JBL Flip 5 vs Bose Home Speaker 500 (2018)

We couldn't find enough data on either product to be able to come to any reliable conclusions. We highly recommend that you take a look at some other options in the $90 and $290 budget ranges instead.

The JBL Flip 5 was loved by reviewers at SoundGuys, a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "Best Bluetooth speakers under $100" roundup where it was named its "Ranked 1 out of 5", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

Taking a look at the Bose Home Speaker 500 (2018), we found that it did great in numerous roundups from highly trusted sources that conduct objective in-depth testing, including TechGearLab, Rtings, and SoundGuys - it was named "Top Pick" by TechGearLab, "Ranked 1 out of 4" by Rtings, and "Ranked 1 out of 5" by SoundGuys. A product that's held in such high regard by some of the most reliable sources on the internet should be considered by anyone that's in the market for a Smart Speaker at this price.

To get a better idea of how they fare when compared directly to each other, we analyzed review scores of sources that tested both. reviews.org and PCmag, for example, preferred the JBL Flip 5, while Techradar rated both of them the same.

We also took a look at which sources had the best things to say about them. We learned that the JBL Flip 5 got reviewed the highest by What Hi-Fi? - it gave it a rating of 10, while the Bose Home Speaker 500 (2018) most impressed reviewers at TechGearLab, which gave it a score of 10.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Smart Speakers on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Smart Speakers being 7.4 out of 10, whereas the JBL Flip 5 and Bose Home Speaker 500 (2018) managed averages of 8.4 and 8.2 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct JBL Flip 5 vs. Bose Home Speaker 500 (2018) comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.