It's a big day for fans of portable audio everywhere. JBL has announced sequels to two of its most popular and accomplished Bluetooth speakers, the Award-winning JBL Charge 5 and the five-star JBL Flip 6, with the new generations teasing improved sound, greater features and even more rough and ready durability. Say hello to the much anticipated JBL Charge 6 and JBL Flip 7!
Both Charge 6 and Flip 7 speakers feature boosted sonic capabilities courtesy of JBL's 'AI Sound Boost', a proprietary technology, which analyses soundwaves in real time to optimise the speaker's sonic output without distorting the audio, teasing a new duo of speakers which "push the boundaries of sound performance" in their respective weight classes. We are promised 'bigger sound and deeper bass' effectively, which we hope they can pull off without upsetting the excellent sonic balance we like so much of the five-star predecessors.
The Charge 6 has been equipped with an upgraded woofer for a deeper bass response, whereas the smaller, slimmer Flip 7 now boasts an improved tweeter with a dome design for a crisper, clearer sound, even at high volumes. Both new units also tease lossless hi-res audio playback over USB-C from a compatible source, though we are yet to discover the exact sampling rates possible for this method.
Neither the outgoing Charge 5 nor the Flip 6 offered Auracast capabilities, but JBL is clearly keen to bake the growing audio-sharing protocol into each one of its latest releases. Following the footsteps of the outstanding Xtreme 4 and dinky Go 4 five-star speakers, the new Charge 6 and Flip 7 employ Auracast as standard, allowing large numbers of speakers to be connected using the wireless technology as a common tether for multiple compatible JBL units – you could use it to sync up a couple of Go 4 speakers with your new Charge 6 if you wanted to, for example.
What about the all-important battery life? This is an area of improvement, too, at least on the face of it: the JBL Flip 6 offered 12 hours of life on a single charge, but its seventh-generation successor drags that up to an impressive 16 hours, while the Charge 6 (which still doubles up as a portable power bank) improves upon the 20 hours of its predecessor by offering a very healthy 28 hours of juice. Do note, however, that these new figures are reached with JBL's battery-saving 'Playtime Boost' feature switched on, so they might not be quite as impressive when employing standard playback.
While they might look broadly the same as their outgoing counterparts, there have been significant upgrades to both speakers to improve their durability and usability. Each unit now offers an improved IP68 water and dustproof rating, up from the outgoing models' very respectable IP67 certifications. The Charge 6 sports a new detachable carry strap, whereas the new Flip 7 comes with an interchangeable finger loop and carabiner hook for clipping your speaker onto bags, branches and backpacks.
The Charge 5 and Flip 6 have been a fixture on our best Bluetooth speaker guides for years now, so expectations for their follow-ups are high, especially as both speakers are a tad more expensive this time around. The JBL Charge 6 will set you back $199.95, a $20 advance on the fifth-gen Charge's $180 launch price, while the JBL Flip 7 is yours for $149.95, an increase of $20 on the outgoing model's RRP. Both speakers will be shipping from 6th April, and will be available in a choice of black, blue, white, red, camo and purple colourways. We'll update this story with UK and other territory prices as soon as we have them.
MORE:
Check out our guide to the best Bluetooth speakers
Read our Award-winning JBL Xtreme 4 review
7 test tracks that have been playing on repeat in the What Hi-Fi? test rooms
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