Bose SoundLink Flex 2 review

The new Bose SoundLink Flex 2, the successor to the original, not-so-hotly reviewed Bose SoundLink Flex, gets a lot more right. The design is pitch perfect, although it’s identical to the last model. The new app connectivity is incredibly useful, and a big step up from what came before. It perhaps stumbles a little in the spaciousness of its audio and you’ll need to dial in the EQ settings to get it to sound exactly the way you want, but once you’re finished it sounds good.

The problem? $149 is not a small amount of money to ask for — especially compared to the affordable-but-still-great-sounding $79 UE Miniroll — so it has to do more than look good to present a decent value proposition. The slightly narrow soundstage, in particular, is a problem here, but not one that I find to be an outright deal-breaker.

Despite that higher sticker price, the SoundLink Flex gen 2 should end up on your consideration list for your next Bluetooth speaker. It’s a big improvement on the original Flex even though it's not quite as loud or as spacious-sounding as some of the best Bluetooth speakers.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Cheat Sheet

What is it? A Bluetooth speaker perfect for indoor and outdoor use.

What does it cost? $159.

Who is it for? If you want a go-anywhere, do-anything Bluetooth speaker that looks super slick, this is the speaker for you.

What do we like? Its rugged build and solid sound.

What don’t we like? The slightly narrow soundstage

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Price and availability

• There are cheaper options

At $149, the SoundLink Flex 2 comes in at a similar point to the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 4 and the JBL Charge 5. Those two options are slightly more at $169, but they are larger and can go slightly louder. The Bose does sound better to our ears, however, and the materials used in construction are of higher quality with metal and silicon rather than cloth and plastic.

Unlike the new SoundLink Home, though, the SoundLink Flex 2 is available around the world in a range of different territories. If you want to buy one in the UK, it will cost you £149 — the U.S. seems to be getting the better deal here.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Design

• Subtle good looks
• Solid, metal construction
• Silicon is a dust and detritus magnet

Bose’s house style is one that I really, really like. It doesn’t shout too loud about its more premium price, and it's subtle enough to fit into most different styles of room decor. I really like that the Flex 2 stands out with its selection of colors, which are all some shade of light, simple pastel. The Alpine Shade color, a lovely minty green, is particularly praise-worthy and I think it looks great.

Not only does it look great, it’s built well too thanks to its metal construction. The main body of the speaker, which lies below its silicon outer shell, is color-matched to the outside perfectly. The unmistakable cold touch of metal gives the speaker a sense of value, worth, and sturdiness. It also adds some much-needed heft to proceedings, although the whole package is still fairly light at nearly 1.3 pounds.

I have just one complaint about the silicon coating that surrounds the speaker: If you put the speaker in your backpack, its surface has a habit of picking up little bits of lint, dust, and extraneous bits of fabric. It's nothing a little wipe with a damp cloth won’t fix, but it’s worth noting given that it will often reside in some form of backpack or handbag.

Controlling the speaker is easy enough, with the requisite buttons across the top. There’s power, play/pause, pairing, volume up and down, and then a shortcut button. That last button can be customized in the Bose app to use a voice assistant. Options for the shortcut include activating one-tap Spotify, or linking two speakers together with the ‘Speaker Link’ function. The latter comes as the default option out of the box.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Connectivity

• Bluetooth 5.3
• Bose app compliance

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Connectivity-wise, you’re looking at a fairly normal set of inputs for a speaker in 2024. There’s Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity for one, so there’s going to be less latency between the audio and video you might be watching. There’s no Wi-Fi like other Bose speakers, although for $149 and 12 hours of battery life you wouldn’t expect it.

The speaker also hooks up to Bose’s excellent app, so you can customize various different parts of the speaker. This wasn’t available on the previous model, so it’s a nice bonus to have here.

There’s a USB-C port on the side of the speaker, although that’s only used for charging rather than USB audio delivery from, say, a PC or smartphone. That’s a shame, but it’s not something I ever found myself wishing for.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Features

• Stereo and party mode
• PositionIQ tuning

The Bose app compatibility is the main extra feature here. That was absent on the previous version of the Flex, and here it makes for a more well-rounded Bluetooth speaker. There are a few things you can do with the app: The first is to change the function of the shortcut button, as I’ve talked about before. Then there’s the source section, which lets you initialize the multipoint connection.

Then there’s the most important part of the app — the EQ settings. Here, you get a three-band equalizer that lets you dial in the sound to be more to your taste. It’s effective too, and while I’ll get into how it works later, just know that it’s a massive jump over the older model.

