JBL seems to make a portable Bluetooth speaker for every budget and need, some of which are massive, but the Clip series has always been about being easy to take anywhere. The new $69.95 JBL Clip 4 has a built-in carabiner and a fully waterproof build. It’s meant for the great outdoors, and delivers solid sound without weighing you down. As you might expect, a speaker this size and price isn’t going to deliver a bass bonanza, nor does it pack a ton of extra features. But the Clip 4 gets the important stuff right, delivering crisp, rich audio from a waterproof enclosure, making it a solid, budget-friendly portable option.

A Go-Anywhere Design

Measuring 5.3 by 3.4 by 1.8 inches (HWD) and weighing in at roughly half a pound, the Clip 4 is available in nine color options—some patterned—including black, blue, camo, gray, pink, and red. The rounded front and back panels are covered in grille that protects a single 40mm, 5-watt driver. A built-in carabiner frames the top portion of the speaker, and a USB-C port is located at the bottom.

The front panel has a huge JBL logo rising from the grille, with buttons above it for play/pause and volume down/up. A double press of the play button skips forward a track, but there’s no backward track function, oddly. There’s a dedicated power button on the left side panel, as well as a Bluetooth pairing button. On the back panel, there are rubberized strips to keep the speaker stable when lying flat on desktops. 

The USB-C port is uncovered, which is of note because the Clip 4 still manages an IP67 rating, meaning that it's fully waterproof and resistant to dust. The speaker can be submerged for up to 30 minutes in a meter of water without issue. Bluetooth signal can’t play underwater, but the point is, you can get the Clip 4 exceedingly wet without harming it. The only included accessory is a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable.

What’s missing? At this price, it’s hard to complain. An aux input would have been nice, but these wired connections are becoming more and more rare, and the trade-off for having a fully waterproof speaker is arguably worth it.

The Clip 4 is compatible with Bluetooth 5.1, and supports AAC and SBC Bluetooth codecs, but not AptX. JBL estimates battery life to be roughly 10 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels.

Recommended by Our Editors

Sony SRS-XB23 - Review

JBL Flip 5 Review - Review

JBL Go 3 - Review

Powerful for the Price

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Clip 4 delivers a decent sense of low-frequency depth at moderate volumes, but at top levels, it struggles with distortion. We wouldn’t expect the speaker, given its size and price, to deliver anything approximating real bass depth, but the previous model “teetered on the edge of distortion" when playing this track, to quote our own review, and the Clip 4 is fully engaged in distortion. It’s surprising to see a step in the opposite direction, but perhaps it’s in the name of providing a richer bass depth for less intensely challenging tracks.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the Clip 4’s general sound signature. Nothing should cause distortion here, and indeed nothing does. At top volumes, the DSP (digital signal processing) thins things out notably, while at more moderate volume levels, the track seems to pack a little more richness and bass presence in the drums and vocals. This is a bright, clear sound signature with plenty of low-mid presence for a speaker this size.

See How We Test SpeakersSee How We Test Speakers

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives an ideal high-mid presence, allowing it to retain its punchy attack. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are merely implied here—we get their raspy top notes and not much sense of their serious low-frequency power, although the drum loop receives some added low-frequency heft. The vocals on this track are delivered cleanly and clearly, without much added sibilance. The thing the Clip 4 does best is get relatively loud for its size without sacrificing clarity (that is, when the track isn't packed with deep bass rumble). 

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound relatively balanced and natural, at least as natural as they can sound coming through a mono speaker this size. The lows are present without sounding dialed up, and the higher-register brass. strings, and vocals, retain their bright presence in the mix.

A Good Speaker for Your Next Hike

The JBL Clip 4 is a good-looking, easily portable speaker that has a fully waterproof, dust-resistant build. Frankly, at $70, it doesn't need to deliver jaw-dropping audio, it merely needs to be good. And for the most part, it does, but the bass distortion is a bit of a bummer. It’s forgivable at this price, but it's also avoidable. Our Editors' Choice winner for affordable speakers, the $59.99 Sony SRS-XB12, comes close to distortion but avoids it, and thus edges out the Clip 4 (the larger $99.99 Sony SRS-XB23 is also worth considering). For less money, we’re fans of the $39.95 JBL Go 3. The next step up for JBL from the Clip is the $119.95 Flip 5—if you're looking for bigger sound, it might be worth it, but if portability is your main concern, a waterproof speaker with a built-in carabiner will always be a solid option.