Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) vs JBL Boombox (2017)

The Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) makes for a good, if unremarkable, Portable Bluetooth Speaker for people with a $85 budget.

The JBL Boombox (2017), however, is merely mediocre at its $399 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $85 and $390 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) and JBL Boombox (2017), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) was loved by reviewers at PCmag, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "The Best Bluetooth Speakers Under $100" roundup where it was named its "Ranked 2 out of 10", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

As for the JBL Boombox (2017), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at PCmag, Techradar, and Expert Reviews enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

When we thoroughly analyzed their review scores, we learned that all of the sources that tested both Portable Bluetooth Speakers, including Techradar and PCmag, preferred the Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) over the JBL Boombox (2017).

We also took a look at which sources they managed to impress the most. The Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) was liked best by Technically Well, which gave it a score of 9.3, while the JBL Boombox (2017) got its highest, 8, score from PCmag.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Anker Soundcore Flare (2018), with its 8.9 average, performed considerably better than most Portable Bluetooth Speakers - the mean score for the product category being 7.6 out of 10 - while the JBL Boombox (2017) managed an average of 7.3.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Anker Soundcore Flare (2018) vs. JBL Boombox (2017) review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.