JBL Flip 5 is the next model in the line of mid-level portable wireless Bluetooth speakers from JBL. The Flip series sits between the budget JBL Go with Clip and the more expensive Charge with Pulse.
The updated speaker features high-quality sound with deep bass, IPX7 water protection and long battery life. Flip 5 costs from 7 thousand rubles.
Design and waterproofness
This time I did everything right. I bought tickets to Bali, took the JBL Flip 5 and thoroughly tested the speaker on the island. And the first impression was entirely positive. Judge for yourself!
We start with the colors, and there are as many as 11 of them. You can choose according to location, character, mood, wallpaper color, and so on. There is somewhere to roam. I had a bright yellow version - just right for the azure color of bass.
In general, a swimming pool is the best habitat for a gadget. It's not scary to accidentally push the speaker into the water. It is protected according to the IPX7 standard, which requires short-term immersion in water up to 1 meter. Of course, I checked everything the hard way, or rather, on an experimental “flip”.
I threw the speaker into the water, and it slowly but surely sank to a depth of 1.5 meters. As expected, nothing happened to the column. By the way, every time you dive, the music stops. Apparently, there is a sensor to turn off the drivers so that they do not create unnecessary vibrations of the body under water.
IPX7 protection implies excellent water resistance, but noticeable sensitivity to dirt and dust. Here you need to be careful, because wet and coarse sand is generally not very harmful to the device. I got dirty, went and washed the device in running water (not sea or salty!). I did this with the JBL Charge 3 and nothing bad happened to it.
For the rest.
The body consists of fabric and rubberized parts. The two main buttons (power and pairing) are illuminated. Next to them is an LED strip to display the current battery charge. This is a necessary thing, because the column is not displayed in the batteries widget on iOS. The charge is visible only in the proprietary application.
Description
The Jbl portable speaker has a barrel design. The music playback capacity is enough for 12 hours. Carrying case included.
The moisture-resistant coating protects against water and dust, and the sound is powerful. The speaker is focused on dance or heavy music.
There is no stage effect; in this regard, concerts cannot be listened to in ideal quality. But Jbl Flip 5 can be connected to a laptop to watch videos.
In addition, you can use it to listen to audiobooks and podcasts. In case of possible signal loss, the developers advise resetting the settings to factory settings.
You can do this in the following way:
- Remove pairing with the first device;
- Enable Jbl Flip 5;
- Press the play and volume up keys simultaneously for 5 seconds;
- Then the column turns on again, you can configure it yourself.
Release date in Russia
The sales release of the Jbl Flip 5 speaker on the Russian market was in the summer of 2019. Even then, the product arrived in electronics stores in major Russian cities.
For the USA, the product was shipped from production in the spring of 2022. In the summer of 2022, there was also an increase in prices for Jbl Flip 5 to 14,000 rubles, while the starting price was $100.
Connects as expected (with Android)
You don't need any app to simply play music. I found the speaker in the Bluetooth settings and that's it. Thus, the speaker can be connected to two devices and play sound from them alternately. To connect another sound source, you will first need to disconnect the speakers from one of the previous devices.
Were there any problems? Unfortunately yes.
Several times, playback on iPhone (iOS 13.3) stopped on its own. It was cured for a while by rebooting the iPhone, but after five minutes the problem happened again.
The proprietary JBL Connect application for iOS generally sees the acoustics every once in a while. Fortunately, the utility is practically useless. If suddenly you or your friends don’t have another JBL speaker with support for PartyBoost technology. This, by the way, is a huge problem, which will be discussed later.
Ok Android.
There are no problems with smartphones on the green robot. Both during playback and in the JBL Connect app. On the subject of iPhones never glitching. Well, yes!
Android OK iOS not OK
The volume bar syncs with iPhones, but not with Android smartphones. In the latter cases, you need to separately adjust the volume on both the speaker and the smartphone. However, this is not a problem, just a nuance.
Appearance and case materials
Available in 11 colors, there is also a camouflage option. JBL follows its own style, which makes it easy to identify the brand even from afar without seeing the logo.
Flip 5 is compact in size but heavy at 1kg. Most of the body is covered with fabric material. At the ends there are membranes that vibrate when music is played.
The rear edges have rubberized plastic, which protects the speaker from water. The column has a moisture-resistant coating, and the manufacturer allows Jbl Flip 5 to be immersed in water for 30 minutes to a depth of 1 m.
The developers also stated that the speakers can be used on bike racks, but the Jbl Flip 5 does not hold up well. For such purposes, it is better to purchase additional straps for fastening.
JBL stand
The new Flip 5 supports the function of combining into one stereo pair or even a network of 100 speakers. It's called PartyBoost technology. Yes, yes, not JBL Connect+, but PartyBoost. Therefore, the Flip 5 is not backwards compatible. The speaker cannot be paired with Flip 4 or Charge 4 as they do not support PartyBoost. BA-DUM-TSSS, as they say!
