Review: JBL Pulse 2

JBL Pulse 2
Price: Rs 13,000 (Amazon.in)

Over the past few years, entertainment has really gone mobile with mobile phones and tablets. Portable speakers have provided accompaniment right from the beginning and have gone an evolution of their own – wired, Bluetooth, and NFC. When we thought that the evolution would stop at this, the JBL Pulse came with its dynamic light display to steal the show. The Pulse got an upgrade to the Pulse 2 with big improvements. Let’s take a look at how well this new show-off of a speaker fares.

Package Contents

JBL Pulse 2
Micro-USB cable
USB power adapter
User manual

Features

At first look, the JBL Pulse 2 looks like a charcoal black barrel with tapering ends, weighing 775 gm, which is not quite light. The barrel is 19.44 cm long and 8.42 cm at the widest diameter. The build quality appears to be very good. JBL advertises this to be splashproof, meaning that it should be able to handle light rain or spills, although it will not be able to withstand complete submersion.

The almost non-reflective body consists primarily of a metallic mesh and also rubberized parts. The metallic mesh is rolled around the barrel, almost completely covering it, leaving only a 3 cm gap along the length. A rubberized covering having all the control buttons, takes care of this gap.

The sides of the barrel, as we may call them, have Bass radiators, which vibrate when air is displaced while producing low frequency sound. This effectively improves the bass response and quality of the Pulse 2 over the original Pulse. The only practical way to place the speaker is on one of the two sides. Thankfully, there are sculpted legs on the rubberized rim encircling the Bass radiators, which provides enough space to not block the audio. Having said that, it is just not possible to place it on a surface along its length, except with the controls facing down, as the speaker rolls around until it is stopped by the protrusion of the color sensor lens (more on it later).

All the control buttons are of feather-touch type and under a rubber layer. The buttons include the power button, Bluetooth connect button, lightshow selection button, volume control, play/pause (also acting to accept and disconnect calls), and JBL Connect button (to connect multiple JBL Pulse 2 speakers together to amplify the sound). There is also a rubber flap at the bottom, behind which is the auxiliary 3.5 mm port to connect wired audio sources, and a micro-USB port to charge the 6000 mAh battery of the Pulse 2.

The lightshow multi-coloured LEDs are housed behind the metallic mesh and the lighting pattern can be controlled by a button on the control panel. It appears to be smoother than the one on the previous version of the Pulse. In addition to the buttons, the lightshow can also be controlled via an Android app, which even allows you to draw your own patterns.

One of the gimmicky features that JBL has added to the Pulse 2 is what the company calls JBL Prism color sensor lens. This works in conjunction with the JBL Prism button, which is on the opposite side. When you want to set the colour of the light to the surroundings or any particular object, you must point the color lens towards the object and press the JBL Prism button. Voila! The light show takes up the colour of the subject.

Performance

Connecting via Bluetooth happens in a jiffy. While NFC would have sped up this process, its absence does not hurt much either. The JBL Pulse 2 can connect with up to three Bluetooth devices at a time. Thus, you can connect it to your mobile phone, tablet, as well as laptop, all at once.

The audio quality of the Pulse 2 is surprisingly better than what one would expect of a speaker this size. It is more than sufficient to fill up a large living room, and you might still not be required to increase the volume to the highest level. The audio is well balanced with the treble, mids, and bass being aptly handled with surprising grace. This makes it ideal to listen to music as well as to hear dialogues in movies with equal clarity.

The light show is certainly a show-stealer with the various multi-coloured light patterns never failing to captivate the onlooker. Sadly, it doesn’t actually respond to the music being played – a feature that was included in the previous version of the Pulse, but omitted for some reason in the new version.

The audio quality of telephone calls was found to be very good on both ends.

The Bluetooth range is sufficient to easily use the Pulse 2 in any corner of a spacious 2BHK flat.

Battery Life

The battery lasts for just about 10 hours, which is true to what JBL claims, and this is with the lightshow. Without the lightshow, it should last even longer. Charging takes around 5 hours with the bundled charger.

My Verdict

The JBL Pulse 2 packs in great sound quality with a large volume and an innovative multi-coloured light show in a splash-proof packaging. The audio quality is good throughout the audio spectrum At 775 grams, it is not very portable, but is somehow manageable if you don’t mind carrying the extra load. The lack of NFC may be forgiven, but the removal of the responsive light equalizer from the earlier version is beyond my understanding. The 6000 mAh battery could have been used to provide battery backup to other devices, but JBL seems to have reserved that distinction for the Charge 2+. However, that still does not take away much from the Pulse 2 from what it is and what it delivers. The price of Rs 13,000 might seem steep, but that’s the price you have to pay for the Pulse 2, which has really no competition for its combination of performance, novelty, and style.

Pros: Great audio quality and volume, Amazing multi-coloured lightshow, Easy to use, Long battery life.

Cons: Lightshow not audio responsive, Pricey.

Ratings
Features: 4.5/5
Aesthetics: 4.5/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value For Money: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 4/5