JBL Charge 5 Review: Rugged Speaker That Gets LOUD!

JBL has some really nice portable party speakers, and the new Charge 5 is, as expected, pretty darn good for its price.

So let’s talk design.

The major materials used here are fabric and rubber. The bulk of the body is covered in this fabric mesh, which does feel rather resilient to scratches, although I’m certainly not going to take a knife or something to it to test it out. On the sides though, it’s covered in rubber bumpers, which is great, because if you drop the speaker, it’s most likely going to fall on either one of the sides, meaning there’s some shock absorption and protection.