Gadgetory

hi I'm David Carnot and I review many of the portable wireless Bluetooth speakers here at CNET these days it's a very crowded market and a lot of the products aren't all that different from one another it's nice then to come across a product like JBL's pulse which attempts to shake things up by throwing a multi LED light show into the mix the pulse has a similar design to JBL highly rated flip and charge Bluetooth speakers but it plays a little louder and sounds a little better with slightly better bass response however it doesn't offer as much battery life as the charge which incorporates a USB port for charging mobile devices the flip is a $99 speaker while the pulse is $199 you're not going to get double the sound quality but you are getting a much flashier speaker literally of course not everyone is going to love the visual element but I found the light show fairly mesmerizing even without smoking anything as far as the lighting goes there are a few different pre-program modes to choose from and you can also go with a custom light theme or just turn off the LEDs altogether and listen to the pulse like you would a standard wireless Bluetooth speaker what's also kind of cool is that when you raise and lower the volume you'll see it reflected on the speaker I'm happy to report that JBL has fixed one key shortcoming of its earlier portable Bluetooth speakers the post charges be a standard micro USB connection instead of using an AC adapter which is easy to misplace battery life is rated at 10 hours for audio only and five hours if you fire up the light show there's no speakerphone capability but you do get NFC the tap tap air option for devices that support it and JBL has an iOS and Android app that gives you a little more control of playback though the app isn't required to use the product in this price range you'll find the UE boom and Bose Soundlink mini both of which are very good portable speakers I would say this JBL sounds better than those speakers but it does sound quite decent fruit size and the light show is a killer feature and maybe a gimmick but it's a good one and makes the pulse a worthy contender in a crowded market I'm David Carr Noy thanks for watching