Thursday, March 18, 2021

JBL Clip 4 Hands-on

JBL’s Clip speaker line has been around for a while now and has well-served the users looking for something portable yet rugged enough to keep up with extreme environments and activities. In its fourth iteration, the JBL Clip 4 continues the tradition with improved features and a more attractive look. Check out our hands-on of this speaker below.

Compared to older JBL Clip speakers, “rugged” is not the first word that came to mind when we first saw the JBL Clip 4. The word we’d use is “stylish,” thanks to 12 colorful options available. The materials also give off a premium vibe and use a combination of fabric, metal, plastic, and rubber. It’s attractive and not boring to look at.

Since we already know that it is a rugged speaker, we already know that it is tough. The Clip 4’s front and back are covered in fabric. The JBL logo is glued on the front, along with the volume down, play/pause, and volume up. The buttons are made of a soft rubber material that is smooth to the touch.

At the back, the center is lined diagonally with rubber, which serves as the JBL Clip 4’s base when you put it down on a flat surface.

Also found here by the side is the power and Bluetooth pairing button, which are also rubberized.

Found at the bottom is the USB-C port for charging. They even gave this port an orange accent which adds attractiveness to the device.

Found at the top is the LED indicator for the power and Bluetooth pairing.

Surrounding the JBL Clip 4’s body is a solid metal frame that also serves as the carabiner. The gate has a rubberized exterior, but we’re guessing it’s also metal inside. It provides a decent resistance but will easily retract to a trench below it with a finger press.

The JBL Clip 4 has a decent heft to it. It’s light enough to be clipped to your backpack or belt loop but heavy enough to be used as a paperweight. Water and dust shouldn’t be an issue, thanks to its IP67-rated body.

Pairing is easy. Just push the power button, open your smartphone’s Bluetooth settings, then select the JBL Clip 4. The speaker will connect to your device using Bluetooth 5.1. A chime will let you know that the pairing is successful.

The JBL Clip 4 packs big sound in a small package. The mids and highs are crisp, clear, and rich. The bass is decent, although not as full and punchy as the ones you’d get from a bigger speaker. While it’s loud enough to fill a small room, its front-firing speaker means you’ll only get the best listening experience when it’s faced towards you. It sounds different when placed on, let’s say, a desk facing upwards.

There’s a speakerphone option, there’s no option to pair with other JBL Clip 4 speakers, so you can’t do a stereo pair with this one. Still, it’s good enough for casual listening with a small group or if you want to boost the audio from your smartphone or tablet when watching your favorite movie or TV series.

When it comes to battery life, the JBL Clip 4 can provide up to 10 hours of playback, which is great. Charging takes a while as well at 3 hours.

The JBL Clip 4 is an affordable speaker priced at PHP 3,549 (see the listing here). Like its predecessors, it is one of those portable speakers that you’d easily recommend to users who frequently travel to locations where most gadgets wouldn’t survive, like the beach or the mountain. But it’s also great for ordinary users who want a good-sounding portable speaker that they know won’t easily break.

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