JBL Link 10

Pros
Google Assistant support. Portable and rugged build. Bluetooth connectivity. Powerful for its size.
Cons
Distorts on heavy sub-bass. Brusque bombardment life.
Bottom Line
The JBL Link x smart speaker offers Google Assistant phonation control in a portable, rugged, and relatively affordable package.

You don't need a Google speaker or phone to use Google Assistant. The voice assistant is making its way to tertiary-party speakers, starting with JBL's Link line. The JBL Link x is the company's smallest Google Banana-powered smart speaker, a $149.95 cylinder that's portable, waterproof, and too plays music via Bluetooth. Information technology isn't the most powerful vocalization assistant speaker out there, simply its pocket-size premium over the $129 Home provides a slew of compelling upgrades and better performance than Google's not-portable alternative.

Design

The Link 10 shares a like tapered barrel design to many of JBL'southward more traditional portable Bluetooth speakers. It's a 6.6-inch-tall blackness cylinder that measures 3.1 inches across, with grille cloth wrapped around nearly of its body, with the exception of a small black rubber cut-out on the dorsum property Power and Microphone Mute buttons and a five-LED battery indicator. The elevation and bottom of the speaker are capped with black plastic and rubber, and concord most of the Link x'south controls and indicators.

The pinnacle console features a recessed rubber surface with 4 prophylactic membrane buttons for Play/Suspension, Volume Up and Down, and Bluetooth pairing. A sleeky black Google Assistant button sits in the heart to manually activate the vocalism assistant feature, though yous'll much more probable use your voice instead. Ii pinholes on the top surface betoken the speaker's microphones. A series of 4 white LEDs bear witness volume level, with each LED dimming or brightening equally you lot adjust the volume to offering more detail.

JBL Link 10

The lesser cap of the Link 10 has a large rubber foot to keep the speaker steady on any flat surface. A Wi-Fi indicator LED on the front shows Wi-Fi network connectivity status. A minor prophylactic door on the back of the cap hides a micro USB port for charging with the included cable and wall adapter, along with a pinhole Reset button. The Link 10 has no wired audio connections like a 3.5mm jack, and the micro USB port is merely for charging.

Like the Charge three, Clip 2, and several other JBL speakers, the Link 10 is waterproof. It has an IPX7 rating, which means it tin get submerged in up to iii.iii anxiety of h2o for 30 minutes.

JBL claims the Link 10 can concluding up to five hours on a charge, depending on wireless connectivity and listening volume. That'due south a flake scant for a portable speaker; many like sized speakers, including the Amazon Tap and JBL'south own Charge iii, tin can last 2 to four times as long.

Setup and Streaming

Setting the Link 10 upward for Google Assistant is just similar setting up a Google Home. Open the Google Abode app and go through the procedure to add a new device. When y'all first turn the Link 10 on, it will prove up as a Google Bandage speaker set for setup. Enter your Wi-Fi network data in the app and it volition join your network.

Y'all tin can stream music to the Link ten straight from your smartphone over Bluetooth, or over Wi-Fi using Google Cast. As a Google Cast device, the Link x functions as if a Chromecast Sound was connected. The Google Cast platform supports streaming audio from a wide diversity of services this style, and since Wi-Fi has a college bandwidth than Bluetooth it's capable of handling higher fidelity audio streams (though this will depend on your network connexion and the Wi-Fi environment).

JBL Link 10

Google Assistant

With Google Assistant, the Link 10 works just like the Google Home and has access to all of the features of Google's first-party vocalization assistant speakers. You can tell the speaker to stream music from Google Play, Spotify, and a scattering of other services. You tin ask for data regarding weather, news, sports, unit conversion, and other subjects. You lot can command whatever supported smart home devices. You can even use your voice to tell any Chromecast on the same network to stream video from Netflix or YouTube.

Google'south vocalization assistant handles natural language a scrap amend than Amazon'south Alexa. It's also more than complete in third-party integrations on the Link 10 than Alexa is on devices similar the UE Megablast, which currently can't employ voice control to play music from Spotify or brand voice calls over Amazon's Drop In service.

Google Assistant as well handles multiple users and speakers much better than Alexa. In one case you teach information technology your voice profile by saying a few curt phrases, it will recognize yous and distinguish you from other speakers to provide personalized data. If more than i Google Assistant speaker is in the aforementioned room, simply the closest speaker volition respond when you talk. Both functions work on the Link 10 merely like they do on Google Home speakers.

Functioning

Equally you can guess from the Link ten's size, information technology isn't congenital for powerful audio with a lot of ultra-low frequencies. At maximum volume levels, it distorts the kicking pulsate hits in our bass examination rails, The Knife's "Silent Shout." This is primarily an consequence with the ultra low frequencies of sub-bass. The speaker is capable of putting out some solid mid-low presence, making the bass and drums of The Prodigy's "Firestarter" sound full and round. Information technology isn't a audio that will fill a crowded room, but it'south a flake more powerful than the Google Abode and Amazon Echo.

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The speaker favors low-mids and mids more than annihilation else, though some high-mid sculpting keeps things from sounding likewise unbalanced. The opening acoustic guitar notes in Aye' "Roundabout" have a hint of string texture, simply the lower resonance of each note is much more than prominent. When the bass kicks in, the thumping notes pop out while leaving enough space in the mix for the guitar, though the speaker doesn't offer much presence for the everyman and highest frequencies on the track.

JBL Link 10

This audio signature works well for hip-hop, and Run The Jewels' "Fable Has Information technology" sounds full and clear through the Link 10. The bass drum hits get enough strength to stand up out, and the rhymes stay in the spotlight. David Bowie's higher voice in "I'one thousand Afraid of Americans" doesn't fare quite every bit well, sitting a scrap farther dorsum in the mix against the lower frequency sounds. A bit of high frequency sculpting could have helped balance things out meliorate.

Conclusions

For just $20 more than the Google Abode, the JBL Link ten offers a much more compelling Google Assistant-equipped bundle. It'due south portable, waterproof, and more powerful than the Google Home, all while keeping every Google Assistant function intact. It doesn't accept the room-filling power of the Google Home Max or the UE Megablast (or the JBL Link 300, which we're currently in the process of testing), just it offers solid functioning for its toll and size. As far as Google Assistant speakers go, information technology's one of the most highly-seasoned y'all can find for under $200.

Will Greenwald has been covering consumer engineering science for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and assay has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-business firm home amusement expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level 2-certified Telly calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accurateness of all PCMag Telly reviews.