JBL Clip 5 vs. JBL Clip 4: Which one to choose

A good shower speaker is, for me at least, one of those purchases that can have a huge impact on your daily life for minimal cost. While most flagship smartphones are waterproof enough to be placed on a shelf or door so you can listen to something while you’re bathing, it’s much more comfortable to listen on a speaker that you know is safe, and that’s louder and has better sound quality than your smartphone.

As always, choosing the right speaker for you requires balancing price with the features you actually need. Over the past few weeks, I’ve reviewed the JBL Clip 5 and Clip 4, and while they share some key similarities, like a built-in carabiner, IP67 water and dust resistance rating, and price, I’m confident in saying that they come the closest to a near perfect recipe. In my opinion, the $80 JBL Clip 5 is the smarter speaker, whether you’re looking to improve the quality of your shower or simply want a cheap, durable speaker. Here are some reasons to choose the JBL Clip 5 over the JBL Clip 4:

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1 The JBL Clip 5 sounds better than the JBL Clip 4

It all comes down to power output and EQ

JBL Clip 5

The JBL Clip 5 is a waterproof Bluetooth speaker with a built-in clip, incredibly rich sound, and Auracast support.

The JBL Clip 5 has the same sized dynamic driver as the JBL Clip 4, but the output is obviously different. The Clip 4 is rated at 5W of power, which was still plenty loud in my experience, but the JBL Clip 5 can output up to 7W, which I felt produced a richer, more detailed sound than its predecessor.

You might not notice much difference over the sound of running water, but if you plan on using the JBL Clip 5 elsewhere, you’ll love the nuances it can reproduce, especially if you plan on listening to a lot of music and not just podcasts. And because it connects to the JBL Portable app, it’s inherently more customizable than the Clip 5. EQ presets let you quickly switch between different sound profiles, and there are fully customizable EQ settings too if you want more granularity.

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2 JBL Clip 5 has a longer battery life

Software can improve it even more.

I found that turning off either the Clip 5 or 4 could extend the battery life by a few days. Still, out of the box, the JBL Clip 5’s 12-hour battery life is better than the Clip 4’s 10 hours. Plus, you can add another 3 hours of battery life to the Clip 5’s playtime by enabling a feature called Playtime Boost. When you enable this feature, the audio plays in mono, so everything sounds flat, but it’s better than nothing.

To put it in perspective, a difference of two hours (or five hours with software tweaks enabled) may not make much of a difference for listeners stuck at home, but if you take the Clip 5 to a beach BBQ or a long hike, you’ll notice the benefits of that extended usage.

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3 With pairing capabilities, the JBL Clip 5 outperforms numerically

The more speakers you have, the more useful they become

In my experience, if you own one cheap speaker, you’re unlikely to own more than one, but I can understand the appeal of trying to recreate some of Sonos’ speaker-pairing magic on a budget. The main differences between the Clip 5 and Clip 4 are stereo pairing via the JBL Portable app, and Auracast support via a dedicated button on the side of the Clip 5.

Stereo pairing is pretty self-explanatory – just connect two speakers to the app and go from there, but Auracast is a bit more interesting. Auracast is built on the Bluetooth standard and actually works like Bluetooth forwarding. Make sure your Auracast-enabled speakers are turned on, play music on one speaker and press its Auracast button. Then press the Auracast button on the other speaker you want to send audio to and all speakers will sync up and play songs, podcasts, or other content. It’s a feature that may not be immediately useful, but it’ll become more useful the more JBL speakers you buy. It’s similar to the features you get in Sonos systems, and the more Sonos speakers you buy the more valuable it becomes. It’s not as flexible or high-quality as Wi-Fi streaming right now, but it’s available at a much lower price, so it’s a nice plus for an $80 speaker.

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The JBL Clip 5 offers a better balance of features and price.

I didn’t buy the Sonos Roam as a shower speaker, but I did decide to do so because I found it to be surprisingly sturdy. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect for getting wet, and I’d honestly rather have something a little more affordable and convenient than a speaker like the Sonos Roam 2.

From what I’ve seen and tested, the JBL Clip 5 fits that bill perfectly. Its basic design makes it safe for use in the shower and easy to clip or hang in a variety of locations, but it also sounds great, lasts a long time on a single charge, and is super easy to add to a more complex speaker setup if you really want it. You can’t expect miracles from a speaker this cheap and small, but even the slightest improvement, the slightest increase in convenience or enjoyment, can go a long way to improving your life, and I think the JBL Clip 5 is perfect for doing just that.

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