JBL's Boombox 4 goes much louder for much longer

JBL makes some of the best bluetooth speakers, and updated three of them earlier this year – but not the Boombox, its hefty party speaker. At least, not at the time.

Now there's a brand new version of that one too, and the JBL Boombox 4 is already on sale in China with global availability expected within the next month or two.

The full spec sheet is also available on JBL's international websites.

The Boombox 4 is very loud, delivering up to 210W when connected to the mains and a still-impressive 180W when you're running on battery. And the new version addresses one of the few downsides of the Boombox 3 – its weight. The Boombox 4 is reportedly 12% lighter than the outgoing model.

JBL Boombox 4: key features and expected pricing

The Boombox 4 has bigger drivers than the current model but no subwoofer. It features two 5-inch woofers, two 0.75-inch tweeters and three passive radiators. And there's JBL's AI Sound Boost, which analyses the audio and tweaks it to deliver a more consistent experience across the whole volume range.

Play time is up to 34 hours (28 without the battery boost feature, which sacrifices a bit of power for six hours more playback), which is ten hours longer than before.

There's IP68 water and dust resistance (up from IP67 in the Boombox 3) too, for outdoors use. Bluetooth is 5.4 with Auracast, and if you connect to an audio source over USB-C you can get lossless audio playback.

There's no news of the price outside China yet but there it's roughly $560, which is close to the pricing of the original Boombox 3. That previous model was £449 / $499 / €549 (about AU$933) when it launched in 2022.

There's no word of a UK, US, EU or Australian launch just yet but previous rumours have predicted September 2025 with shipping a few weeks later.