, the Xtreme 4’s whopping 24 hours is a target other brands will now have to aim for.
JBL Xtreme 4 review: Verdict
If you want a portable-ish speaker with fantastic audio quality — and you’ve got a lot to spend on it — the Xtreme 4 would be a brilliant option. I was transfixed watching the woofers bounce and vibrate when I was playing super-bassy hip-hop and EDM tracks. As a music lover and hiking enthusiast, this is definitely something I would personally be interested in buying (as long as someone else was carrying it on a trek). However, that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
Where the Xtreme 4 stumbles is its weight and its price. If you want something super-travel-friendly and a little cheaper, but aren’t so fussed about volume, I’d recommend the Flip 6 instead. As I mentioned before, this is a heavy weight to carry around. I had to carry this alongside my regular bag, which weighed down both of my shoulders. I would maybe have liked to see JBL produce a carry case for the speaker — not to protect it against water or dust, as its IP67 rating takes care of that — but just to cover up the fact that you’re carrying a valuable product around with you. It’s still a nice speaker, don’t get me wrong. Regardless, a little thought for the consumer post-purchase would have been nice. But overall, this is a booming speaker I would definitely keep on your radar.
