For years, JBL has been dedicated to making parties louder and more spectacular. This time they have brought out two new products, the oversized PartyBox Ultimate 2 and the compact Pulse 6. One pushes its power output straight up to 1,500 watts, while the other gives its 360-degree light show a glowing metal handle.
Both products went on sale in early October, and both feature JBL's latest AI Sound Boost technology.
The Ultimate 2 is the most powerful PartyBox ever made.
Its output power has risen from 1,100 watts in the previous generation to 1,500 watts, an increase of more than a third. The driver configuration has been upgraded across the board, with a larger line-up from bass through to treble. Working with the AI Sound Boost feature, the speaker analyses the music being played in real time, so that even at very high volumes the detail and clarity hold together rather than turning into a muddy mess.
There are new tricks on the lighting front too. The Ultimate 2 supports multi-layered lighting effects and can even project beat-synced visuals directly onto the floor, turning the whole room into a dance floor.
More practically, it is the first PartyBox to come with a touchscreen. The volume knob on top is itself a small display, so a quick glance down tells you what song is playing and which lighting mode is active, without having to reach for your phone every time.
Karaoke fans will appreciate the EasySing feature. With one tap it removes the lead vocal from a song, instantly turning it into a karaoke backing track, and the speaker also has some party games built in. The connectivity has been carefully thought out as well. An optical port lets you hook it up to a TV for karaoke, microphones and guitars can be plugged straight in, and connecting DJ equipment or playing from a USB drive is no problem either.
The Ultimate 2 is a genuine giant, standing over a metre tall and weighing close to 48 kilograms. Although it comes with large wheels and sturdy handles that make it reasonably easy to move around, it can only run on mains power.
The recommended retail price is around €1,599.99 / £1,399.99.
If the Ultimate 2's job is to make the noise, the Pulse 6's task is to set the mood.
The Pulse range has always been about music you can see, and this sixth generation keeps the transparent cylindrical design. The biggest change is the addition of a glowing metal handle. The light is no longer confined to the body of the speaker but extends along the handle, creating a more complete 360-degree lighting effect. A gentle double tap switches the speaker into a warm-toned bedside lamp mode. There is also a sunset mode, which lets you set a countdown so the light gradually dims as you drift off to sleep.
In terms of sound, the Pulse 6 has a total output of 40 watts and likewise carries the AI Sound Boost technology. According to JBL, this generation sounds more balanced than its predecessor, with more solid bass. The built-in battery lasts up to 12 hours, and the whole unit weighs roughly 1.5 kilograms.
The recommended retail price is around €299.99 / £279.99.
A power bank that can charge a laptop has nothing to do with what the plug looks like. What matters is whether it supports the USB Power Delivery (USB PD) protocol and can deliver power at the voltage and wattage your laptop actually needs.
Phones run happily on 5 volts and just a few watts. Laptops are a different story. The battery sits behind a charging circuit that expects voltage and power close to the original adapter's output, usually 15 or 20 volts at several dozen watts.
Many people assume switching to a USB-C port solves everything. In reality, USB-C is just the name of the connector. The port may only carry data, only output video, only charge, or do all three, and there is no way to tell from the outside.
To fix this, you rely on the USB PD protocol. When charging starts, the power bank first presents a menu of voltage and current options. This menu has a formal name, the Power Data Object (PDO). The laptop picks one of the options it supports, and only after both sides agree does real power flow. If they cannot agree, charging never starts. So the power ceiling is set by the laptop: a power bank rated at 140 watts cannot force 140 watts into a laptop that only asks for 65 watts.
Cables are part of the protocol too, so you cannot just grab any cable. A standard USB-C cable is usually limited to 3 amps, which works out to at most 60 watts at 20 volts. To go beyond that, you need a 5-amp cable, which contains an electronic marker chip. For anything above 100 watts, you also need a cable that meets the EPR standard.
Finally, do not confuse capacity with power. The milliamp-hour (mAh) rating describes the capacity of the cells, not the energy you can actually use. A typical 20,000 mAh power bank holds about 74 watt-hours before conversion losses. When the battery voltage is boosted to 20 volts, another 15% to 30% of the energy is lost as heat.
The test is simple. Start with the adapter that came with your laptop. The number printed on it, such as 30W, 45W, 65W, 96W, or 140W, is the target wattage you need to meet.
In general, the laptops below can safely be charged from a power bank:
Step one: ignore the flashy fast-charge wording and the total output wattage on the box. Instead, read the output wattage printed for each individual USB-C port.
You want a port that explicitly lists USB-C PD support, with output voltages that include 15 volts or 20 volts, and wattage no lower than your laptop adapter's rating. If the label only says 5V/3A, you can be pretty sure it is a phone port.
A few more details worth checking:
For most people, a 65-watt PD power bank is the reassuring minimum. A 100-watt PD power bank covers the charging needs of nearly every non-gaming laptop.
Do not panic. Work through the checklist one item at a time. Faults almost always come down to four things: the port, the cable, the power bank, or the load.
Case one: nothing happens when you plug in. First make sure you are using the laptop's charging port, and that the power bank side is plugged into an output port. If the power bank has a power button, press it. Swap in a cable rated for your target wattage. You can also shut down the laptop, wait half a minute, reconnect the power bank first, and then connect it to the laptop.
Case two: it connects, but the laptop reports slow charging, or the battery percentage stops climbing. That means the handshake succeeded, but the actual wattage is below what the laptop expects. Compare the power bank's single-port output against the number on the adapter label. Close a few resource-heavy apps, lower the screen brightness, and test again while idle. If the battery only gains charge when the lid is closed, the power bank simply cannot keep up with the laptop's running load.
Case three: charging keeps cutting in and out. For a compact power bank asked to deliver 100 watts for a long stretch, overheating protection is common. Let it rest and cool down. Also check whether a phone plugged in at the same time is hogging the port and forcing constant power renegotiation.
Case four: you expect 100 or 140 watts but only get around 60. This is the limit of a 3-amp cable. Switch to a 5-amp cable with an E-Mark chip, or use an EPR cable rated above 100 watts. Before blaming the laptop, test with a direct cable first, which is the most reliable check.
Also, laptops from Dell, HP, and other brands may show a warning even while the battery is clearly charging. Some manufacturers reserve full-speed charging above 100 watts for their own chargers and a proprietary identification signal. When you see this message, you can usually choose to ignore it in the firmware settings.
If none of these steps solve the problem, the cause may be hardware: the laptop's port does not accept PD input, the power bank cannot provide 20 volts, or the laptop uses a proprietary round barrel connector. In that case, swapping to a different power bank will not help either.