JBL Flip 7 review - tough, waterproof, Bluetooth speaker excellence

The Flip is back for its seventh run with JBL, which has now included a surprising number of tweaks to its most popular Bluetooth speaker's capabilities, compared to the Flip 6. The JBL Flip 7 has a longer battery life, protection from deeper dives into water, more power output, and a move to Bluetooth 5.4.

Crucially, JBL offers all these improvements for a price that's still reasonable, even if many buyers will likely be tempted by the now-discounted Flip 6. As a result, this combination ensures the JBL Flip remains one of the best Bluetooth speaker options available, jumping right to the top of our guide.

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Specs

Design

If there's a single defining quality that sets apart the Flip 7 from many competing Bluetooth speakers, such as the Ultimate Ears Boom 4, Bose SoundLink Flex, Minirig 4, or Anker Soundcore Motion 300, it's its toughness. Some of those other options are waterproof, but the Flip 7 takes its ruggedness to the next level.

For a start, the Flip 7 is now IP68 rated, which means it's impervious to dust and can withstand being under water to beyond a depth of 1m for over 30 minutes. JBL doesn't specify how much deeper it can go, but it marks a slight step up over the IP67 rating of the Flip 6 and Boom 4, which can only survive at up to 1m.

Also aiding its toughness are the large rubber bumpers on the ends of the long, cylindrical design. Oddly, though, JBL has chosen to leave the two passive bass radiators tucked into these ends unprotected by a grille. As such, while a drop onto flat ground shouldn't harm this speaker, if it lands on a rock or uneven surface, something could poke through and damage these delicate parts.

The rest of the cylinder is made of tough plastic, and most of it is covered in a protective fabric. The fabric serves a few purposes. For one, it means JBL doesn't have to worry about manufacturing a perfectly slick-looking hard exterior - the fabric can cover a lot of design sins. Plus, it ensures that most light knocks will be cushioned slightly and any resultant scratches will be covered up by the fabric. It also helps a little to filter out dirt from getting deeper into the insides.

The overall combination looks like a rough-and-tumble speaker that's ready for the road, rather than a sleeker, more refined look. It's still smart, though, and it's available in a wide range of colors.

Meanwhile, a little rubber foot on one side of the cylinder stops it rolling around endlessly, keeping the JBL logo and the drivers underneath facing towards you, though again, rough surfaces can trip it up slightly. The stabilizing bump is so small that it doesn't always engage on uneven terrain - a larger stabilizer or flatter design would be more reliably roll-resistant.

Features

When it comes to features, this is largely a very simple speaker. It has buttons for volume and play/pause on its top, as well as power, Bluetooth pairing, and multi-speaker pairing further around the cylinder. The latter lets you quickly pair the Flip 7 with other Flips to create a stereo pair, or add more for spreading your sound around. On its own, the Flip 7 is mono, with it downmixing stereo audio tracks to a single signal.

Despite being mono, the Flip 7 actually has four drivers, with an active subwoofer (25W) and tweeter (10W) and two passive bass radiators. They combine to deliver a total audio power output of 35W RMS, which is fairly standard for a Bluetooth speaker this size and is much more powerful than the typical 5-10W speakers you find in most gaming laptops or gaming monitors.

Even further around the cylinder are the USB-C charging port, a power indicator, and a mechanism for attaching a strap or carabiner. A button next to this unlocks a clip that holds the included two-inch diameter loop of fabric that forms this speaker's strap, or you can unhook this strap to attach the included carabiner.

Aside from this lot, the Flip 7 just connects to whatever device you want via Bluetooth 5.4, and away it goes. However, you can unlock a few extra features via JBL's app.

In this app, you can set various EQ profiles - chill, energetic, vocal, signature - including a custom EQ with seven frequency bands. There's also a PlaytimeBoost feature that aims to boost overall volume while increasing playtime - one of the ways it does this is by disabling the equalizer.

You can also setup stereo groups via the app, and check and adjust some features of the speaker - you can change its name, check its serial number, perform a factory reset, and read its start guide, for example.

One initial annoyance with this speaker was that powering it on, turning it off, and adjusting certain settings caused it to make various surprisingly loud noises to indicate it was doing something. They could be useful for some people or in some situations, but I was very glad to find you can also turn off these sounds in the app.

Sound quality

Right out of the box, the JBL Flip 7's sound quality is very impressive, offering a remarkable amount of bass, plenty of clarity, and a surprising sense of directionality, despite it being a mono speaker. Throwing a wide range of tunes at it, including Fleetwood Mac, Charli XCX, Dr Dre, Zetra, Black Sabbath, and much more, it copes well, particularly at low listening volumes.

