Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
What Hi-Fi?
What Hi-Fi?
Technology
Esat Dedezade

The eagerly awaited JBL Flip 7 Bluetooth speaker leaks ahead of launch

JBL Flip 6.

JBL's hotly anticipated Flip 7 Bluetooth speaker appears poised for imminent release, with specs and pricing details surfacing ahead of its official announcement.

The successor to the popular, five-star Flip 6 (pictured above) was notably absent from JBL’s roster at CES 2025, which is why the news of its upcoming arrival is met with open arms and eager ears. We should note that we’ve had no official release from JBL to confirm the Flip 7’s launch, mind – but recent developments have all but made it certain.

Tech site Gizmochina, for a start, reports that the Flip 7 has already launched in China, with pre-orders beginning on 24th February and an early-bird promotional price of 1,149 yuan. As for the rest of the world, details have leaked courtesy of a briefly published – and since pulled – press release on Business Wire, which revealed that the Flip 7 will be available to pre-order for $149 from 10th March, ahead of its release on 6th April. That’s a $20 premium over its predecessor for those keeping track, and there’s no word on UK or Australian release date or pricing information at this time.

As for what the Flip 7 will bring to the table? According to the sources above, it’ll land packing several notable upgrades, including AI-powered sound enhancement and improved battery life. Both sound good on paper, of course, but we’ll be keeping our minds open until it's undergone the full review treatment.

As for the design, the Flip 7 maintains the compact, cylindrical form factor of the Flip line, weighing in at a bag-friendly 560g. It’s a little more robust than the Flip 6 too, with an upgraded IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.

The business end, according to Gizmochina's product breakdown, includes an independent tweeter, a racetrack-shaped mid-bass driver, and dual passive radiators, housed in what JBL describes as a "high-performance acoustic chamber". This configuration reportedly aims to deliver balanced audio with deep bass, clear midrange, and crisp highs.

Elsewhere, the Flip 7 also apparently incorporates the same AI Sound Boost technology previously seen in the premium JBL Xtreme 4, using an AI algorithm to predict speaker movement and power response to maintain sound quality, even at higher volumes. During our testing, the Xtreme 4 remained remarkably composed and controlled even when pushed to its limits, so the inclusion of this feature in the smaller Flip 7 could potentially be a major boon.

Other specs include Bluetooth 5.4, and Auracast support to allow multiple compatible speakers to be linked together for expanded sound. JBL has also reportedly added USB-C audio input with an integrated DAC chip, enabling lossless playback from compatible sources. Needless to say, we’re very much looking forward to putting this feature through its paces as well.

The Flip 7’s battery life is a reported 14 hours per charge (that's two hours more than the Flip 6), and you can apparently squeeze an extra two hours out thanks to a new Playtime Boost mode that conserves power by disabling equaliser settings and reducing the bass output.

That’s all we know for the time being, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted with official launch news and prices from JBL, as and when it lands.

MORE:

Read our full JBL Flip 6 review

Best Bluetooth speakers: portable speakers for every budget

JBL Flip 7: the 5 things we want from JBL's next portable Bluetooth speaker

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.