At IFA 2019, JBL announced a slew of new headphones and speakers. One of those new speakers is the JBL Pulse 4.
This is the fourth iteration of one of JBL’s most popular Bluetooth speakers of all time. It doesn’t bring about a lot of changes, but it does make for a more fun experience.
JBL brings a full-body lightshow to the Pulse 4
The Pulse speakers have always had a pretty large light show, which looked really cool. But what’s new with the Pulse 4, is that it is the entire speaker.
With the Pulse 3, it was about two-thirds of the speaker. With the bottom half being the actual speaker. The Pulse 4 does away with that, and you get a lightshow throughout the entire length of the speaker. Making for a pretty impressive looking speaker, especially while it’s playing music.
The lightshow is of course still customizable, within the JBL Connect app, you can adjust how the lightshow looks and works. It will animate to songs visually, giving you a really cool experience. And it’s really great at parties.
Pulse 4 can connect to up to 100 other JBL speakers
Thanks to the JBL PartyBoost feature, the Pulse 4 can be connected wirelessly to more than 100 other JBL PartyBoost enabled speakers. This is going to give you some really cool stereo sound effects, and make it really good for parties and get-togethers.
The JBL Pulse 4 still uses Bluetooth for streaming. You can connect up to two smartphones or tablets to the Pulse 4 at the same time.
Battery life is still pretty decent, especially considering it does have that lightshow. We’re looking at around 12 hours of playback on this speaker. And the best part is, USB-C. So no more needing to use a micro USB cable to charge the Pulse 4. That is actually a big deal for a lot of people, considering most audio products have not made the move over to USB-C just yet. It’s good to see that JBL is making that move now.
As expected, the Pulse 4 is also waterproof, with a IPX7 rating. This means that you can take it over to the pool for some fun, and not worry about the water damaging it.
Of course, the audio quality on the JBL Pulse 4 is right where you’d expect it. Sporting JBL’s signature audio, which has some really good bass as well as crystal clear mids and highs.
Pricing & Availability
The JBL Pulse 4 will be available today, in Europe and in the US. However, it is back ordered until September 13, currently.
JBL says that it’ll cost £229 in Europe and $199.95 in the US.
That lines up with the pricing that the Pulse 3 had when it debuted last year.
