Solid reviews (4.0 out of 5.0) over at amazon
How is this different than my JLab that I bought from Woot! for nearly the same price new? This one seems a bit of a knockoff with the same design. With the same power ports, buttons, and even complete aluminum one piece housing like the JLab.
Are they manufacturing this style cheaply in China and everyone is re-branding?
Braven has been around for a while now, they are one of the more mainstream higher end brands of these Bluetooth speakers. I think this is just a slightly older model, as its not shown on their company website anymore. Same spec though.
This is a damn good price for this Bluetooth speaker. It originally sold for $110. It surpasses the similar sized Jambox in loudness and frequency range. It is loud enough to fill a small room. I get better than 10 hours on a charge even at full volume. Buy it! You won’t be disappointed!
Video review demonstrating the sound quality: Rock, talk, and charge with the Braven 650 Bluetooth speaker - YouTube
This is of the 650 model. The only difference in the model numbers is the capacity of the battery and exterior design. The guts inside are the same.
Braven is pretty well known. The design is a bit better too. JLAB could be well and there’s something about the braven design that looks better.Bluetooth speaker reviews roundup: JBL Flip, Braven 600, Edge.sound by CubEdge, Rock Steady XS, JLab Crasher | Digital Trends
They differ by more than just the battery capacity.
The BRAVEN 600 and 650 come in Aircraft-grade Aluminum shell. The BRAVEN 650 includes even better audio quality by incorporating custom micro audio drivers and compression technology from aptX.
There’s a good review here:
I have one, it’s great. The sound is very good for the size and the battery life is excellent. I have forgotten about it for months and then grabbed it and used it for hours. I bought it for a lot more and I think it was worth what I paid!
Does it come with or can you get a bike or motorcycle handlebar bracket?
How well does it recharge a phone? I’ve seen some mixed reviews on that. I wont use it for that very often, but in a pinch I’d like to have that option. Thanks.
Looking over the reviews on Amazon, it looks like the biggest issue with these is that the power switch fails, rendering it useless. Almost pulled the trigger on one, but the frequency of that issue in the reviews is enough to keep me away.
You do realize that when it comes to reading about defects online, you will see a much higher amount of complaints than praises.
To gauge how often this problem happens by how many people you see go online and complain is not very representory of how many people actually have this problem. Because the happy people hardly go online and do a review to praise and say they haven’t had any power issues.
It’s usually a place for the small percentage of people that have troubles with the product and go and vent to the public.
I’m not at all saying that you should discount all reviews. Instead read through them objectively and you can figure out which comments are legit and useful by what they are praising or complaining about.
A problem with the power would be one I would be aware of and possibly concerned, but to gauge how often the problem occurs by the number of complaints online is not very representative. if you have 20 people saying the power failure was a problem, there could be 1 million out there that have had no issues at all with this power problem but you likely won’t see their prais online.
Another thing is this is a refurb. That could possibly mean these were ones that originally had the power issue and they were fixed before going to Woot!
…just sayin
Anyone know if this can be used while the USB power cable is plugged in, charging it?
The “I want one” button is throbbing. Make up your minds quickly!
Bought one new for $60 in May. Used it a handful of times. Pulled it out a few weeks back and the switch was broke. Couldn’t turn it it. RMA’d. Very good customer service. Had a unit back in less than 2 weeks after I sent mine off.
Other than the switch issue a very nice unit. Good sound. Good battery. Happy with my purchase. Tempted to get another at this price.
Do you carry this with you regularly? I was planning on using this just in one room of the house to replace my phone’s internal speaker which has been flakey lately.
The ratio of complaints to compliments being off does not justify ignoring repeated complaints about a single issue.
@hobiecatter, I disagree. A high number of complaints relative to the number of positives would be cause for concern. It does not take long to get a feel for whether complaints are outliers or big red flags.
And assuming a potentially serial design defect is fixed via the label “refurb” or “factory reconditioned” is wishful thinking.