JBL today is announcing three new speakers, which are part of its LINK series – the LINK 10, LINK 20 and LINK 300. These three speakers bring JBL’s signature sound together with the Google Assistant, giving users an incredible sounding smart speaker. Like the other Google Assistant-powered speakers from Sony, Anker and other companies, the JBL LINK speakers do offer both Bluetooth and WiFi for streaming music and such. And of course, Chromecast is built-in, for easy casting to your TV’s in your home and other products.
The JBL LINK 10 and LINK 20 are the portable versions while the LINK 300 is a much larger speaker without a built in battery. The LINK 10 starts at $149 and has two 8W speakers built-in and JBL quotes that it can last around five hours. The LINK 20 starts at $199 and has two 10W speakers with battery life quoted at 10 hours. Finally the LINK 300 is $249 and has a 50W speaker inside. Allowing for some really loud music, and with this being a JBL speaker, you know the music is going to sound damn good. The LINK 10 and 20 are also rated IPX7 for water resistance, while the LINK 300 is not. As is usually the case with JBL’s speakers, users are able to sync multiple speakers together to bring music to the entire room, and that is also possible with the LINK series. You can link up two or more LINK speakers and get a great experience in your home or outside.
With the Google Assistant built-in, users are going to be able to use this speaker to ask Google for different things like what’s the weather like, what’s in the news, or to control their smart home. The Google Assistant is compatible with a slew of smart home ecosystems, and many more have been added this week during IFA 2017. Now while some music services are compatible with Google Home or Google Assistant, you can still use those that are not, by using Bluetooth. Since these speakers do still use Bluetooth, you can still connect to it via Bluetooth and stream your favorite music with ease. The JBL LINK series of speakers will still get all the updates and all the features that the standard Google Home would get, you’ll just enjoy even better sounding audio.
JBL notes in its press release that the LINK speakers will be available this fall. No specific release date was given, but it should be in the next few months. These will likely be top sellers this holiday season, even though they are a bit pricier than the Google Home, the main advantage here is the much better sound quality that customers have come to expect from JBL.