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JLab B-Flex review: JLab B-Flex

For emergency audio needs or casual background music, the JLab B-Flex Hi-Fi USB Speaker is worth adding to your travel bag--yet audiophiles don't need us to tell them what to expect from a 2-watt speaker system.

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
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Dan Ackerman
2 min read
A high-end desktop-replacement laptop, such as the Fujitsu N6420, often comes with a decent set of built-in stereo speakers. But for those of us who use smaller laptops, speaker quality can run the gamut from rotary telephone to transistor radio.

Of course, you can hook up your laptop to a giant set of 5.1 speakers, such as the Logitech Z-5450 or even consider a basic 2.0 speaker setup, but that's not a solution we'd call portable. The JLab B-Flex Hi-Fi USB Speaker is a compact set of stereo speakers attached to a 7-inch gooseneck cord that plugs into a laptop USB port. These speakers won't rattle the windows, but for under $40, they're a good way to add a little oomph to DVDs, MP3s, and even business presentations with audio.

6.0

JLab B-Flex

The Good

Compact; better sounding than most built-in laptop speakers; connects via USB.

The Bad

Poor bass response; limited stereo separation.

The Bottom Line

For emergency audio needs or casual background music, the JLab B-Flex Hi-Fi USB Speaker is worth adding to your travel bag--yet audiophiles don't need us to tell them what to expect from a 2-watt speaker system.

Two tiny paper-cone speakers are housed in a plastic oval case measuring 3.25 inches wide by 1.25 inches deep. The pocket-sized B-Flex speaker is small enough to fit in a laptop case, although the speaker's rounded back isn't the most space-efficient design.

The B-Flex gets both power and audio through a USB port, bypassing a laptop's microphone jack. The USB plug sits at the end of the metal gooseneck cord, which can be twisted in any direction to peek out from behind the laptop's lid if you're using a rear USB port.

Installation is easy. Plug the B-Flex into a USB port and your Windows operating system should recognize it as a USB audio device. On the laptops we tested, this procedure automatically disabled the onboard speakers in favor of the B-Flex USB speaker.

You're not going to get a tremendous amount of volume out of the B-Flex. The speakers only pump out 1 watt per channel, but the sound is clear and undistorted when playing MP3s through iTunes. The B-Flex does produce enough volume to watch a DVD in a reasonably quiet setting. With such tiny speakers, however, bass response is lacking, and the frequency response is narrower than with an inexpensive set of headphones.

It's also worth noting that since the two speakers sit right next to each other, you lose any sense of the stereo field; although laptop speakers aren't much better for stereo separation.

6.0

JLab B-Flex

Score Breakdown

Design 6Features 7Performance 5