JBL Flip Essential 3 SE launched in China

JBL has announced a new portable speaker under its Flip Essential series which is a more affordable line compared to the main flip series. The new speaker is the Flip Essential 3 SE (not to be confused with the JBL Flip 3 SE) and it is now available in China. It arrives three years after the Flip Essential 2 was released.

The JBL Flip Essential 3 SE features a dual speaker design made up of a 10W tweeter and a 20W woofer with a dynamic frequency response range of 63Hz to 20kHz. The cylindrical speaker comes in gray and sports JBL's signature fabric finish. According to the spec sheet, it measures 180 × 69.5 × 72mm and weighs 550 grams. It is also rated IP67 for dust and water resistance, which makes it suitable for use at the beach or by the poolside.

The Flip Essential 3 SE connects via Bluetooth 5.4 and has support for Auracast. It can also be connected to a second unit for a true stereo experience. There's a 4,800mAh battery capacity inside the speaker with an advertised battery life of up to 12 hours. JBL says a full charge takes about 3 hours using a 15W charger.

Since this is a Flip Essential speaker, it lacks some of the features on the main Flip line such as voice assistant integration and compatibility with the JBL Portable app.

The JBL Flip Essential 3 SE is available to buy now in China on JD.com for CNY 899 (~$132/€112), more than double the price of the JBL Go 5 announced in March. There's no news yet of an international release.