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Looking at the JBL Flip 4 at first glance theres nothing that really sets it apart from the JBL Flip 3 and that’s because theres just a few minor design changes like, the phone icon has now been changed to a triangle for pause and play. There really isn’t much between them when it comes to design.

The Flip 4 Design

The Flip 4 is cylindrical in shape with exposed passive radiators on both ends. The one key difference that makes this a worthy upgrade to the previous model is waterproofing. Yes… The JBL Flip 4 is now ipx7 waterproof which means it can be submerged in up to 1m or 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. It’s also protected against dirt, dust, and sand so taking it to places like the beach will be no problem at all.

Please Note; the Flip 4 does not float like the UE Wonder Boom so if drop it in the ocean you might just lose it forever.

You get 4 playback buttons along the side speaker and along the spine, you get power button and also JBL Connect Plus button with the indicator light that shows your battery life. It also has a small flap to keep water out of the micro SD charging input and a 3.5mm input underneath.

Connectivity

The Connect Plus button allows you to connect over 100 JBL speakers which is pretty awesome until you realize that if you have a Connect Plus speaker you can’t connect it to a JBL speaker that doesn’t have the Connect Plus feature, so if you have an older version like the Flip 3 it won’t work. This is a big downside because the Flip 4 speakers aren’t that expensive so I can imagine someone buying a JBL Flip series speaker every time a newer version comes out. But JBL claims this issue will be fixed in an update later this year.

You get a really solid connection of up to 40 – 50 feet when no barrier is between your device and your speaker.

The playback control buttons all work nicely, you can control volume with the plus and minus sign buttons, pause/play/ access your phone assistant with the play button and skip to the next song by double tapping the triangle play button.

Battery Life

You will get 12 hours of battery life if you lower the volume to between 50 – 70% but if you adjust the volume to 90 – 100% you can expect a battery life of 4 hours.

This is something you should keep in mind if you think you will be going out to somewhere like the beach where you will have to be using your speaker at max volume.

Sound Quality

The sound quality is very good, you get clear vocals in the midrange and a slightly beefier bass when compared to the older model. It’s not going to replicate the sub-bass of your favorite song but it doesn’t do a bad job replicating at high frequencies.

Finally

The new and improved JBL Flip 4 is a great speaker that you can take anywhere even in the shower or the ocean. The only issue is the Connect Plus button and that will soon be rectified. Even with that issue it’s still easy to recommend the JBL Flip4 to anyone looking for a durable take anywhere speaker, it’s loud and slightly better than the UE WonderBoom. JBL keeps pumping out better and better products and the JBL Flip 4 is the next step.

If you’re searching for your first Bluetooth speaker that’s waterproof and you have a decent budget, you can have this or the UE Wonder Boom which also floats. Read Now: Best JBL Bluetooth Speakers

The JBL Flip 4 is given an Overall Rating Based on Design, Features, Sound Quality & Value, out of 10..

My Overall RATING: 8.8 out of 10