This is the JBL Flip 6. A portable Bluetooth speaker that promises to
deliver great sound in a waterproof, dustproof, and durable package.
All at a great price. But does it, and how does it compare to the previous generation Flip 5?
Welcome to My Tech Gear.
Let's find out!
Now I've always loved the packaging of the JBL speakers and it's presented really well. Inside
the box you will find this package here. All it really contains is the USB-C charging cable which
is here, and then in the other side you're going to find the warranty card and a quick
user start guide. Which honestly you're never going to use because honestly you don't need to.
The Speaker itself is in here. Now this is a really nice sized portable speaker.
It is very similarly designed to other JBL speakers in their modern lineup.
So speakers like the Xtreme 3 and the Charge 5 all have this similar design.
If we have a closer look at the speaker you will see on the top there are four buttons.
Now they control your volume up and down, your play button which is your play / pause and skip,
and your PartyBoost button as well which I'll get to in a little bit in the video.
On the back of the speaker we also have the power button and the Bluetooth button
as well. As well as the USB-C charging port.
And around the outside of the speaker you will find this rubberized finish
which is very reminiscent of the more expensive Charge 5.
So that's really going to help it survive a few knocks if you accidentally drop it.
Orientation wise you can place this either horizontally or vertically.
When you place it horizontally there's this little rubberized notch underneath
so that will help stop it moving around on a table or a rock or wherever you've got it.
Alternatively it can just sit on these rubber mounts on the end.
If you don't want to do either, it has a lanyard built into the back of the speaker
so you can hang it off pretty much anything. Hang it off a tree. Hang off your backpack.
It's a great way of storing this anywhere and having music on the go.
And on the go this speaker is ideally sized for because it is only 178 by 72 by 68 millimeters
wide, deep and high. In inches that's 7 by 2.6 by 2.8. And it only weighs about 550 grams,
which is 1.21 pounds. So it doesn't add too much weight to your bag so you can easily throw it in.
You can also hang off the back of your bag using
the lanyard. It is a speaker that is ideally set up for music on the go.
Inside here we have two speakers. Now there is the race track shaped woofer, same as you had on
the previous Flip 5, but now it only handles the low and the mid frequencies because now
there is a built-in dedicated tweeter for the high frequencies. That should give us a better
detailed sound. There are also two dual passive radiators on either end of the speaker to help
give you that deep bass. To give you an idea of how much deep bass these passive radiators on the
end are actually pushing out, when you play music off these, if you just put your hands over the
edge you can feel the amount of air that is being pushed by these passive radiators on the end. It
really does give you a better base than something this size should actually be able to give you.
It's a feature that JBL have had on their speakers for several years now and it works really well.
That's all well and good but you need the power to back it up. Fortunately there is 30 watts of
power in this speaker. Now that is 50% more power than the previous generation Flip 5.
There is 20 watts dedicated to the woofer and 10 watts to the tweeter giving you 30 watts all up.
The frequency range of the speakers is 63 hertz through to 20 kilohertz.
So it is going to be a little light on the bass, but then again it is a small speaker.
It does however have a better bass response than the Flip 5.
At high volumes though the sound can get a little bit harsh and shrill,
and that treble really starts to come through and the base fall off. Fortunately you can compensate
for that a little bit using the mobile app. There is a JBL Portable app which has a three
band graphic equalizer which allows you to offset this. So you can bump up the bass,
drop the treble down a little bit to compensate for that. This speaker is happiest at low to
mid volumes and at that level I don't find any need to tweak those equalizer settings.
It's good to have the equalizer in the app though so you can compensate when you want to push this.
And to prove that it sounds really good here's a sound test…
Battery life wise you'll get about 12 hours of playtime from a single charge,
and it will charge up to full in about two and a half hours using the USB-C
port in the back. Now that battery life is okay but it's not market leading. However
I'm more concerned with good sound than I am with exceptional battery performance.
One thing that does concern me though is durability, especially in a portable speaker,
and here I now have no worries because this is ip67 rated. This means not only can you submerge
in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes but it is also dust proof as well! So you can
now take this down the beach without worrying that you're going to get sand in the speaker,
and that is a great upgrade that JBL have done over the previous generation Flip 5.
The speaker also sees an upgrade to Bluetooth 5.1. So the range on this
is now up to 40 meters. If you compare that to earlier speakers that only had early versions
of Bluetooth that had a range of up to 10 meters, and that connectivity is rock solid.
It also allows you to connect up to two devices to this at the same time
in what JBL says allows you to “take turns” in sharing the JBL experience.
Personally I see that as allowing you to fight over whose music is going to play on the speaker,
but it is a really cool feature to have on the speaker especially
if you're at group parties and you want to start sharing playlists out the same speaker.
Talking of pairing, you can use PartyBoost to pair this with up to 99
other speakers. Now I'm not too sure how many people have 99 other JBL speakers lying around,
but realistically it means at a party, or whatever, if you've got a few of these dotted
around the house you can pair them all up so they play the same music at the same time.
It is worth pointing out that the speaker can only be connected to other speakers that
support PartyBoost as well. Like a Charge 5, an Xtreme 3, or even another Flip 6. It is not
compatible with older JBL speakers that supported Connect+. They are not backwards compatible.
When you do pair these, there are two options inside the mobile app. You can choose between
stereo pairing. So I have one as a left and a right channel which will give you a wider
soundstage than just one by itself. Or you can do the mono pairing, which is the PartyBoost feature
allowing you to connect up to another 99 speakers all playing music at the same time.
In that JBL Portable app there's not too much else to it. Other than the pairing options,
there's a three band graphic equalizer which allows you to tweak the sound slightly.
As I said, at high volumes you'll probably want to use it otherwise I'd probably leave it alone.
The other feature that's really useful in the mobile app is it allows you to get software
updates. So as JBL improve the firmware of these speakers you can keep these up to date.
So are there any disadvantages to buying this? Well, at this price I've got to say
“No”. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it doesn't have a mic. So if you absolutely want
a mic in a portable speaker then you might want to look elsewhere. I would say though that for
most people with a portable speaker you've got it paired up with your phone, which has a mic
in it already anyway, so you're not really missing on too much. I'd rather have better
sound than having a mic. So at this price point there really isn't too much to complain about.
Price-wise we are looking at $130 USD for this speaker,
which is comparable in the market with others. And it's available in nine different colors,
ranging from black to blue to red through to forest green and squad. Also known as camo.
So if you already have the Flip 5 should you upgrade to the Flip 6? Well,
the Flip 6 has an upgraded design, upgraded durability, and better sound performance.
It's not leaps and bounds better though but they are slight improvements all round. So if
those things are important to you then yes, it's probably worth the upgrade.
Or if you're just looking for a new speaker then should you buy it? Well, the Flip 6 certainly
offers a lot of bang for your buck. It is waterproof, dustproof, durable, so it will
certainly take a few knocks, and it delivers great sound for its size. There are speakers out there
with better battery life but few sound as good as this. It's definitely a speaker I'd recommend.
If you are after something that goes louder, with more bass, and better battery life, then it is
worth considering JBL's own Charge 5. Actually, at the time of this video on Amazon the Charge 5
is only $150. Which makes it only $20 more expensive than the Flip 6. So it's definitely
worth checking out. I've done a review of that already and you can check it out on
the link up here. I will place purchase links to both of them in the description down below.
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