Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: which portable speaker should you buy?

Whether you're jetting off on holiday and are looking for a portable speaker to stash in your suitcase or you just want a small speaker to be able to chuck in your bag for picnics and outdoors adventures – the two here are some of your best options around the £150 mark. 

"But one is a four star and one is a five star!", we hear you cry. For some people that will be enough to make their buying decision – that's what we do our reviews for, after all – but if you want to consider the two a little more carefully across core categories like design, features and sound, we've made that all the easier for you here.

Keep reading to find out how the two fare when we put them head to head.

Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: price

The Beats Pill was released on 27th June 2024 and costs £150 / $150 / AU$249.95, while the JBL Charge 5 was announced in January 2021 and costs around £170 / $180 / AU$200. A newer version – the JBL Charge 5 Wi-Fi – was added as an option in UK and US markets in mid-2023, but this sits a fair bit pricier, at £230 / $230.

Due to the original Charge 5's age, its price can vary a bit with seasonal sales in a way that we haven't seen the Beats Pill do just yet, plus if you're not too fussy on colour, some of the less popular hues are often available for a bit less year round.

Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: design

Preference for one design over another is generally pretty subjective and there's no doubt that both of these speakers do their job of being perfectly portable. However, the Charge 5 is chunkier to hold and heavier too (960g), so if your carry-on luggage has a weight limit, the Beats Pill is going to go that little bit easier on it (680g).

That's even with, what feels to us, like the more premium build quality. The Beats Pill has a grippy silicone back and base with a metallic grille, while the JBL is mostly a fabric grille, save for those end caps (and, of course, the vibrating dual radiators).

Arguably the JBL design is more "fun", while the Beats Pill design is more stylish, with a more grown-up aesthetic. We do like that colour-matched carrying lanyard too.

However, if selection of design to your own personal style is important, the JBL Charge 5 has a whole load more colours to choose from – around nine, in fact. That includes pink, teal, khaki, navy blue and camo, while the Beats Pill has only three – Champagne Gold, Statement Red and Matte Black.

*Winner: Beats Pill*

Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: features

The JBL Charge 5 was the first Charge speaker to get a full IP67 rating, meaning not only is it waterproof at depths of up to one metre for up to 30 minutes, but it is also dustproof (and therefore sandproof, if you plan on heading to the beach). Thankfully, the Beats Pill matches it and packs the same IP67 rating, so they go toe-to-toe on one of the most important features in this category.

There's plenty more to consider though, and as well as wireless listening, the Beats Pill offers wired lossless playback and device charging via its USB-C port, while  – conversely – the Charge 5 got rid of the 3.5mm wired input of the Charge 4 so its Bluetooth only. It does have a USB-A input for charging a device though (hence its name), but that is looking a little long in the tooth now, with many devices having USB-C-to-USB-C cables in the box. 

Both the JBL Charge 5 and the Beats Pill offer options for boosting the sound, including adding another speaker into the mix for stereo playback. Alternatively, you can daisy-chain multiple speakers together for a louder sound – that's called PartyBoost on the JBL Charge 5 and will work with several other speakers in the JBL family (including Flip 6, Boombox 3, Xtreme 3 and Pulse 4), while Amplify Mode on the Beats Pill works with the current Pill only.

One of Beats' products biggest USPs is the ability to work with both major phone operating systems pretty even-handedly. That includes things like fast pairing to devices and offering "Find My" functionality in both Android and iOS too, should your speaker go missing. 

JBL doesn't offer these kind of features to either operating system – you just pair the old-fashioned way and lose your speaker at your peril.

There's an app for accessing any extra functionality for the JBL Charge 5, and that's the same for Android-using Beats owners. iOS users will find their playback options baked into iOS menus in a similar way that Apple's AirPods do. 

Unlike the Beats, the JBL offers a simple EQ adjustment for bass, treble and midrange in its app. Overall options for much additional tweaking are rather on the low side for both speakers, though.

For battery life, the JBL Charge 5 offers 20 hours to the Beats Pill's 24 hours. There is a fast charge option on the Pill, offering two hours of playback from 10 minutes on charge, but there's nothing of the sort on the Charge 5. It also takes considerably longer to recharge from empty – around four hours to the Beats Pill's 2.5 hours.

*Winner: Beats Pill*

Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: sound

The Beats Pill and JBL Charge 5 sound quite different in their presentation. The JBL Charge 5 has a 52 x 90mm bass driver and 20mm tweeter in addition to its two side-firing dual radiators, while the two Beats Pill drive units (a neodymium woofer and tweeter, dimensions unknown) face forwards with a 20-degree tilt to improve sound dispersion.

The result is that the JBL has a much bigger sound, with a wider soundstage, while the Beats sounds smaller and more focused. This can work really well in a when you're in an environment where your music might be fighting against wind, waves or crowd chitter chatter, but in a room there's no doubt that the Charge 5 outdoes its rival for space and scale.

The focus through the midrange on the Pill does work well for people who crave real clarity from their speakers though, and it has the edge on the Charge 5 in that respect. 

Both perform admirably with bass, sounding rich and impactful with hip-hop songs and EDM, and have largely well-behaved treble and good detail levels for their price too. 

However, the Charge 5 does show the Beats Pill up when it comes to dynamics. In isolation you won't find the Pill lacking, and in fact, it retains low-level dynamics pretty admirably at lower volumes. But when you compare the two directly, the JBL Charge 5 immediately shows itself to be the more fun listen, and is more able to articulate the difference in textures, tempos and volume, also helped by a larger soundstage to organise itself within too. 

The Beats Pill does have the wildcard of wired lossless playback up its sleeve, and this does add much more subtlety to its performance. However, while this helps dynamics to be a little bit more upfront and expressive, the JBL Charge 5 still bests it for outright performance.

*Winner: JBL Charge 5*

Beats Pill vs JBL Charge 5: which should you buy?

From a sound perspective alone, the JBL Charge 5 does have the edge on the Beats Pill for dynamics, scale and overall authority, but the Beats Pill is far from a damp squib. It still produces a rich, clean sound with a real focus on clarity that we think many will enjoy – and it's a sound that works when out and about too.

If features are important to you though, the Beats Pill easily wins out here, and we'd say it has the better design too – particularly if you are looking for something to go travelling with. It's just that little bit lighter and more compact.

Which one you go for – well, that's now in your hands. We don't think you'd be disappointed either way, but for the very best sound quality, the JBL Charge 5 takes it.

MORE: 

Read our full Beats Pill review

And now check out our JBL Charge 5 review

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