After playing with the JBL Go 4, I was seriously impressed. That little speaker wasn’t the most powerful, but given its price and what it offered, it was pretty close to a slam dunk. Well, to test it out and the Auracast function, I also took the JBL Clip 5 for a spin.
The question lingering: should you spend the extra $30 on a Clip 5 or save some coins and nab the Go 4?
What is unique about the Clip 5?
If you are comparing it to the Go 4, it’s a circle rather than a rectangle. But obviously, with it being the 5th iteration and other companies making mini-circle speakers that aren’t unique, one thing I have liked about the Clip series is the built-in, well clip. Previously, they looked more like a carabiner, but with the Clip 3, it was built to look a lot tidier. The 4 has mostly stuck to the 3’s design but is much sleeker this time.
This functionality is absolutely key to the use case for getting one of these. You can hang it on a nail, your hiking backpack, or your umbrella for those sweet BBQ beats. With some grips on the back, it is perfectly happy laying down, but hanging off stuff is the Clip 5’s natural habitat.
The Auracast of things
I know, I used that title in my Go 4 review, but I am about to make the same point here. Auracast is so damn easy to use. Do you have a big backyard and want the sounds pumping everywhere for your shindig? Hang a bunch of these around, Auracast them, and you have some sweet surround sound.
Auracast is exceptionally easy to use. You only need to have your Bluetooth paired to one speaker. Then press the Auracast button on that speaker and another one, and in a second you have sound pumping out of both. You don’t have to pair it with your phone or anything. That means you can own one, have your friend come around, and seamlessly use theirs for an amazing experience.
Sound quality, and the rest?
The sound quality of the JBL Clip 5 is shockingly good. We aren’t talking about a $200 speaker, of course not. We are talking about a $100 portable speaker. The bass is solid, and the sound was much clearer than I expected as I pumped the sound up.
The battery life is promised to be 12 hours, and it hits that easily. In fact, if you turn on playtime boost mode, you can get even more time out of it, but that drops the guts out of the bass. To ensure I tested the battery length, I let my 10 and three-year-old dance around with it for the weekend, which brings me on to the next part, the build quality. This little beast got dropped, thrown around, and dropped off the balcony, and it is still going strong! What more can you ask for?
