The bass doesn't distort at top volume levels, thanks to some DSP (digital signal processing) that thins out the deep lows. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the Flip 5 delivers impressive thump for its size. JBL estimates the Flip 5's battery life to be roughly 12 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels. There's also no speakerphone function on the speaker itself, nor a 3.5mm aux input.
Other than this function, there's not much reason to download the app-it displays battery life and allows you to disable audio feedback for button presses. In the free JBL Connect app, you can also select whether you want to make the Flip 5 part of a stereo pair, or if you want it to play both left and right channels in mono as part of a group. There's not going to be super-powerful sub-bass here, but the system does a good job of pushing out rich low and low-mid bass depth to make up for this.Īs mentioned, Partyboost allows you to stream the same music to multiple JBL speakers.
#REVIEW JBL FLIP 2 DRIVER#
The ends of the speaker house passive bass radiators that push out quite a bit of low-end, while the grille covers a 20-watt, 44-by-80mm driver delivering 65Hz to 20kHz. There's also a lanyard loop, and the speaker ships with a shoelace-style lanyard, making it easy to hang on just about anything that can support its weight. The port is uncovered, which makes the IPX7 rating all the more impressive-with this rating, the speaker can be submerged up to a meter, and can handle water pressure from a faucet, so it's perfect for poolside listening. On a thin strip of plastic on the back of the speaker, there's a power button, a Bluetooth pairing button, a USB-C port for the included charging cable. There's a button for Partyboost (a feature that allows you to connect to various other JBL speakers and have them all stream the same music), volume up, volume down, and play/pause. Speaking of controls, they are arrayed along the grille in a row. The printing of the graphics for our custom model (designed by JBL for PCMag) looks crisp and clean in person, and the design even gets printed on the controls, which is cool. We think ours turned out great, but one word of caution: very small lettering can get obscured by the grille's woven surface. As mentioned, for $30 more, you can customize the grille on the speaker to display uploaded art, or work with graphics JBL has on its site.
It's available in 14 different color schemes, as well as a camouflage-themed design. The cylindrical Flip 5 measures 7.1 by 2.7 inches (HW) and weighs in at 1.2 pounds. In short, there's very little to complain about here, though there are several compelling options worth your attention in this price range. And for an extra $30, you can even personalize the speaker with graphics you upload (see the snazzy PCMag design JBL sent us below). An IPX7 rating, meanwhile, covers all the bases on the waterproofing front.
#REVIEW JBL FLIP 2 DRIVERS#
Sonically, the speaker delivers quite a punch for its size and price-every new entry from JBL seems to deliver more bass depth than the dimensions and drivers should be capable of.
#REVIEW JBL FLIP 2 PORTABLE#
JBL is no stranger to portable Bluetooth speakers, as evidenced by the $119.95 Flip 5, the latest entry in the popular line. Best Malware Removal and Protection Software.