JBL Flip 7 and Charge 6 Bluetooth speakers' official launch details leak, including an AI sound mode that I think is a perfect fit for them
JBL Flip 7 and Charge 6 US launch details leak in removed press release
Pre-orders set for March 10, 2025 – on-sale April 6, 2025
Flip 6 set to be $149, Charge 6 set to be $199
The JBL Flip 7 and Charge 6 Bluetooth speakers are ready to launch soon, according to a press release from the company on Business Wire, which has now been removed – but is still visible via Wayback Machine.
It reveals that the new speakers will cost $149 and $199 respectively, and will be available to pre-order in the US from March 10, 2025 – but won't actually be available until April 6. The price is a rise from the previous versions of both models, which launched at $129 and $179 respectively. In the UK, we'd expect them to cost £149 and £199 based on current exchange rates. In Australia, it works out to around AU$295 and AU$395.
That's unless you're in China, where the Flip 7 it's already available to order with an early bird price of around $158, according to Gizmochina.
In addition to the usual JBL strengths, it looks like the successors to the rather good JBL Flip 6 and JBL Charge 5 will be borrowing one of the best features of the JBL Xtreme 4: the AI Sound Boost mode. The Business Wire release confirms that both speakers will support this tech, and we'll explain why that's a great fit in a moment.
But the Gizmochina article says that there's another welcome piece of optimization tech in the Flip 7: a battery mode that squeezes another two hours out of the high-capacity lithium-ion battery by turning off the bass display and equalizer settings. That should mean an improved battery life of 14 hours.
I'm the first person to mock fancy-sounding audio optimization tech, because I've listened to a lot of it and found it deeply disappointing. But the AI Sound Boost here could be good, based on when we've already heard it in action.
Here's Harry Padoan, who reviewed the JBL Xtreme 4, describing how the system worked for him: "The AI Sound Boost in the JBL Xtreme 4 has pretty controlled, powerful audio and at high volumes it didn't sound distorted at all – that seems to be the purpose of the technology. How much of that is really down to 'AI', I couldn't say, of course."
Whether it's AI, engineering or a mix of both doesn't really matter: if it helps the JBL Flip 7 and Charge to push out more powerful sound without distortion than they could manage before, that could be a big win for such small speakers.
The Gizmochina articles describes the Flip 7 as using a tweeter, racetrack mid driver and dual bass radiators for sound, which is basically what the Flip 6 offers.
It'll be IP68 water and dust-resistant, but a nice upgrade will be the option of USB-C audio input for "lossless" sound, though I don't know that I'd rely on a pint-sized portable speaker for that kind of fidelity…
Bluetooth 5.4 will provide the wireless tech, including support for Auracast, to provide the ability to use loads of the speakers together at once.
We don't have this kind of info for the Charge 6 yet, but I'd expect them to be basically identical except for a more powerful speaker setup in the Charge, and a larger battery that can charge other devices, naturally.
The JBL Flip 6 and JBL Charge 5 both rank among our list of the best Bluetooth speakers based on how good a value they offer, and I suspect that these two speakers will be the biggest competitors to the new models – with the Flip 6 regularly available for under $100 / £100, the Flip 7 is going to have to be a clear upgrade.
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