This is the review of the comparison between two speakers from the same brand known as the JBL but between two different line-ups. The comparison here is between the JBL Flip 5 and the JBL Charge 4. There is around 40 dollars difference in their price range currently on Amazon and the difference in their price does bring the difference in their features. To know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

JBL Flip 5	JBL Charge 4
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Simple design, Excellent sound,11 color options, Able to pair multiple JBL speakers. Good sound quality, waterproof, long battery life excellent sound quality, very loud, long battery life excellent sound quality, water-resistant, great battery life good overall sound, great volume, great battery life, waterproof good sound quality, waterproof.	Powerful audio performance with rich bass. Gets quite loud for its size. Waterproof. Long battery life. Can charge your portable devices. USB-C charging.
CONS	CONS
Need compatible models to use PartyBoost, Checking battery life requires you to press the top buttons, No speakerphone or voice assistant functionality. Not the best sounding nor most portableExpensive, relatively large and heavy expensive, relatively heavy not the strongest bass, a bit priceyLarge and heavy.	No speakerphone function. Basically the same sound as the Charge 3. The buttons that aren’t lit up are hard to see in the dark.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

JBL Flip 5

The JBL Flip 5 is the latest version speaker of the Flip line-up speakers. All its predecessors are popular in the market from the day of its launch itself. As like them, these too are popular in the market since their launch. This speaker is retailing for around a hundred dollars currently on Amazon.

JBL Charge 4

The JBL Charge 4 nicely fills the  JBL size gap between the Flip 5 and the Xtreme 2. But being the middle mode it’s not as portable and not as loud. This speaker is retailing for a quite higher price but still it worth its price. This speaker is retailing for around a hundred and forty dollars currently on Amazon.

DESIGN: 

JBL Flip 5

When you gonna see this at first, you will find this to look very similar to the JBL Flip 4 with some minor changes. On the side of the speaker itself, we have the play/pause button, if you press it once it plays and pauses your track and if you press it twice it skips forward, then you have the plus/minus volume button for volume up and down, and right there is where the JBL connect button used to be and in this, its is the JBL party boost, and you can notice it does have a different icon. On the other side of the speaker, you have a power button which is one touch on and off, then the Bluetooth connect button, the power light indicator, and next to the LED indicator is a new upgrade which is a USB Type-C.

As far as the build quality of this, I really like the build quality of this, we have the wire mesh that wraps around the entire body. Then we have a very durable rubber that runs across the length of the speaker onto the sides, and it feels like this thing can really take a beating. Then in the sides, we had the same very familiar radiators as you see on the Flip and on the Charge speakers. Then also, we have the very familiar lanyard that you see on other Flip models but it looks like just the shoelace tied together.

JBL Charge 4

JBL has gone with the fixed idea and keeps much of what made the Charge 3 so great. You will find the design of this to be very similar to all other JBL Bluetooth speakers. Actually, it shares a lot of design elements of its prior models such as the cylindrical shape. It is a little blimp-like and it’s wrapped in a JBL’s tough waterproof fabric.

On either end, you will find the exposed dual passive radiators, found on their other speakers. Along the top, you also get the raised playback buttons on the fabric such as the play-pause button and the volume up and down button as well as the power and Bluetooth buttons. It’s stylish and minimalist. However, you do have to feel around a bit in the dark to find the media buttons as the power and Bluetooth button lights you can find them easily. There is also one small built-in stand on the bottom with small LED lights to indicate the battery level. Around the back, protected by a rubber flap, you will find the 3.5 mm aux port, USB-C, and USB-A ports.

FEATURES:

JBL Flip 5

When you plug the USB-C cable in, you gonna have that LED glow, that shows you that it is charging. According to the JBL website, it claims that it takes two and a half hours to charge this fully, that in Flip 4 I believe it was three and a half hours. You do get 12 hours of playtime out of this that’s about average, usually, you see about 10 to 12 hours of playtime with these small portable speakers. One last thing that’s kind of drawback here is JBL is still using Bluetooth 4.2 as opposed to Bluetooth 5.0. JBL claims that this is IPX7, which means I could submerge this underwater up to 3 feet and it should still be able to work perfectly. I did the water test by putting this in a bowl of water and it does float and works fine, that’s a positive. But I think it was just losing Bluetooth signals in the water. 

We can notice that a couple of things aren’t on these, first of all like I mentioned before no JBL Connect, so that means that all your previous JBL speakers will not connect to this if it has connectors Connect Plus. The reason why JBL did that I’m not sure they’re thinking about the future but what about all the old speakers that they added Connect to. You can’t use this speaker and have other ones connect to it and have that nice stereo sound. The only way you can get that stereo sound with this speaker is to have multiple JBL Flip 5 because nothing else has that feature, this is the first one. Also, the positive on this is they finally went with USB Type-C as opposed to the micro USB charger as you see on every other JBL portable speaker.

