So this is the JBL Flip 7 and it was announced along side its larger brother, the JBL Charge 6. Now the JBL Flip 7 is still a great small portable speaker to consider… however, the upgrades here aren’t as impressive as the upgrades found on the JBL Charge 6. Nonetheless today we’re going to checkout the JBL Flip 7 and we’re going to see how it compares to both the JBL Flip 6 and the JBL Flip 5. Lets see if it worth upgrading.
Regarding pricing, just like the Charge 6, the flip 7 has also gotten a price increase. This speaker has a retail price of $150, pretty up there if you ask me. Cause the Flip 6 had a retail price of $120 when it first came out and the Flip 5 had a retail price of $100 when it first came out. Nonetheless if you want to pick any of these speakers up they’ll be linked down below or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button. And if you want to further support the channel then you can always pick up some merch.
So first theres the design of this speaker. Now the Flip 7 is a small sized speaker and its very similar to the Flip 6. Except they have rearranged the button lay out which isn’t super important to be honest. But other than that, almost everything else is the same. All of these speakers are dirt and water resistant and they all have a mostly fabric wrapped body so they can easily stand up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes. The only notable design difference on the Flip 7 is that it now has a quick release button for its lanyard on the back, and you actually get a secondary carabeaner attachment. But honestly, I think this change is pointless and I think the lanyards on both the Flip 6 and Flip 5 were perfectly fine. However I do think this is a great opportunity for third party case manufactures to make a quick release stand for this speaker so that you can quickly attach your Flip 7 to your bike or something.
Overall, the Flip 7 is a small, portable and durable bluetooth speakers which is great to take on the go with you. The only thing that I do want to point out here is, the USB C port on this speaker is exposed. Now you can throw your Flip 7 into the pool and its going to be fine… however before you can charge it up again you gotta let it air dry. So if you ever try to charge this speaker and your indicator light is blinking read, dont worry, its not broken, just let it dry.
Now when it comes to battery life, the Flip 7 has been slightly upgraded from its predecessors, the flip 7 has an advertised battery life of 14 hours, which is a 2 hour upgrade over both the Flip 6 and flip 5 cause these speakers have an advertised battery life of 12 hours. And if you were to use the Flip 7 with playtime boost turned on, then its going to have an advertised battery life of 16 hours… however playtime boost is going to lower your bass and increase the mids and highs so your music isn’t going to sound as good. So for the best sound you want to use this speaker with its playtime boost turned off.
But real world use with these speakers playing at 80% volume, all of these speakers are going to be good for like 8 hours of playback time. However 80% volume on the Flip 7 is noticeably louder than 80% volume on these other two speakers, so you’ll might end up using the Flip 7 at a lower volume and extend its battery life that way.
Now like I mentioned earlier, the Flip 7 charges via a USB C port just like with these other two speakers. However what is new here is that you can now use this USB C as a wired connection with your phone or computer, which is something that you cant do with these older Flip speakers. However, unlike the Charge 6, you can not use the USB C port on the Flip 7 to charge your phone. Now I know the battery on the Flip 7 is very small, but I would like to be able to use this speaker to charge my phone in case of an emergency.
However, something that I don’t like about this speaker is that it doesn’t come with a charging cable… not cool. Now obviously you can use your phones charger to charge it up, but I do think that its messed up that the Flip 7 has a price increase and they removed the cable.
But when it comes to overall connectivity, this speaker can be connected to two devices at the same time, latency is not an issue for this speaker so you can use it to watch videos with your phone and it has support for both SBC and AAC.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now both the Flip 7 and Flip 6 have a frontward firing woofer and a frontward firing tweeter and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. Where as with the Flip 5, this speaker has a single frontward firing woofer and dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides. And the woofer and the tweeter set up on the Flip 7 and Flip 6 is a big deal cause the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs like this.