Finally, there’s the tips button, which tells you how your speaker works. It’s all fairly self-explanatory, but it’s worth taking a look so that you can learn the ins and outs of your new device if you’re new to the Bose ecosystem of speakers.

You can also connect multiple copies of the speaker together with the Stereo mode and Party functions, although there is a stipulation: You can’t connect the new model to the old model and you can only initiate stereo mode with another Flex Gen 2. Party mode is slightly different in that it plays the same music rather than a stereo signal over 2 speakers (for more volume and punch rather than more immersion), which is a nice feature, but you might want to pick up a second Flex 2 if you want the best possible sound.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Sound

• You’ll need to use the EQ
• Lacks wide soundstage
• For its class, it's very nice

Bose hasn’t really done all that much to the hardware inside the SoundLink Flex 2, but it does let you play with the signature so that you can get the sound you want. When you pull the speaker from the box, it will sound almost identical to the Gen 1 SoundLink speaker, with some chunky bass that manages to overtake some of the more delicate highs. If you change the EQ in the Bose app, however, you can get some great sound out of the SoundLink Flex 2.

While there’s plenty of bass in the stock configuration, it’s fairly thin. I found that cranking it up around five to six places got me the definition and impact that I was looking for. I mostly left the mids alone, although you might want to lower them by around 1 to let the highs sing a little more. On those highs, I like them to have more presence so as to not be taken over by the mid-bass. I raised them up three places, although you might want to dial in them in a setting lower for slightly less crispness up top.

Once all dialed in, the SoundLink gen 2 manages a more engaging audio performance than its predecessor, although it’s still a little lazy in the long run.

Delain’s Moth to a Flame has plenty of bounce, and while the speaker does an admirable job of putting some emphasis on the vocal lines, it struggles with some of the energy. There’s some nice edge to the distorted guitars thanks to a mid-heavy signature, and there’s some depth and impact to the bass. You won’t be able to pick out every pluck of a bass string, but you’ll have a great listen otherwise.

There’s a lot to like here if you switch over to something more stripped back. Mykur’s Leaves of Yggdrasil gets picked out in great detail. The plucks of the strings are definite and precise, while Myrkur’s haunting vocal performance gives way to smoothly delivered violin lines. There’s some detail lost when the piece gets more involved, but the final piano notes finalize an ethereal performance.

Here on Earth by Tim McGraw is one of those songs that sounds good on pretty much anything you listen to it on, and the SoundLink Flex 2 is no different. There’s some hefty weight to the background synth lines, while the bagpipes peer through and the guitars sing. It’s a massively layered track, and while some get lost along the way, there’s still plenty to enjoy.

There’s just one major problem with the sound of the SoundLink Flex gen 2 — and that’s the sound stage. There’s a profound directionality of the audio, where I generally like my Bluetooth speakers to create one that’s much broader. The Bose SoundLink Home is very good in this regard, but the speaker we’ve got here isn’t quite as good. It could be fixed with stereo mode, but then you’re spending $300 on a wider soundstage.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Battery life

• 12 hours

About par for the course, the SoundLink Flex gen 2 lasts around the same as similar speakers in its class. Bear in mind that the 12 hours does depend on how loud you listen to the speaker, so if you crank the volume and dial up the bass you’ll get fewer hours on a charge.

In fact, Bose says you’ll only get 3 hours when listened to at max volume. I found this out the hard way when I went to test the bass response and how well it could fill a room — I was about to choose a new song after a couple of hours of listening, and it stopped.

Most listening isn’t going to defeat it, however.

Bose SoundLink Flex gen 2: Verdict

Very rarely do I find myself wanting to buy a second sample of something I’ve been sent for review. In my line of work, you get sent so many different pieces of gear that you don’t need to buy anything anymore — so it should speak volumes for the SoundLink Flex 2 that I’m considering adding another one to my portable audio arsenal.

It has plenty of battery life on tap, sounds great, and doesn’t take up much space in a backpack. In the rather fetching green shade that I’ve been sent, I’d say it's one of the best-looking Bluetooth speakers around, even if it’s not one of the best-sounding.

I’d still recommend the Sonos Roam 2 a look as well, thanks to its internet connectivity and slightly more detailed soundstage. If that’s not what you’re looking for, however, and you’d rather stick with Bose, the Flex 2 will deliver great sound and style with aplomb.

Bose SoundLink Flex deals