JBL Clip 4 Portable Speaker review

Taking one of the best speakers of the year and wrapping it inside a carabiner, the JBL Clip 4 is an interesting way of maximising the portability of a speaker without having to resort to a smaller battery size or weaker speaker. This design meant the speaker easily clipped securely onto the exterior of pretty much anything. Ideal for hikers, travellers or anyone who needs to balance sound quality with mobility, the Clip 4 is well worth considering.

The Clip 4 represents a rather large leap in performance and styling over the outgoing Clip 3, but the removal of a few core features does hamper things slightly. That being said, for a mid-range portable speaker that can survive the trials of outdoor life, it’s really rather good.

Verdict: This rugged portable speaker offers excellent bang for your buck but skimps on a few useful features.

What’s good?

The standout feature of the Clip 4 has to be its design. A Red Dot Award winner, the Clip 4’s carabiner design creates something that looks rugged and practical. Don’t think all this rugged utility is just for show either, the Clip 4 features an IP67 rating, meaning it is both water and dustproof. The ability to clip it to pretty much anything also makes it a clever choice for campers, where bag space is a premium.

Beyond the aluminium carabiner, the 5W speaker is encased in a fabric mesh while any remaining parts (controls, grip pads and the carabiner opening) are rubber to provide grip. The 239g weight is impressive given the specs too, a tin of beans weigh more.

For something so small and light the sound quality was pretty good. Audio quality remains a weak point for most rough-and-tumble portable speakers, but the Clip 4 bucked the trend. It's nowhere near the quality offered by a premium home-based speaker like the Marshall Woburn 3, but it was decently punchy and quality only ever suffered when running at full volume.

What’s okay?

JBL proudly proclaim up to 10 hours of battery life for the Clip 4, but lace this claim with an appendage that this is based on the volume and what’s being played through the speaker. In our testing, a battery life of close to four hours was more accurate, reducing slightly further with the volume cranked up further.

Another mediocre aspect is the lack of track selection abilities. While most people will undoubtedly use their phone for the majority of the time, the ability to quickly skip a track using the speaker would be welcome. In fairness, the track section has never featured in the Clip range which means it’s not unforgivably bad, just a missed opportunity.

Any negatives?

There are two noticeable omissions compared to the old Clip 3 that hamper its overall score, an AUX port and speakerphone. While the removal of an aux port can be justified under the guise that AUX cables are history, especially when the Clip 4 features Bluetooth 5.1, the speakerphone is rather more jarring. This makes taking phone calls via Bluetooth impossible with the Clip 4, a clear downgrade from the Clip 3.

On a personal note, unless held upside down, no matter how I grasped the JBL, one of my fingers would inevitably be resting on the rather sensitive on/off button. This resulted in a lot of accidental shutdowns, unforgivably killing the vibe.

More items to consider

Ryan Gilmore is a contributor to What's The Best. He also writes for CAR and Parkers.

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