JBL changed the protocol to a new one, thereby depriving the army of users of conventionally old speakers of the opportunity to connect them to new ones. A very dubious step that definitely does not look good on the manufacturer. Especially given the fact that the Flip 5 has a certain downgrade in functionality. More about him later.
Sound
Surprisingly, the Flip 5 sounds much better than you'd expect from such a compact speaker. The manufacturer managed to include elastic bass, well-developed mids and smooth highs.
This speaker is used for party sound and background music. Therefore, it does not need a flat frequency response.
Details on how the speakers play each range:
- low frequencies. The lows are rich and elastic. The bass is moderately soft. The accent is noticeable, but not overdone. Users expected powerful bass from the acoustics. But this solution is even more advantageous, since the lows do not overlap other frequencies;
- mid frequencies. The model is suitable for listening to vocals. Voices are not drowned out, there are distortions when positioning instruments, but they are small;
- high frequencies. The highs are smoothed, but not much. In general, you'd expect less highs from a bass-sounding speaker than the Flip 5 has.
JBL Flip 5 Frequency Response
This acoustics is suitable for listening to modern music genres: hip-hop, club, rap, electronic music and so on. For its class, the speaker plays clear sound, which allows you to hear all the nuances of the tracks being played.
The reviews especially praise the metal. He is powerful and assertive here, he gets through. Yes, somewhere there is a lack of detail or impact, but for simple listening to music in nature or on the street this is not so important.
As for other options for using the JBL Flip 5, you can also use it when watching videos. Although no one has canceled the desynchronization of image and sound. But outputting sound in games through these speakers is definitely not the best solution.
What about the sound?
I would never have thought that portable speakers would go from being a mandatory attribute of a school-terrorist to a full-fledged instrument for listening to music. I listened to XXXTENTACION’s posthumous album “Bad Vibes Forever” on JBL Flip 5 and felt good. The thing called “ Triumph ” was especially clear. JBL Flip 5 played the guitar as if it were live. Damn it! How is this possible?
In general, listening to music through the fifth “flip” for a month, I never once had the need to connect “normal” acoustics. Firstly, she wasn’t at hand. Secondly, to hell with it. Flip 5 is already good.
Now (it’s about to begin...) you can buy the fifth “flip” as the only speaker in your life. You can safely use it not only in nature, in the country, on a bench near the pad, but also on a regular basis to listen to music at home. May audiophiles forgive me, but let's be honest. Really worthwhile home acoustics, which, like a helpful butler, can arrange absolutely any track into instruments, are obscenely expensive. All music needs of 90% of users are successfully met by JBL Flip 5.
However, the speaker becomes a little uncomfortable when playing the powerful soundwall of a metal track. Listening to “ Do or Die ” from Machine Head , I want to give the acoustics a 4-. And in this case there are two complaints. The first is that it is extremely difficult for any single-channel acoustics to reveal such a dense and multi-instrumental sound. Laws of physics, damn them!
The second nuance is the overlapping bass. If for rap with its flow, trance and other genres that are relatively primitive in terms of music content, this is just right, then in metal the ringing and ringing hum from the bass is annoying. Although it does not completely block the stage - it simply accompanies the sound. Thus, heavy tracks can be played through the JBL Flip 5, but you need to be prepared to hear how the lows pull the blanket over themselves.
Passive radiator (same on the reverse side)
If anything, the speaker volume is enough to pump up a villa with two large bedrooms, a living room, a swimming pool, an area with a garden and parking for scooters. The villa is rather below average in area, however, even 60% volume was enough.
Battery life and management
Portable acoustics JBL Flip 5 operates on a single charge for up to 12 hours, according to the manufacturer. This is quite true at medium volume, which is where I listened. The speaker worked for almost a week on one charge with listening for a couple of hours a day. And on weekends, even at high volume, I “worked.”
I suspect that at maximum it will work for 3-4 hours. This is a normal indicator. True, the volume in the room is too loud for my taste. But in nature, it may not be enough for a large company. However, the column is not designed for this.
I'm very pleased with the charge level indicator . It's clear, it reminded me of Energaizer batteries. When there is almost no charge left, it starts blinking red. If you look at it periodically, you will always know when it’s time to charge. However, the charge level is not displayed either in the application or in the “blind” on Android, which is strange.
JBL Flip 5 charging JBL Flip 5 JBL Flip 5 kit
I would call the autonomy of the JBL Flip 5 comfortable . If you listen to it in the background at home, it will last for a week. If you arrange gatherings with music, then 4 hours is also an impressive figure. Not every guest will last that long.
