Beats Pill vs JBL Flip 6: Which Sounds Better?

The Beats Pill by Beats and the JBL Flip 6 are flagship portable Bluetooth speakers designed to provide crystal clear portable music performance with decent bass.

The Beats Pill comes with its sleek design and impressive 24-hour battery life—double what the Flip 6 offers. It also supports fast charging so you can get two hours of playtime from just a 10-minute charge. Sound-wise, it leans toward a bass-heavy profile with higher volume, which is perfect for those who love powerful lows.

On the other hand, the JBL Flip 6 delivers a more balanced sound with clear mids due to its two-way speaker system. Both are tough and water-resistant with an IP67 rating, but the Flip 6 is extra rugged and great for outdoor adventures. It also has cool features like PartyBoost for linking multiple speakers and EQ customization through its app—things the Beats Pill doesn’t offer. If you’re into long battery life and thumping bass, go for the Beats Pill. But if you want a durable, versatile speaker with a more balanced and dynamic sound, the JBL Flip 6 is a great choice.

Specs Comparison

The Beats Pill offers up to 24 hours of battery life (a big plus if you’re out for the day), and it has a quick-charge feature that gives you 2 hours of playback with just a 10-minute charge. The JBL Flip 6, on the other hand, provides up to 12 hours of playtime, which is still solid but not as long-lasting. Both speakers are built to handle tough conditions, with an IP67 rating that protects them from dust and water.

The Beats Pill has been upgraded with a re-engineered racetrack woofer and a redesigned tweeter, which aim to deliver deep bass and clear highs which is great for bass heads. The JBL Flip 6 uses a two-way speaker system with a woofer for lows and a separate tweeter for highs, giving it a balanced and rich audio profile that works for most genres including rock and EDM music performances.

The Beats Pill uses Bluetooth 5.3 and offers one-touch pairing with both iOS and Android devices (super easy to set up). It also has a USB-C port for charging and high-resolution audio input if you want the best sound quality when plugged in. Comparatively, the JBL Flip 6 uses the rather outdated Bluetooth 5.1 and supports PartyBoost, so you can pair it with other JBL speakers for a bigger sound.

Furthermore, the Beats Pill has a clean, streamlined look with a slight upward tilt to project sound toward you. It comes with a removable lanyard and a silicone grip that makes it easy to carry around. The JBL Flip 6 feels more rugged, with a tough fabric covering and rubber housing that’s designed for outdoor use.

Specs Table

The Beats Pill has a frequency response range of approximately 89.8 Hz to 16.7 kHz, delivering balanced sound for various music styles. Its 24-hour battery life and quick charging capability make it a great option for extended use. With its IP67 rating, it is resistant to dust and water and features like a built-in speakerphone, voice assistant integration and stereo pairing.

The JBL Flip 6, on the other hand, offers a wider frequency response range of 63 Hz to 20 kHz, providing deeper bass and clear highs. Its 30W RMS power output ensures robust audio performance. With a 12-hour battery life and IP67 durability, it’s ideal for outdoor use. Features like PartyBoost, USB-C charging, and app support further enhance its functionality.

If you need longer battery life and voice assistant integration, the Beats Pill may suit you better. If deeper bass, a stronger sound profile, and connectivity options are your priorities, the JBL Flip 6 is a strong choice.

Sound Performance

The Beats Pill has a frequency range of about 89.8 Hz to 16.7 kHz, which means the lows are present, but they don’t hit as hard as I expected for a speaker this size. It handled the vocals and mid-range instruments clearly, with a decent amount of detail especially on higher frequencies. But when the bass-heavy parts of the track played, like the synths, the Beats Pill seemed to lack the depth that I would have liked for a richer listening experience. I did enjoy listening to Phil Collin’s “Another day in paradise” on the Beats Pill and the vocals sounded crisp, bright and very nice to listen to with good treble response. I would say that the bass on the Beats Pill is still quite formidable and much stronger than the Flip 6 at lower volume levels, especially on drum notes and EDM beats.

The JBL Flip 6, with its frequency range of 63 Hz to 20 kH provides a more balanced bass response. It has a more pronounced low-end especially that doesn’t feel muddy at higher volumes, which made the basslines in Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of you” feel fuller and punchier without any distortion. The mids and highs were clear, but I noticed the highs on the JBL were a bit more refined than on the Beats Pill. The sound was well-balanced, and the clarity was good across the frequency range.

Comparing both speakers, the JBL Flip 6 felt more dynamic, especially with bass-heavy tracks like “Levitating.” Its 30W power output is provides a fuller sound. The Beats Pill, despite being lighter and more portable, provides a strong bass response that starts to sound muddy at higher volume levels – in this respect I felt that the Flip 6 had a more balanced dynamic range. Both speakers handle vocals and mids quite well, but if you prefer a speaker with a richer bass and more balanced overall sound, the Flip 6 is likely the better choice. The Beats Pill provides decent bass initially, but this starts to mellow off when you turn up the volume on the speaker.

Design Comparison

The Beats Pill is slightly larger than the JBL Flip 6, but the difference is actually rather negligible in everyday use. Both are small enough to fit in a backpack. The Beats Pill weighs in at 680g, while the Flip 6 weighs in at a lighter 544g. The larger size of the Beats Pill means it can throw a heavier punch in battery life and sound quality. Both the Beats Pill and JBL Flip 6 have an IP67 dust and water resistance rating. This means both can handle a summer beach day, though you should still be careful around salt water. Both speakers come with a carrying loop so you can hang them in your shower.

In terms of connectivity, both speakers use Bluetooth to connect to devices, and I didn’t experience connection issues with either speaker. Neither speaker supports 3.5mm aux input, but the Beats Pill does support wired lossless listening over USB-C.

When it comes to battery life, the Beats Pill has 24 hours of stated battery life, double that of the JBL Flip 6 which has 12 hours of promised battery life. In our battery test, the JBL Flip 6 didn’t even last that long, only surviving for 9 hours and 25 minutes at 75% volume. The Beats Pill did provide a good 19 hours of playtime at 70% volume level, and they charge quickly – you can fast charge the Beats Pill to get two hours of playback time from only ten minutes of charging. The JBL Flip 6 doesn’t have fast charging and takes two and a half hours to fully charge.

The Verdict?

Personally, I would go for the Beats Pill Bluetooth speaker because it looks extremely sleek and provides really nice bass response (at low to mid volume levels). The highs and midranges are nicely defined and present, and I really like how it performs especially with rock and EDM music performances. Furthermore, the Beats Pill has a superb built-in battery that provides up to 24 hours of playtime and it comes with the latest specs such as Bluetooth 5.3.

The JBL Flip 6 provides really nice balanced sound performance with good bass response as well. It comes with dual bass radiators and the bass does not sound muddy even at higher volume levels which is a plus. That being said, the Flip 6 is slightly outdated and uses Bluetooth 5.1, and it has a rubberized texture appearance which feels rugged but lacks the sleekness that the Beats Pill brings to the table. Both speaker are IP67 waterproof, but the Beats Pill looks a tad more stunning and well-designed.