Last year, headset vet Jawbone stepped into the wireless speaker market with the Jambox ($199.99, 3.5 stars), a portable Bluetooth speaker that doubles as a speakerphone accessory. Now, the company is taking the idea and making it bigger with the Big Jambox ($299.99 direct), a larger, heavier, and more-powerful speaker. For $100 more, it bumps the Jambox up from a good portable personal speaker to one that could easily drive a small party or handle a conference call for a large group. The sound quality isn't quite as clear and robust as what you get with the Editors' Choice Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker ($299.95, 4 stars), but a long battery life and a handy speakerphone feature make the Big Jambox a top choice if you're looking for a wireless speaker to take with you.
Design
Like the Jambox before it, the Big Jambox is a blocky brick of a speaker. It measures 3.6 by 10.1 by 3.2 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.2 pounds, dwarfing the Jambox 's 6.0 by 2.2 by 1.6 inches and 12 ounces. (In the photo below, the original Jambox is on the left.) Available in red, black, or white, the speaker is surrounded by a metal grille, and slightly rubberized panels on the left and right sides help protect it in transit. It features most of its controls on its top side, including Playback and Volume buttons along with a Jawbone button for accessing various smart features including voice dialing and battery status. The right side holds a Power button and button for Bluetooth pairing, plus a 3.5mm output, microUSB port, and a power plug connector.
Pairing a smartphone, tablet, or other Bluetooth device with the Big Jambox is simple. When you first turn on the speaker it will automatically enter pairing mode, and after you've paired it with one device you can pair it with additional devices by holding the pairing button. You can also connect an audio device directly to the Big Jambox through the 3.5mm input with the included cable. The microUSB port is solely for updating the Big Jambox's software, since unlike the Jambox, which charged via USB, it has a dedicated power jack and AC adapter. As a Bluetooth device, the range of the speaker is about 30 feet. According to Jawbone, the Big Jambox can last up to 15 hours on a single charge, much longer than, say, the Bose SoundLink, which is rated to last eight hours at moderate listening levels. I ran all of my tests on the Big Jambox, and after three days it still said the battery is "about full." It actually said that. Pressing the Jambox button summons a female robotic voice that can tell you battery status.
Performance
The Big Jambox sounds clear, and its larger size and more power lets it get much louder than the Jambox. I filled the 5,000-square-foot PC Lab with music by cranking the volume to max, and while my fellow editors preferred "Bye Bye Birdie" to Glenn Benton, most everyone heard both the show tunes and death metal. Vocals and strings sounded crisp but slightly bright, and midrange notes were full and accurate.
Our bass test track, The Knife's "Silent Shout," sounded deep and forceful. The low end sounded slightly crunchy, and other bass-heavy songs like the Beastie Boys' "Shake Your Rump" distorted slightly when the volume was turned up to maximum level. The Big Jambox is still a portable speaker, though, so don't expect driving sound to rock a room. It can deliver music to a small party, but it won't compete with a larger iPod dock or a full sound system.
In my test calls with an Apple iPhone 4S, voice call quality was clear, and the 360-degree microphone and larger size of the Big Jambox make it great for conference calls. Voices are picked up by the speaker easily at normal levels, and callers can be heard very loudly with the volume turned up.?
The Jawbone Big Jambox doesn't quite deliver the power and clarity of our Editors' Choice wireless portable speaker, the Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker, and it's three times more expensive than some other wireless options like the Logitech Mini Boombox ($99.99, 4 stars), but it works well as a speakerphone and boasts a long battery life, which is key for a portable speaker. The Beats By Dre Beatbox Portable ($449.95, 3.5 stars) offers stronger audio quality given its larger size, but it requires six D-cell batteries to be portable. If you value flexibility over audiophile-grade sound quality, the Big Jambox should be at the top of your list.
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