JBL Charge 6 Review

Design

• Water and dust-proof
• Carry strap
• USB-C input

Just like the previous versions, the Charge 6 is the speaker in JBL’s outdoor range that most looks like you’d want to play American Football or catch with it. Though at over 1kg of weight, you won’t want it to hit you in the face (or anywhere else for that matter).

Despite the weight gain (1.37kg), the new detachable carry strap makes carrying feel as if it’s lighter. The strap is easy to affix, and once it’s done, you have something less than an American Football and more like a handbag.

The button placement has changed to accommodate the strap, with two rows of controls for the Flip 7’s Auracast feature, power, volume, and playback controls. The USB-A port is gone, with a lone USB-C port included that also supports lossless audio from another source. It’s a shame then that JBL no longer includes a cable with the Charge 6.

The IP rating has shifted from IP67 to IP68, which makes this speaker waterproof and dustproof (it’ll survive submersion at a certain depth for a while). It’s also drop-proof from about a metre, so no need to worry if you’re the member of the party with clumsy hands.

Colours include red, squad, purple, blue, black, pink and white.

Battery Life

• 24 hours claimed
• Fast charging
• Acts a powerbank

With both the Grip and the Flip 7, I’ve mentioned that the battery life isn’t as long as expected if you’re playing at 50% volume. Clearly, JBL’s testing is done at lower volumes, but with certain speakers, that means you lose out on some audio performance, too.

I play music from a Spotify playlist (always shuffled) at 50% volume for several hours with each wireless speaker I test. When I did this with the Charge 6, I recorded a 20% drop in battery over two hours. That would suggest the speaker is capable of 10 hours at 50% volume.

But the Charge 6 is bigger than either the Grip or Flip 7, and it can go louder. So dropping the volume down to about 30% (still good for sound) produces better results.

After seven hours of playing music, the Charge 6 recorded an 11% drop. I’m not going to bother with maths, but that’s a lot better and suggests that 24 hours (JBL’s claimed battery life) is well within reach, and that perhaps the most optimal volume for battery life is in the 40% volume area.

Enable the Playtime Boost and that provides another four hours, according to JBL. The Charge 6 can also perform as a powerbank, though JBL says there’s not enough juice to power a laptop. There’s fast charging support with 10 minutes providing an extra 2.5 hours, and it’s quicker to refuel the tank than it was with the Charge 5, taking three hours from zero to full.

Features

• Bluetooth 5.4
• Auracast
• JBL Portable app

Features isn’t an area where JBL’s Bluetooth speakers pack much of a punch. It’s very simple and to the point.

I’ve mentioned that it can act as a powerbank and can play lossless audio through its USB-C input. The Bluetooth 5.4 connection supports AAC streaming, which is par for the course at this price. The Bluetooth connection is stellar, with no connection issues over long distances.

There’s Auracast for grouping the Charge 6 with other compatible JBL speakers. There’s the possibility of stereo pairing if you’ve got two to hand.

With the JBL Portable app, you can check the battery life, update the speaker’s firmware, and play around with the sound in the EQ presets and custom options.

Sound Quality

• Clearer, more detailed than Charge 5
• Weighty bass
• Spacious sound

It’s immediate from the off that the Charge 6 has a more powerful sound than the Charge 5. The power has been boosted from 40 to 45W, and at the same volume, you can hear the Charge 6 expel low frequencies with more force.

It’s a bigger sound and JBL has made some smart tweaks. It’s a little clearer through the frequency range and gains a little more in terms of sounding natural. It’s a smooth reproduction of music, so while there are areas for further improvement, when it comes to energy, vocal clarity, low-end performance, and detail, it’s a clear improvement over the Charge 5.

With the midrange and vocals, there’s more depth, detail, definition and clarity. The Charge 6 is better at separating voices from the rest of the track than the Charge 5, so vocals stand out more.

With Shaka Khan’s Ain’t Nobody, in the second half of the track, the Charge 6 picks out her voice with more clarity and definition than the Charge 5, which sounds a bit more mumbly despite its crisper tone. The vocal clarity of the Charge 6 is excellent, whether dealing with female or male speakers.

It’s more deft in communicating the highs, so although treble isn’t the brightest, compared to the Charge 5 those highs are clearer and more better defined, making the older speaker sound thinner in comparison. There’s a sense that the highs are smoothed out, but it does mean the Charge 6 is less abrasive and fatiguing with the highs.

Bass is weighty, summoning good amounts of energy and depth – it digs deeper than the Charge 5 and sounds clearer. The bass also holds up when playing music outdoors, so while it’s not up to the standards of the Brane X, it performs well.

The Charge 6 also sounds much more controlled than the Charge 5, the sound of which can often spill out into sounding brighter, harsher and thinner by comparison. The Charge 6 pushes out more energy and power, music tracks flow better, there’s more dynamism (though still not much) which makes for a better all-round sound.

The Charge 6 is more articulate, more fluent, more fun than the Charge 5. It’s better at filling a room with sound, better in terms of loudness. It’s not the best-sounding Charge speaker in the range, an honour that goes to the Charge 5 Wi-Fi, but in terms of purely Bluetooth speakers, it’s the best in the series.

That’s not to say there aren’t areas for improvement. Bass could go deeper with some tracks that require more extension, and the highs could stand out more, but these are minor quibbles. If you had the choice of a portable Bluetooth speaker and, say, an indoor Bluetooth speaker like the Bose SoundLink Home to choose from, the JBL wins.

Should you buy it?