JBL Charge 6: Continuing a Winning Legacy

For years, JBL's Charge series has been a staple in the portable Bluetooth speaker market. Designed for users seeking a good compromise between power, endurance and robustness, the Charge speakers appeal to both sound quality enthusiasts and weekend party-goers or Sunday campers alike. The Charge 5 had already laid solid foundations with muscular sound, great battery life and a near-indestructible design.

With the Charge 6, JBL takes the same ingredients and adds some welcome new features, such as Auracast compatibility. All for an unchanged price, set at £199.99. Enough to maintain its leading position? Answer in this test.

If you were expecting an aesthetic revolution, you can move along. JBL remains faithful to its iconic tubular design, both simple, robust and immediately recognizable. The Charge 6 replicates the lines of the Charge 5, with a cylindrical format of 22.88 cm long by 9.85 cm in diameter and a weight of 1.37 kg. This size places it halfway between ultra-portable small speakers and bulkier stationary models.

The finish remains exemplary, with a mesh fabric covering that covers almost the entire speaker. JBL has taken care of the details: the soft plastic ends protect the passive radiators, still as spectacular when they vibrate to the rhythm of the music. The embossed JBL logo sits in the center with a well-highlighted metallic effect.

Available in 7 colors, the Charge 6 plays the personalization card. In hand, the construction exudes solidity. The whole thing is IP68 certified, which guarantees dust and water resistance. It can therefore be briefly immersed without damage, and withstand pool splashes or summer rains without flinching.

The only small downside: its size and weight make it a little less transportable than models like the Flip 7 from the same brand. But in return, JBL has integrated a removable handle to handle it more easily.

The Charge 6 doesn't revolutionize the user experience either. We find the classic physical buttons molded directly on top of the speaker: on/off, volume, play/pause, Bluetooth pairing and the new JBL Auracast button to pair multiple compatible speakers. Their location remains logical, their pressure firm, and their location is easily done blindly.

Alongside, a USB-C port allows both to recharge the speaker and to use it as an external battery, which remains a particularity of the Charge range. The powerbank function is capable of giving a smartphone a boost at the end of the day.

The JBL One application is quite simple but well designed. It allows you to take control of the speaker by refining certain settings: firmware update, personalization of the sound rendering via a few presets and a 7-band manual equalizer, or even activation and deactivation of system sounds. The interface is clear, synchronization is almost instantaneous, and the app does not require account creation.

The Charge 6 gains the Auracast function, possible since the arrival of Bluetooth 5.3 (here in 5.4). It may seem trivial, but changes everything when you listen to music in a group with your friends. Thanks to it, you can connect a multitude of Bluetooth devices (compatible Auracast too) at the same time and thus broadcast the same sound source there. Which we managed to do without problem with a Flip 7, simply by pressing the dedicated button on each speaker. No other manipulation is necessary. In parallel, JBL maintains its proprietary technology allowing two Charge 6s to be paired together in stereo.

Historically, speakers in the Charge range have always relied on powerful sound, deliberately oriented towards bass, to appeal to a wide audience. With the Charge 6, JBL remains faithful to this recipe, but refines the settings. The result is a speaker with a still punchy sound rendering, but much more controlled than before.

From a technical point of view, the Charge 6 features a configuration equipped with a 53 x 93 mm bass speaker, a 20 mm diameter high-frequency speaker and two lateral passive radiators that actively participate in the sound impact in low frequencies. The whole thing is powered by two amplifiers: one of 30 W for the woofer and one of 15 W for the tweeter. More than enough to effortlessly fill a medium-sized room or provide sound for an outdoor evening.

In practice, the rendering still impresses with its powerful bass register, well controlled and never too invasive, even at high volume. On electro or hip-hop tracks, the Charge 6 shows remarkable punch, with clean impacts and beautiful roundness. The passive radiators give real body to the sound, without falling into artificial excess or the unpleasant buzzing that is sometimes encountered on other speakers in this price range.

But it is especially in the midrange and treble that the progress is most noticeable. The tweeter seems to have gained clarity, with cleaner rendering of high frequencies. Voices emerge with more definition, without being crushed in the mix. Instrumental details are better separated, particularly on more complex or acoustic titles, where cymbals, guitars and pianos retain beautiful legibility. The sound spectrum seems more balanced than on previous generations, which makes listening more enjoyable over time.

In terms of dynamics, the Charge 6 remains faithful to the JBL approach: a rather flattering sound, without great neutrality, but very lively. The soundstage, although limited by the mono design of the speaker, benefits from a slight improvement in width. The instruments seem less compressed in the center than on the Charge 5 and certain tracks gain airiness, even if you should not expect a true stereo image without going through the mode with two speakers.

In terms of power, the Charge 6 can go very high without flinching. Up to 80% of the maximum volume, the distortion remains contained and the structure of the sound is preserved. Beyond that, the treble tends to harden a bit and the bass loses precision. This remains very decent for a speaker weighing just over a kilo. Outdoors, it easily imposes itself against ambient noise, without having to push the volume to the maximum.

Overall, the JBL Charge 6 offers a sound that is still impactful and fun, but now better balanced. You can feel that JBL has refined its work, without denying its identity. It remains oriented towards festive or outdoor uses, but can now also appeal to those looking for more faithful and composed listening.

JBL announces up to 24 hours of battery life with the Charge 6. In reality, this promise is generally kept: during evaluation, listening at moderate volume (25%), the speaker lasted nearly 22 hours before turning off. This can be extended with Playtime Boost mode which limits bass, but in theory gives it an additional 4 hours of battery life.

Charging is done via the USB-C port which also serves for powerbank mode, allowing for example to charge your smartphone by connecting it to it. With an on-board battery of 4,722 mAh, this clearly allows you to get out of trouble without affecting the overall battery life of the speaker too much.