Are cheap portable speakers worth it?

JBL is one of the biggest audio brands in the world, so it's little surprise that it has plenty to offer when it comes to portable and Bluetooth speakers. At the time of writing, the brand has a total of ten different options for Aussies looking for on-the-go audio.

Price-wise, these speakers range from as cheap as $59.99 to as expensive as $700. The biggest determinant of that price is size since a larger form factor also typically means a bigger sound. To help distinguish between who each speaker is designed for, JBL has broken the range out into several sub-brands: JBL Flip, JBL Pulse, JBL Go, JBL Charge, JBL eXtreme, JBL Clip and JBL Boombox.

From 2018 onwards, Kmart has been selling a variety of products under its generic Anko brand. That includes smaller gadgets and consumer electronics like portable speakers and wireless headphones. Price-wise, a portable speaker bank from Kmart can be as cheap as $12 or as expensive as $59.

While the underlying Bluetooth technology here isn't all that different from what a big brand like JBL offers, the size of the speakers involved caps out at around 30W. Another key difference here is battery life. If that matters to you then it might be worth scoping out the competition before you opt for the cheapest possible option.