Gadgets

I found the ultimate shower speaker

Published

6 months ago

June 22, 2024

Empowerment

Key Takeaways

The JBL Clip 5 offers improved sound quality, longer battery life, and the same convenient built-in clip as its predecessor.

With 15 hours of battery life and Playtime Boost, the JBL Clip 5 is an affordable portable speaker choice under $80.

Despite the need for a companion app for certain features, the JBL Clip 5 is a solid successor to the Clip 4 with enhanced features.

The sticking point for a lot of affordable speakers is how they sound and how long they can last on a single charge. It’s one thing to make a speaker small, and it’s a whole other challenge to make one that makes your favorite tracks pop — especially with a battery life that will last you for days away from a charger. For many sub-$100 Bluetooth speakers you can find digging around online, those boxes can be surprisingly hard to check.

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JBL’s Clip 4 speaker isn’t anything new, but I’ve recently attached it everywhere

JBL’s portable Clip 4 is waterproof, simple, and easily clips wherever I place it.

Luckily, that isn’t a problem for the JBL Clip 5. It’s able to dodge those pitfalls and serve as a more than adequate successor to the JBL Clip 4 by keeping the best of JBL’s early portable speaker and improving many of the features it was lacking. The Clip 5 sounds better than JBL’s previous speaker, has a longer battery life that can be extended even further with some software trickery, and it doesn’t cost any more than $80, the JBL Clip 4’s original price. The JBL Clip 5 is, in many ways, the ideal sequel, with the only drawbacks being nitpicks that you can read more about below.

Recommended

JBL Clip 5

The JBL Clip 5 is better than the Clip 4 in all the ways you’d want: better sound, bigger battery, and the same great clip.

Pros

IP67 rating
Up to 15 hours of battery life
Louder and richer sound

Cons

Need to use companion app for some features

How we test and review products at Pocket-lint

We don’t do arm-chair research. We buy and test our own products, and we only publish buyer’s guides with products we’ve actually reviewed.

The JBL Clip 5 was announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2024, and released in June alongside several of JBL’s other “ultra-portable” Bluetooth speakers. Having just reviewed the JBL Clip 4, I’ve found it naturally shares many similarities with JBL’s previous clip-on speaker, including the presence of a built-in carabiner, IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating, USB-C port for charging, simple Bluetooth pairing, and that affordable $80 price.

Where it differs is in the details, like a longer battery life, improved audio driver, and redesigned body. They add up to make it an overall better option if you’re looking for a new speaker, whether you’re getting it in black, blue, pink, purple, red, or white. Even though they were released only a few years apart (the Clip 4 arrived in 2020), the Clip 5 is effectively the modernized version of the Clip 4, in all the good and bad ways that entails.

Recommended

JBL Clip 5

The JBL Clip 5 is better than the Clip 4 in all the ways you’d want: better sound, bigger battery, and the same great clip.

Pros

IP67 rating
Up to 15 hours of battery life
Louder and richer sound

Cons

Need to use companion app for some features

How we test and review products at Pocket-lint

We don’t do arm-chair research. We buy and test our own products, and we only publish buyer’s guides with products we’ve actually reviewed.

Price, availability, and specs

JBL Clip 5

Brand: JBL
Dimensions: 3.4″ x 5.3″ x 1.8″
Input Type: USB-C
Power: 7W
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.3
Buttons: Power, Play/Pause, Volume Up, Volume Down, Bluetooth Pairing, Auracast
Battery: 12 hours (15 with Playtime Boost enabled)
Waterproof Rating