EUR204,84
Bose Soundlink Flex (2nd Gen.)
Bose Soundlink Flex 2nd Gen: are you paying for the name?
Like it’s predecessor, the 2nd gen Flex speaker is mid-range. The question is: how does the luxury brand fare up against Bluetooth speakers from UE and JBL?
Spring’s on its way, and those first rays of sunshine bring them all out of the woodwork. Not wasps; Bluetooth speakers. One of the many manufacturers is audio giant Bose, which wants to fill your garden parties with sound from the SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen this spring. After three years, it’s expanding the extremely popular Flex series. You can find it in our range for 139 francs (as of 5 March 2025). Let’s address the most important questions and answers up front: is the speaker worth its price? Definitely. Should you buy it? Definitely maybe.
What Bose does well: optical product care
Visually, Bose has stayed true to itself: a slim, rectangular design with gently rounded corners and an attractive rubber coating that feels nice and well-made. It’s available in a range of subtle and chic colours: Blue Dusk, Alpine Sage, Sandstone and Black.
You can attach the speaker to your rucksack with a practical little fabric strap. Not that you need to – at around 20 centimetres long and 600 grammes in weight, it’s easy to carry around.
Source: Florian Bodoky
Particularly because it’s only 5.2 centimetres thick and easy to hold thanks to the silicone rubber coating. This – along with steel mesh on the front – protects the speaker’s broadband driver. The Flex is waterproof and dustproof in line with IP67.
Source: Florian Bodoky
Minimalism in the wrong place
Bose focuses on minimalism both in terms of design and accessories. You get a short guide and a USB-C cable, but there are no other frills to speak of.
The control surface is also subtle, but the pressure point feels nice. It has the usual buttons: volume control, power, Bluetooth pairing and so on.
Source: Florian Bodoky
Two buttons are special, however. Firstly, there’s the multifunctional play/pause button. If you press it multiple times, you can also skip songs, answer and end calls, and more. Secondly, there’s the shortcut button. If you download the Bose app, you can assign it your choice of action – for example, to call up playlists or an assistant such as Siri or Google Assistant.
Source: Florian Bodoky
When it comes to connections, Bose is too minimalist. Why doesn’t the Flex have a useful jack or line-in (e.g. via USB-C)? If you have wired devices, you can’t connect them to the speaker.
Battery life trails the competition
Bose promises up to 12 hours of playtime. I can more or less confirm that. There’s only a minor improvement on its predecessor and it’s definitely not on the level of some competitors who boast 18, 20 or even 24 hours. But it’ll be enough for a few barbecues without charging.
Sound: sharp, balanced, with a lack of pressure
When choosing a speaker, you should consider what you like to listen to and what you often listen to. Are you a bass head, a violin virtuoso or do you follow what’s in the charts? The Soundlink Flex 2nd Gen isn’t the best choice for bass lovers in particular.
The Soundlink Flex 2nd Gen’s high frequencies are characterised by clear playback. Fine details in the music sound precise, which I especially notice with acoustic instruments and vocals. However, the highs sound shrill at higher volumes, which can be unpleasant for sensitive listeners.
In the track above, the guitar riffs and percussion are prominent in the high-frequency range. The SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen reproduces these elements clearly, so every pluck of the strings is clearly audible. However, at higher volumes, I hear a certain sharpness in the highs. The hi-hat and snare drum in particular are crisp. Here, too, there’s a slight overemphasis of the highs at higher volumes, which sounds a bit harsh.
The mids on the Soundlink Flex 2nd Gen are excellently balanced and make voices and instruments sound natural. This means the speaker performs best with vocals and most instruments. Ellie Goulding’s voice is the focus and it’s reproduced warmly and authentically. The guitar accompaniment sounds full-bodied and the electronic elements fit harmoniously into the overall picture. The mids are clearly defined.
In the low frequencies, the SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen delivers clean bass that’s not too strong. For a speaker of this size, the bass is fine, but it lacks depth and power.
Riders on the Storm has a dominant, groovy bass line. The SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen reproduces the bass clearly and rhythmically, but without the deep pressure that characterises the song on larger systems. The bass reproduction is precise, but lacks a bit of depth.
The SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen has a warm, pleasing sound signature. Bose has tuned the speaker to suit a wide range of music genres. No frequencies are overly emphasised. This tuning makes the speaker versatile, but you might miss out if you’re a bass freak.
How to squeeze out the last bit of quality: PositionIQ
PositionIQ is a cool feature. The speaker uses internal sensors to detect how it’s positioned. Whether it’s lying down, standing up or hanging, it adjusts the sound accordingly. It reduces the bass when it’s lying down and prevents the sound becoming so thin that you can no longer hear it when it’s hanging on your bag. This is particularly useful when you’re on the move, as you don’t have to constantly experiment to find out where the sound’s at its best.
In a nutshell
Good sound, but the features spoil the overall impression
The SoundLink Flex 2nd Gen is a small, elegant Bluetooth speaker with a strong design and clear sound. If you’re looking for a portable, stylish solution that sounds good and has a few clever features, this is it. But if you value deep bass, long battery life or flexible connection options, you’re better off looking elsewhere. It’s a decent overall package for the price, but it’s not a must-have. In short, it’s a good option – but not the only one on the market.
Pro
- Good sound
- Good finish
- Simple design
Contra
- No physical connections
- Bass is a bit weak
- Battery’s a bit thin
Header image: Florian Bodoky
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I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue.
