I have both. I got the Flex for $109 and the much larger Max for $380. Sure the Max is louder, has more bass, better Bluetooth and an AUX input. But the Flex has it's own features and less annoyances that it's hard to accept the much higher price of the Max.

Here is why the Flex is better:

1. The Soundlink Flex has a microphone. The Soundlink Max does not.

2. The Soundlink Flex can be turned on from your phone! When I'm in bed, I can turn on the speaker from a distance using just my phone. For the Flex, I go to the Bose Connect app and slide down the icon to turn the speaker on. However the regular Bose app of the Soundlink Max does not allow this. I must manually press the power button on the Soundlink Max to turn it on.

3. The Soundlink Flex has no white noise. On the Flex, there is white noise after pausing music but it disappears after 5 seconds and the speaker is completely silent. But for the Soundlink Max, after you pause music, white noise remains indefinitely, and it is noticeably loud when your room is super quiet and your ears are near the speaker. For those who don't know, white noise is the background noise the speaker makes when the speaker is on but not playing sound. It can be annoying for some people.

4. The Soundlink Flex has accurate battery readings. The Flex has an accurate battery update at all times. But for some reason, the Soundlink Max has a delayed battery reading. I can play music for hours and the battery level on the Max remains at 100% from day to night, giving me a false impression that the battery is that good. But the next day, when I turn the Soundlink Max back on, that is when the battery reading adjusts itself and the 100% battery from the previous night suddenly drops down to like 60% in the morning.

Why aren't people who own both speakers pointing these things out?

Refreshing colors, smaller logo, new multifunction button and pairing to the soundlink MAX are pretty nice editions, along with the aptx adaptive codec support. But is there a sound difference? As far as i can hear, yes.A slight one. The speaker got more clarity, sounds more open, more vocal friendly and has a little deeper bass with less upperbass (most people didn't hear a difference but i did a little) The EQ is the biggest upgrade in my opinion, it really fixes the highs and mids especially in the standing position where the old flex lacks crisp. One thing i would change, is add an option to turn off the positioning eq change, because ONE - it now has a delay when switching positions compared to the old flex, and TWO - i personally rather having one eq for all positions. The motion 300 has the same delay problem but you can turn that off completely. In terms of price and value, the gen 2 is currently 150$ which is the original retail price of gen 1 (which can be found for around 120$ or so) But i think that the 2nd gen is future proof and is a better experience overall. Would be nice to hear yall opinions if you agree or disagree.