Topic: – JBL G0 2 VS GO 3 Waterproof Speaker – Review 2021
The JBL Go 3 is a major redesign for the series, and I am quite impressed by how it looks, but because of some really odd decisions by JBL, the Go 2 might actually be a cheaper AND better option for you. And let’s find out which one of these you should go for.
The unboxing experience is quite simple and you get the speaker and some papers, but one noteworthy thing is that the Type C Charging cable has a reversible USB Type-A port, which I haven’t seen before. The JBL Go 3 comes in a variety of colours, but I went with the orange one as it has that iconic JBL colour.
The mesh covering on the speaker looks really cool, and the rubber pieces added to it are not just for looks, but they actually help the speaker be stable when you put this on a table as the speaker drivers are strong enough to make this move.
Unique Design & Features
This design also means that you can place the speaker on 3 of its sides and you will still get the grip from rubber touching the surface, even though the speaker still moves when you place it on its back in spite of the big ass rubber piece there.
Even the new hanging loop on the speaker has a rubber grip, so that should help with the sound quality if you hang it on something, and I really appreciate this level of thought going into the design of this speaker.
On top, you have 3 large buttons for controlling the volume and playback, and if you double press the play button, you will skip to the next track. The power and Bluetooth pairing button have been shifted to its right side now along with the status LED, and on the left side, we now have a USB Type C port for charging which also doesn’t need a flap-like the previous version.
One feature missing as compared to its last version is that it doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio-in port, so you won’t be able to use it in wired mode, but I have never really used any of my Bluetooth speakers in wired mode, so I don’t consider this to be an issue.
But one REALLY big missing feature on the Go 3 compared to the Go 2 is that it doesn’t have a microphone, so you can’t use it for calls. This decision is really weird because some people really like using these speakers for calls, and I don’t know why JBL decided to just remove this, because unlike the 3.5mm audio-in jack, the microphone is not a useless feature, and the Go 3 is more expensive than Go 2, so removing the audio jack, and the microphone while selling it for a higher price just feels like kind of a cheap move, even though I really like its design.
This is how the microphone on the JBL Go 2 sounds, and inside the speaker, we have a 1.5-inch driver which delivers 4.2 watts of power, and it also has a bass radiator alongside it to help with the bass. On paper, this is slightly better than the Go 2, but we’ll discuss more that soon.
Good Battery Life, Dust & Water Resistance
The battery life on the GO 3 is also quite good, JBL says that it delivers 5 hours of playback, but in my pink noise playback test at 65% volume, I was able to get around 13 hours of playback time, which is really impressive.
We also have IP67 dust and water resistance rating on it, so you can immerse it in water without worry, and look at how cool water being splashed by the speaker looks. The JBL Go 3 has Bluetooth 5.1, which is an upgrade over the 4.1 version on the Go 2, and both of these speakers use the SBC codec, which is good enough for their sound quality.
Great Sound Quality
Coming to JBL Go 3’s sound quality, it is pretty good for its size. For its price of 40 Dollars or 3000 Rs. in India, you can easily get louder speakers that deliver more bass and also sound good, but overall I still think that the JBL Go 3 sounds excellent for its size and weight.
It really sounds like a much bigger speaker, and it also gets very loud while still delivering a mostly distortion-free sound. While the bass on it is impressive for its size, it’s obviously not going to compete with the bigger speakers with more drivers in this area, but the mid-range and treble frequencies on it are very good and balanced.
In addition to being really great for watching videos and movies where the dialogues will sound very clear on this, music also sounds quite good, and unless you want that heavy bass hit while listening to EDM or dubstep, for vocal-centric mainstream music, it sounds really good.
But now let’s have a sound test, and I’ll also compare its sound with the Go 2, so you can get an idea of how they compare. So the sound quality difference between these two speakers isn’t that big. They both get equally loud, but the Go 3 retains a slightly lower-end at higher volumes than the Go 2, so it sounds slightly better and also bigger.
I don’t like comparing in percentages, but I would say that the Go 3 sounds around 10 to 15% better than the Go 2, which could be important enough for you. But the comparison between Go 3 and Go 2 is really weird, because while I like the design of Go 3 better, it doesn’t sound that much better than the Go 2, and with the JBL Go 2, you are getting a microphone, in addition to the 3.5mm audio-in jack, and when you consider the price difference between these two, getting more features for the lower price might be a better deal for you, especially when the sound quality difference isn’t big.
Conclusion
The JBL Go 2 is also more compact than the Go 3, and the loop on the Go 3 could be a waste of space for you if you won’t have a use for it, and even its metal grill design might be more durable in the long run. If you are sure that you will never use these speakers for calls and you don’t mind the price difference of 700 Rs. or around 10 US dollars, the Go 3 can be a better choice.
USB type C without flaps is nice to have, I like the bigger buttons on it, it sounds slightly better, and you can hang it on your finger like this.
So this concludes the topic for JBL G0 2 VS GO 3 WaterProof Speaker – Review 2021 and do let me know which one of these speakers you would go for in the comments section below and get notification of our latest blog with bell, follow me on socials.
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