In particular, the speaker does a good job of giving you low-end depth and rumble at a volume that means you can still talk to a friend - ideal for background tunes while lounging by a pool. There's none of the shrill, piercing quality of truly weedy speakers that require you to crank them up to get any impact, resulting in harsh sound.

It achieves this sound despite only having a frequency range that kicks off at a claimed 60Hz, so it can't reproduce truly pounding sub-bass frequencies. Sure enough, if you fire up ultra low bass testing tracks such as this one, there's very little feel-it-in-your-chest thump. But, that's to be expected for a small, portable speaker such as this one, and it still copes well with plenty of more bass-oriented tracks.

What's more, it delivers this power while still having plenty of top-end clarity, thanks in considerable part to the use of a separate tweeter. For instance, the Minirig 4 can go lower and louder, but it lacks a little of the top-end sparkle that the Flip 7 delivers.

Where this speaker struggles a little more is when cranking it up. It can get plenty loud, but it starts to get a bit shrill and forced-sounding when you're really trying to fill a larger room with sound. It's fine for a small kitchen party or entertaining a huddle of a few friends around a barbecue, but it struggles a little to stretch its legs further. The Charge 6, Minirig 4, and Anker Soundcore Motion 500 all have greater overall depth and power, while a dedicated outdoor party speaker, such as the JBL PartBox 120, is the step up you'll want to make for bigger party-duty volume levels.

What's more, while it is reasonably accomplished for most musical genres, it lacks a little bit of lower mid-range warmth and power, so it can sound a touch shrill when pushed to middling volumes with rock, metal, and classical piano too. The Minirig 4's single large driver is generally better for these genres.

There's also the obvious fact that this speaker isn't stereo, despite its horizontal stance and twin bass radiators making it look like it should be capable of stereo output. It works reasonably well as an upgrade to a laptop's speakers for watching YouTube and listening to music - it's better than the 360° sound of the Boom 4 for this - but it lacks the true experience that stereo output can provide when it comes to watching a movie or gaming. The Anker Soundcore Motion 300 is a much better bet for these uses, as it has proper stereo sound.

Battery life

JBL's claimed 16 hours of battery life at 50% volume for the Flip 7 is accurate and fairly typical for most similar style/size Bluetooth speakers. You can easily get a day's listening out of it at medium volumes. However, its maximum life does drop considerably at higher volume. We wouldn't really ever recommend running it at 100% volume, but at 80% volume, its life drops to nearly half its claimed maximum.

Ultimately, the battery life all depends on how you think you're likely to use your speaker. If you're going to be taking it to music festivals and trying to drown out the neighboring campsite with your speaker at maximum volume, it's going to run out quickly, but for typical at-home listening, it will last its claimed time.

The one comparative outlier for Bluetooth speaker battery life comparison is the Minirig 4, which claims up to 100 hours of battery life and lives up to those claims at sensible listening levels. That's why it's our top choice for backpacking and longer-distance travel.

Price

The JBL Flip 7 price is officially $149.95, but the speaker is readily available for under $130. At that price, it's decently competitive. Anker's aggressive pricing on the Soundcore Motion 300 undercuts it quite a bit, but it's a less rugged option. Meanwhile, most competitors sit at around the same price.

Alternatives

Anker Soundcore Motion 300

If you want your sound upgrade to include stereo output, the Soundcore Motion 300 is your best bet. It's a little bigger, it lacks the Flip 7's toughness, and its bass presence isn't quite as strong, so it's not as good a travel/party speaker. However, for hooking up to a laptop and getting great video audio, as well as stereo presence, for under $70, it's a great buy. Check out our Anker Soundcore Motion 300 review for more information.

Minirig 4

If you want the ultimate truly compact, go-anywhere, last-forever backpack speaker that can deliver truly powerful audio, the Minirig 4 is the one. Its single big driver can go incredibly loud, and provides lots of warm, mid-rangey sound and solid bass too. It's a little heavier than the Flip 7 and is even less suited for getting directional sound for watching video - its one speaker fires straight up in the air - but for filling a space with great sound for days on end, it's unbeatable. It will need importing from the UK, though.

Verdict

The JBL Flip 7 is hugely popular for a reason. Its combination of compact, rugged design, simple controls, decent battery life, and impressively powerful sound makes it a hugely versatile speaker. It can turn its hand to being a reasonably compact travel speaker for backpacking, yet still crank out sound that will fill a small room with clear and powerful sound.

It's definitely a shame it doesn't offer stereo sound, especially when the likes of the Ultimate Ears Boom 4 can manage it, but it still works surprisingly well for enhancing audio when watching video on a laptop, for instance. There are definitely alternatives that excel at certain other uses - as highlighted above - but as an all-rounder, it's hard to beat.

For more ways to enhance your listening life, why not check out our best computer speakers guide or our guide to the best gaming headset, both of which are packed with kit we've actually tested and to suit all budgets.