JBL Flip 7: Lightweight but rugged Bluetooth speaker that's ideal for outdoor music

A good all-round Bluetooth speaker to use with your iPhone, providing excellent sound quality, good battery life, and a sturdy, lightweight design.

- BY CLIFF JOSEPH

With summer fast approaching, JBL recently updated several of its portable Bluetooth speakers, but the one that really caught our eye was the rugged and backpack-friendly design of the new Flip 7. Priced at just $149.95/£129.99, and available in a variety of colors, the Flip 7 is clearly a direct competitor for the recently released Beats Pill, but it manages to outdo its Beats rival in a number of ways.

For starters, the updated Flip 7 now boasts a seriously rugged IP68 rating for resistance to water and dust—compared to IP67 for the Beats Pill—which allows it to survive complete immersion in 1.5m of water for up to 30 minutes. JBL says that it's “drop-proof” too, thanks to a shock-resistant rubber trim that can survive a drop of 1m right onto a concrete floor. But while it’s built like a tank, the Flip 7 is still very light and portable. It stands 182mm high, 69.5mm wide and 71.5mm deep—although you can also turn it onto its side it you prefer—and weighs just 0.56kg, so it's easy to slip it into a backpack or bag and carry it around when you're traveling. JBL also includes a wrist strap and carabiner clip, which you can remove and swap around as required, to help keep it safe.

The Flip 7 supports the latest Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless audio, and the USB-C port on the back of the speaker can also be used to provide a wired audio connection, as well as charging the internal battery. There’s no USB-C cable included, though, as JBL is trying to cut down on its use of plastics, so you'll need to provide the cable yourself.