So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs. And this is just going to help your music sound a lot more open and its going to have much better instrument separation. And in 2025, this speaker set is mostly reserved for your more premium speakers, where as more adorable speakers are still rocking a dual woofer set up. And finally the Flip 7 connects to JBL app, just like how you can with the Flip 6 and you can either choose from a few premade EQ’s or you can make your own. But now we’re going to go ahead and jump into the sound test. All of these speakers are playing at 75% volume, they’re all running this stock EQ’s and they are all unplugged.
So like you may have just heard, both the Flip 7 and Flip 6 sound a lot more open than the Flip 5 thanks to the woofer and tweeter set up. But also, both the Flip 7 and Flip 6 have more bass than the Flip 5. Simply put, if you have the Flip 5, upgrading to either the Flip 6 or Flip 7, you’re going to get a noticeable sound improvement just cause both of these speakers have a woofer and tweeter set up. But if you’re going from the Flip 6 to the Flip 7… the main performance difference that you’re going to notice is going to be max volume performance. The Flip 7 gets noticeably louder than these other two speakers. I think the Flip 6 gets decently loud for its size… but I am genuinely impressed by how loud the Flip 7 gets for its size. However, just like with the Charge 6… I feel that the Flip 7 is getting stressed a little bit when at those higher volumes. Now JBL claims that you’re not going to get an distortion at those higher volume cause of AI Soundboost… but I feel that the highs can sometimes get a little crackle. And also keep in mind, if you were to use the Flip 7 while its plugged in, you’re not going to get a performance boost out of it like you would with the Xtreme 4. But overall, the Flip 7 sounds good thanks to its woofer and tweeter set up, and it gets louder than the Flip 6. Just be warned that at those higher volumes the highs might distort a little bit.
But finally lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with all of these speakers, if you have two of the same speakers then you can wirelessly pair them up and get them to play in sync. But they have to be two of the same speakers. So you need 2 Flip 7’s or 2 flip 6’s. You cant get a Flip 5 and Flip 6 and get them to play in stereo mode.
Now both the Flip 5 and Flip 6 are using Partyboost, so you can pair them up to other party boost speakers like either a Boombox 3 a Boombox 2, Xtreme 3, Xtreme 4, Charge 5, Pulse 5, Pulse 4, Flip 5 to a flip 6. And you can get up to 100 speakers to play in sync.
But then theres the JBL Charge 6 which is using Auracast… so you can pair it up to other aura cast speakers like either A Charge 6 or to an Xtreme 4, a Flip 7, a clip 5 or a go 4 and again you can get up to 100 speakers together and get them to play in sync.
But unfortunately, for right now, you can not wirelessly connect your JBL Flip 7 to your JBL Flip 6 and get them to play sync. And if you’re paying attention, you may have noticed that the Xtreme 4 is the only speaker here that connects to both Auracast speakers and Partyboost speaker. The Xtreme 4 can live in both worlds, which is think is great. However none of these other Auracast speakers are able to do this. Now I dont know if these other aura cast speakers will get upgraded in the future… but for right now, you can’t connect your Flip 7 to your older party boost speakers.
However, since the JBL Flip 7 is using aura cast… the cool thing is that you can connect this speaker to JBL’s newer partybox speakers that are also using aura cast like either the Partybox Encore 2,120, 320, 520 and Ultimate… where as this is something that you just cant do with JBL’s older speakers that are using party boost.
So if you’re planning on growing your collection of speakers, then you do want to go with the Flip 7 cause it has Auracast, it looks like JBL is going to be using Auracast here on out… plus you can connect your JBL speakers to non JBL speakers that are also using aura cast. However, I do have to point out that I do feel that JBL’s party boost is stabler and easier to use than auracast.
But with all of that being said, the JBL Flip 7 is still a great small portable bluetooth speaker to consider. It sounds open thanks to its woofer and tweeter set up and it get impressively loud for its size. However I do feel that JBL is pushing this speaker to its limits and at those higher volumes sometimes some distortion can come in. But the battery life on this speaker has been slightly improved and it now has aruacast. Yes the flip 7 is a good option, however the improvements here aren’t as impressive as the improvements found on the Charge 6. I think the quick release lanyard on the back is pointless and the Flip 7 now has a more premium price.