Truth be told, the original JBL Go speaker looked and weighed just 130 grams, making it look like a toy speaker. This new version is a bit bulkier, with many colour options and costs $40 – it weighs 184 grams – and has rounded corners. It is also fully waterproof, equivalent to IPX7. That means it can fully dive into 3 feet (1 metre) of water for up to 30 minutes). The speaker is slightly heavier, but is almost the same size as the original and is designed to be easy to carry. It takes up little space in a backpack, laptop bag or purse and fits in many pockets. Overall, it feels less like a child’s plaything and more like a substantial, real speaker.
For a small speaker, the sound quality is also relatively good. Compared to the original Go, the Go 2 is a little louder and has more bass. Still, as expected, the speaker is generally lacking in bass and won’t rock the room, even if it’s a small room. Bose’s more expensive SoundLink Micro plays louder and sounds a lot better, but costs two and a half times as much. It may not be suitable for listening to music, but as a companion speaker for watching movies and streaming other video content, it’s pretty good. Since the speaker is called Go, we streamed the 1999 film Go (remember it?) and experienced no audio/video synchronisation issues. Dialogue is played back particularly well on these speakers, as small speakers like these tend to have a stronger midrange.
The Go 2 is slightly thinner sounding than its similarly priced rival, the Anker SoundCore 2. The top end is slightly more exposed and noticeable, but it identifies sound more clearly and provides excellent detail. Overall, it’s a better sounding product; the biggest complaint with the Go 2 is the battery life: on a two-and-a-half-hour charge, the maximum playback time is just five hours. This may be enough for an afternoon by the pool, but not necessarily for a picnic or a day at the beach. But putting long charge times and short battery life to one side, JBL’s latest offering is a worthy holiday accessory. In fact, it’s probably the best-sounding solid soap we’ve ever heard.
Don’t let its small stature fool you, the JBL GO 2 can really make music sound good: at 50% volume it’s comfortable to listen to music, and at 75% or more it sounds surprisingly full for such a small speaker. However, the sound becomes noticeably coarser as you approach maximum volume, so be careful not to overdo it. At maximum volume, music can be very coarse and fatiguing.