JBL Charge 6 vs JBL Charge 5 | Too pricy to justify the upgrade

JBL Charge 6, released in April 2025, shares a similar design to the JBL Xtreme 4. The Charge 6 comes with a couple of cool new upgrades, but not as cool as the Xtreme 4. The JBL Xtreme 4 has that replaceable battery design, which can be possible in the JBL Charge 6 too, but not this time. The previous version in the "Charge" lineup was the JBL Charge 5, released in February 2021. It’s been more than 4 years, and now we have the JBL Charge 6 with the Xtreme-4-like look. In this article, I am going to compare the Charge 6 and Charge 5 speakers, so you can judge. We need to determine whether to upgrade from the Charge 5, buy the Charge 6 if new to the series, or choose a similar option from Tribit or Soundcore.

Inside-the-box

Charge 6, the new one has accessories in the box. The carrying strap for the JBL Charge 6 is included in the box. Charge 5 didn’t have any carrying feature. They both have typical JBL standard packaging. However, the new Charge 6 has cardboard molds on the sides to hold the speaker inside vs Charge 5’s foam inserts only at the bottom. An interesting thing is, the Charge 5 had a type-c charging cable included in the box, but with this new Charge 6 you don’t get a charging cable. You get the new handle strap that the old Charge 5 didn’t have. Both come with paperwork. Check the manuals for Charge 6 and Charge 5.

Design and Build

The most important thing about the design change to me is the new design at the very bottom side. I mean the bottom feet design is changed now, it aligns with the JBL Xtreme 4 now. Some might think that the old JBL Charge 5’s bottom-feet design had more bar-like elements there, which was better. It would have been better if the total footprint was more spread. Now with the JBL Charge 6’s more beefy and curvy-looking design, and the new widespread only 2 thicker bar-like design is actually gonna keep it more sturdy on a flat surface.

For most cases, which I think on a flat surface the new bottom-feet design is miles better, however, I think that the old design was better for rough and non-flat surfaces. Both have that new cool, bold and big JBL logo which I like. I like this new Charge 6 design, looks more curvy and appealing. But you need to show your strength and performance, now that you are more beefier. Another thing I absolutely love is the new passive radiator design. This new look for the passive radiator is also very similar to the JBL Xtreme 4’s passive radiator. Charge 6 passive radiators are way more beefy, curvy, bold and sexy looking than the Charge 5 rads. Even though I am not a JBL fan (I am neutral), I really like their passive radiator design and how they move. I will say that the old Charge 5 had a more professional but less appealing look. The colors are crazy looking too. All the 6 colors look good on Charge 6.

There is no question that the Charges being JBL products have high-quality build. So same story with the build, high-quality durable and reliable build. The included handle strap is a push in the right direction. As the new JBL Charge 6 is more beefier and getting in a territory where it’s gonna be a little work to pick it up in one hand, the detachable carrying handle was needed. I will say overall, design-wise, feels like an upgrade over Charge 5.

Hardware Upgrades

Type-C for everything, this is kinda crazy in a very good way. The new JBL Charge 6 can do internal external charging and lossless wired audio via the single USB Type-C port that it has. Charge 5 had an additional USB Type-A port for external charging and the main type-c port could only do internal charging. There might be some other modes where the Charge 5 can do wired audio but it’s not as simple as in the Charge 6.

Both the Charge 6 and Charge 5 have the same one woofer-tweeter configuration. It’s not a proper stereo like 2 woofers or 2 woofers 2 tweeters or even 1 woofer 2 tweeters. This one woofer and one tweeter configuration will lose a lot of that dynamic imaging sensation. This will not be a significant difference but you will definitely feel like you are missing something if you have heard stereo before from other 2-channel speakers.

The JBL Charge 6 is rated for 45 watts max, which is divided into 30 watts RMS for the woofer and 10 watts RMS for the tweeter. So 40 watts RMS in total and 45 watts at maximum. The driver size reads like 53 mm x 93 mm woofer, 20 mm tweeter. For the JBL Charge 5, we only know that it is rated at 40 watts. I can’t really compare and tell you whether it’s an upgrade or not by just analyzing that little information about the Charge 5, available officially. RMS power, peak power and max power, not enough technical details.

Sound Quality Check

From the official pages of JBL Charge 6 and Charge 5, we know that the Charge 6 can go as low as 56 Hz in the sub-bass region vs Charge 5’s 60 Hz mark like a threshold. This official rating seems legit and probably means within the +/- 3 dB range. First, remember that both of these speakers play stereo tracks in a mono configuration. This makes me feel cheap about JBL as similar-sized speakers from other brands do proper stereo.

Both the JBL Charge 6 and Charge 5 deliver quality sound, as they use quality drivers. However, the sound signature is different on both, and sometimes at a certain volume level with particular tracks they can sound significantly different from each other. To be totally transparent, this article is based on my research, analyzing reviews and sound tests. I am comparing them and giving you my opinion based on my expertise and what makes sense to me from a lot of different angles. So back to the sound signature discussion, the Charge 6 has a hollow and dark sound signature by default compared to the Charge 5 speaker.