Also, you’re gonna notice it doesn’t have a flap to expose this USB Type-C as the Flip 4 had. Under that flap on the Flip 4, you would see a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack, which this does not have. So, once again JBL is kind of going backward by saying a 3.5-millimeter jack is important, USB Type-C is important which it is, and doing the party boost instead of the Connect. But this speaker sounds great to kind of makeup for what it’s lacking. Also, it doesn’t have a voice assistant, so if you do have this connected to your phone and you’re streaming music and you get a telephone call, you can’t just push the button and make a call through this it doesn’t have a microphone, doesn’t have voice assistant, so once again they omitted a very cool feature that you had on the Flip 4.

JBL Charge 4

This speaker comes in twelve different colors and patterns. The Charge 4 is rated IPX7 water-resistant so even if you drop it into the pool, not only it can be submerged for up to 30 minutes and it will actually float to the surface. It is also worth noting that the Charge 4 is the directional speaker with the sound coming from the sides. That means you wouldn’t get 360 degrees sound and you have to find that sweet spot based on your speaker placement.

Having full-sized USB ports is great since you would be able to top-up your phone keep returns going. It just weighs 7 ounces, so it’s easy to toss in your backpack and the twenty-hour battery life is plenty to take on our outings. We found the standard performance quite impressive considering JBL went with a single oval-shaped driver over dual drivers.

It may not be a worthwhile upgrade you already have a Charge 3 but if you are looking for a portable Bluetooth speaker with a safe for your money you will definitely get more bang with the Charge 4. It pumps out great sound, packing, and portability, performance, features, and it’s durably built, though in the waterproofing USB-C charging, ability to double as charge bank, and their battery you are getting a great set of features. As is it’s not enough, is future proof with the JBL Connect Plus which lets you connect up to one hundred JBL speakers together for an ultimate party or just two for stereo output for an indoor party.

SOUND QUALITY:

JBL Flip 5

I tested out the sound quality on this with 50% volume and the bass sounds absolutely fantastic for such a small speaker. We got the little radiators on the side just like previous Flip models and these things really kick out the bass and you can see them vibrate as the bass is kicking out. But they went with a single driver in this but it doesn’t make any difference from the Flip 4. It sounds absolutely fantastic, the low sound great, and it has great mids. The highs at high volume tend to sound a little tinny to me, not as bad just sounds a little bit tinny at the max volume. The JBL Flip 5 actually does sound better than the Sony XB32.

JBL Charge 4

The mids were rich while the treble was clear and detailed. The lows were surprisingly strong especially when we are having the charge 4 sittings vertically. Doing so really increases the bass response when it’s placed on the surface it helps to radiate the bass. Even with the volume pushed up, I didn’t really hear any distortions. Although I would like to have a little more detail in the mids. Depending on the song, some of the instruments tended to overtake the vocals here and there. But overall, it nicely balanced across different music genres.

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, you should buy the JBL Charge 4 because it has better features than the Flip 5 even though it is retailing for 40 dollars more than the Flip 5. The Flip 5 misses some features such as the speakerphone, 3.5 mm aux jack, and it doesn’t have the Connect or Connect Plus which many other speakers from JBL have so you can’t connect these with other speakers from JBL other than the Flip 5. While these all features are there in the Charge 4 and also, the Charge 4 has better battery life than the Flip 5.

Expert Reviews of JBL Flip 5:

By Tech Radar
The JBL Flip 5 is a simple soul – perhaps too simple for some in this world – but that minimalist approach has allowed JBL to focus on performance and create one of the best-sounding budget portable speakers around. Thanks to its neat design and IPX7…

By What Hi-Fi?
JBL’s latest offering sounds great for the price. If you don’t mind the lack of in-app EQ settings, aux-in port, battery life, inbuilt microphones, or partnering with older JBL speakers, it’s an excellent proposition for the money. It may be low on added…

By Pocket-lint
If you’re looking for a small, portable, and waterproof Bluetooth speaker then your options are many. The JBL Flip 5 delivers ample audio output and ticks all those boxes too, making it a tempting little portable. It also updates the design over the…

By TheStreamingBlog
JBL is a company known for producing affordable yet durable audio devices that deliver excellent sounds, and the JBL Flip 5 is not an exception. It may not be the perfect speaker, but for its price, it offers a lot more than what we expected. The JBL…

By techgearlab.com
Finding a reasonable balance between sound quality/volume and portability/ruggedness, the JBL Flip 5 is the quintessential jack of all trades, master of none. It’s melodious enough that you’re almost certainly going to enjoy listening to any type of…

Expert Reviews of JBL Charge 4:

By Expert Reviews
Despite cutting a couple of handy features, the Charge 4 is an impressive fourth entry into JBL’s mid-range Bluetooth speaker series…

By What Hi-Fi?
Great sound plus rugged design and handy features equal a top Bluetooth speaker…

By TheStreamingBlog
JBL’s Charge series just gets better with every new release. With Charge 4, we’ve seen that its audio quality has highly improved compared to the previously released Charge 3. It delivered cleaner, clearer, and more refined sounds with mids and…

By Tech Radar
For the money, the JBL Charge 4 is a definite no-brainer. For just $150 (£160, AU$200), you get a speaker that lasts all day, sounds great, can put up with all kinds of abuse, and tops your phone up in a pinch. Yes, there are better sounding speakers…

By PC Mag
The JBL Charge 4 is an excellent option for those who want a waterproof, powerful-sounding portable Bluetooth speaker in a moderately sized frame.