The JBL Clip 5 is one of those products that just works and keeps working. We clipped it to a daypack for two weeks of daily use, hiking, coffee runs, desk time, and a couple backyard hangouts. For a speaker you can literally hook to your shorts pocket, the volume output is kind of ridiculous. It fills a small room without distortion and holds up outdoors where wind usually kills smaller speakers.

Compared to the Clip 4, the biggest upgrades are the redesigned carabiner (feels way more solid now) and slightly improved low end. The mids are clear for podcasts and vocals, though dont expect audiophile quality, its a $60 travel speaker and it sounds like a good one. Bluetooth 5.3 connects fast and holds a stable connection up to about 30 feet in open space.

One gripe: theres no aux input. If your phone dies, the speaker is useless. Also no speakerphone function, which the older models had. JBL dropped that feature and some people miss it. But for pure music playback on the go, this is hard to beat at the price.