Bose's five-star Bluetooth speaker gets a first-time discount – but is this JBL Award-winner a better deal?

(Image credit: What Hi-Fi?)

Wonderful as Black Friday is, it can throw up some tricky dilemmas. After all, there's only so many OLED TVs or pairs of wireless earbuds you can buy, no matter how good the juicy discounts may appear.

It's no different for Bluetooth speakers. This one's a tough dilemma, as the five-star Bose SoundLink Max has been discounted for the first time, falling by £50 at Amazon for its maiden voyage into the unknown world of the discount. It's a wonderful speaker that we love very much, but the JBL Xtreme 4 – a spectacular rival and our What Hi-Fi? Award-winning Product of the Year in the best wireless speakers category – is also on sale, falling from £330 to just £238 at Amazon.

Which one, then, should you choose to snap up during the sales?

Bose SoundLink Max vs Xtreme 4: which Bluetooth speaker is better?

Best Bose and JBL Bluetooth speaker deals

We wouldn't blame you if the Bose SoundLink Max caught your eye this Black Friday. It's from a big name brand, it's a big boy speaker and it's enjoying a fairly big discount of £50 – a big deal all round, then. We love the SoundLink Max, praising its entertaining, full-bodied sound that melds a meaty, weighty sonic core with a speedy, enthusiastic delivery.

The SoundLink Max's battery life clocks in at a claimed 20 hours, though you might find that this varies slightly depending on how you use it, while an IP67 rating means the burly speaker is water and dust-proof. It's all looking rosy, especially when you factor in the very tempting fact that this is the first time we've ever seen the Max drop in price. Surely, this is a no-brainer.

Well, hold fire for a second, or at least as long as it takes to read a few more paragraphs. The SoundLink Max is a wonderful entertainer, but there's another speaker in town that we think gives you equal, if not better, sonic performance at an even better price. We refer, of course, to the Award-winning JBL Xtreme 4.

The Xtreme 4 is already a legend and it's only been around for a matter of months. Our Product of the Year in the wireless speaker Awards category, we can't think of a Bluetooth portable that has impressed us so much since the mighty JBL Charge 5. The Xtreme is everything we look for in a portable speaker, in that it's a fun, full-spectrum performer that sounds better than anything we've experienced at this level, all while boasting possibly the best build quality, and handy features such as Auracast and 24-hour battery life, that you could find for this price.

£50 off a speaker with an RRP of £399 is a very solid deal that we wouldn't dissuade you from pursuing. The thing is, the JBL is a whopping £91 off, and given that it's such a spectacular unit, we can't see you getting a better Bluetooth speaker deal all Black Friday. If it were our money, that's probably the one we'd pick.

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Harry McKerrell is a senior staff writer at What Hi-Fi?. During his time at the publication, he has written countless news stories alongside features, advice and reviews of products ranging from floorstanding speakers and music streamers to over-ear headphones, wireless earbuds and portable DACs. He has covered launches from hi-fi and consumer tech brands, and major industry events including IFA, High End Munich and, of course, the Bristol Hi-Fi Show. When not at work he can be found playing hockey, practising the piano or trying to pet strangers' dogs.