The older Charge 5 sounds okay with decent vocals and mids. But the Charge 6 has recessed mids, and with some tracks, you might feel like the instruments sound thin and not popping well. This happens because of dips at around 4 to 8 kHz region. The highs are there, which makes the edges sound kinda thin and at the same time lack clarity and definition because of recessed upper mids and lower treble. The bass response on the Charge 6 is pretty great compared to the Charge 5. You might spot some immediate improvements in the bass performance of the JBL Charge 6, it sounds deeper and louder than the Charge 5 in the bass and overall loudness. There is like a 2 dB more perceived loudness from around 40 to 80% volume, 2 dB is noticeably louder. Charge 6 plays louder at the same volume level.

Being more loud at a similar volume level, especially below 80%, the Charge 6 sounds more dynamic than Charge 5. The Charge 6 is hitting 50 Hz with noticeable improvements over Charge 5. You are getting some more character in the bass but losing some mids with the Charge 6. The Charge 5 has more balanced mids. The loudness and bass gain may close the gap as you go higher up on the volume. But for sure the Charge 6 sounds overall noticeably louder even at max volume. There is slight distortion at max volume on the Charge 6. Because of the slightly pushed higher high-end or recessed lower treble, the sound coming from the Charge 6 may sound more electronic with decent sparkle.

Both the Charge 6 and Charge 5 sound open enough. The crazy thing about the new Charge 6 is, it has the new 7-band custom equalizer in the app. This can be a huge deal for some people, way more flexibility on the Charge 6 vs the Charge 5’s only 3-band custom eq. Charge 6 will sound way better if you increase the 4 kHz slider by like 3 dB. Slightly improved bass and a bit louder sound with some drawbacks in the default sound signature don’t really justify an upgrade. However, after adding the upgrades outside of sound quality, the Charge 6 might be a worthy upgrade. Check the conclusion for my full verdict on this.

Features and Battery

The new JBL Charge 6 has support for Auracast technology vs the old JBL Charge 5 has PartyBoost tech for multi-speaker connection. This means you can’t play both Charge 6 and Charge 5 together, but you can play the new Charge 6 with the new Flip 7, as they both support Auracast - not a backward compatibility issue but a technology issue. Charge 5 can be paired with other JBL speakers that are PartyBoost compatible.

JBL Charge 5 is IP67 water and dustproof vs JBL Charge 6 with IP68 water, dust and drop-proof. There is * in IP68* probably indicates that the Charge 6 is also drop-proof from 1 meter onto your concrete floor. The handle strap is a nice new feature. This new Charge 6 has AI sound boost which the Charge 5 didn’t have. Also, only the Charge 6 has the Playtime Boost feature. Bluetooth version is 5.4 on Charge 6 vs 5.1 on Charge 5, comes with the JBL portable app and the custom 7-band eq in the app is a huge deal. The Charge 5 has only a 3-band custom eq in the app. Huge eq upgrade on Charge 6.

The battery spec reads like Li-ion polymer 34 Wh, equivalent to 7.2 volts 4722 mAh for the JBL Charge 6 speaker. The Charge 5 has a 27-Wh battery pack with the same chemistry, which is equivalent to 3.6 volts 7500 mAh according to this source. Charge 6 offers 24 hours of playback at around 50% volume with additional 4 hours when Playtime Boost is on. Fast charging is also present on the Charge 6, 10 minutes of quick charge can give you 150 minutes of playtime. The charging time is 3 hours at 12 - 20 V / 3 A rate. On the contrary, Charge 5 offers 20 hours of playtime while takes 4 hours to get fully charged - slow.

Conclusion - Something Else

The Charge 6 has a retail price of $200 vs the Charge 5’s $180. The handle strap upgrade, 7-band custom eq upgrade, slightly better bass performance and overall a bit more loudness, still it’s gonna be a hard sale at $200. The Charge 6 offers some upgrades for sure including the battery upgrade that I forgot to mention, but the price is too high considering other players in the market. The competition is tight and JBL puts an even higher price, which is why JBL is probably not gaining fans. If you can get the Charge 6 at $150, then it will be a good deal to upgrade. Let’s check some other options worth mentioning.

If you have the Charge 5, upgrading to the Charge 6 doesn’t make any sense. Normal people will probably not gonna notice any significant difference. Upgrading from the Charge 4 makes more sense. However, if you have the money and you are tech-savvy, you can enjoy both. And if you don’t own any Charge, planning to get one, get the new Charge 6. Most importantly, if you are on a budget, want a decent mid-sized portable speaker, going for the Charge 6 is waste of money. Go for the Soundcore Boom 2, which is much more powerful with quality sound under way less money. The Boom 2 can compete with the JBL Xtreme 4, which is much bigger than Charge 6. Check out the Uboom X and Stormbox Lava.

You can get a bit bigger more powerful quality speakers by spending way less. I don’t know much about the Stormbox Lava at this time, but the Soundcore Boom 2 at $130 and Earfun Uboom X at $160 are great pound-for-pound speakers. On a tight budget, you should not go for JBL. You got deep pockets, buy the JBL Charge 6. Check out the official page of Charge 6 and Charge 5. Make wise decisions, maybe wait for price drops.

Check the JBL Flip 7 vs JBL Charge 6 story

IF you're interested in portable small speakers, check my Soundcore Motion 300 vs Bose Soundlink Flex article. Both did well in a head-to-head.

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