JBL - FREE True Wireless In-Ear Headphones Gen 2 - Black

I give the JBL FREE True Wireless In-Ear Headphones high marks for design, sound quality, and comfort. They sound great, are very comfortable to wear, and the wireless design makes them perfect for taking on the go. --DESIGN AND USE-- Included are silicone ear tips in small, medium and large. The gel sleeves come in medium and large. An important first step is to choose the ear tips that best fit your ear size best because to get the best sound and most secure seating, the ear tips must completely seal over your ear canal. The included gel sleeve is not necessary to use, but provides a more secure fit when you are on the go. It will also provide some protection if they are dropped. The hard case and right and left headphones function as an integrated system. The case not only protects and stores them, but it also is an external battery that charges them. To charge them you simply insert them into the case and then connect the case to a charger with the included micro USB cable. This is a very effective design because it minimizes the risk of loss of the headphones by compelling you to habitually store the them in the case. They feel magnetically seated in the case. I really like that these headphones automatically turn on when removed from the case. So when I remove the right one from the case, it turns on automatically and pairs to my iPhone. Then I remove the left one and it automatically turn on and pairs to the right one. I like this much better than having to power each one individually like some other wireless headphones that I have used. The left headphone can’t be used without the right one. The right one can be used by itself, if you only want to use one, but the left one can’t be used independently. The left headphone can only be paired to the right one. It took about two hours to fully charge the case. The headphones last about 4 hours after being fully charged. The case can charge the headphones for an additional 20 hours. So if they are both fully charged, the headphones and case can last a very impressive 24 hours! A 15 minute charge can provide one hour of listening. The case has charging indicator lights. The multi-function button takes some getting used too, but feels solid and reliably controls the headphones. The headphones are very lightweight and because of the silicone ear tips very comfortable to wear. It is very easy to forget that you are wearing them. The headphones and case feel very solid and well constructed. They are very attractive and prominently display the JBL sigil. When turned on they are illuminated blue. SOUND QUALITY: JBL is known for premium sound quality and these headphones deliver! Music and movies sound detailed and full range. They put out an impressive amount of volume and bass for their size. If you are upgrading from the earbuds that came with your phone, then you are going to be amazed at how good they sound and how much sonic detail you were missing. The call quality is typical for compact headphones. When on a call they default to mono sound, but there is still some echo. The microphone picks up my voice adequately enough to be intelligible to the other caller, but once again sounds typical of a compact headphone. As with all headphones, the outside call quality is dependent on the wind and other environmental factors. I did have an occasional issue with the left unit disconnecting. When it did happen it usually reconnected on its own. It seems that the left and right unit must be kept very close together or they will lose their connection. Once I figured out to keep them in close proximity of each other, this issue was minimized. --BOTTOM LINE-- These headphones are expensive but are worth the price because they sound as good as most full size headphones, but in a portable and convenient to use package.. They are not only very comfortable to wear, but also look great while being worn. --OTHER INFO— IPX5 water resistance rating

Using wireless headphones / earbuds is absolutely incredible and, not being tethered or having your movement restricted by cords is truly freeing. While the wireless experience is incredible overall, I don’t believe that JBL took the appropriate time to design earbuds to be comfortable, or to fit well. JBL did not make any effort to ensure these buds stay in your ears. They are bulky and insert just as any average pair of earbuds – no rubber hook, flap, etc. Just press into your ear and hope they stay in place. If you have every had difficulty keeping earbuds in your ears – these will absolutely have the same problems. …They are very large and the weight sits high, causing them to tip slightly outwards. For me, this means they fall out of my ears. And, without any cord holding them together, an individual earbud simply crashes to the floor. This is a huge problem for jogging, cycling, snowboarding, etc – as it means they are very easy to lose. I would recommend wearing a beanie / tuke / knit cap that fits over your ears as it will help prevent them from falling out. I believe that JBL is 100% aware of how huge these earbuds are. On the package, the pictures show a girl with long hair that is completely covering her ears. They are literally hiding their earbuds in their promotional photos. The batteries usually last about 4 hours before they need to be charged by the case that comes included. The case itself can charge the earbuds 4 or 5 times before it needs to be charged itself. The battery life is decent, but could definitely be better. 4 hours is just enough to get me through to my lunch break – at which time I return them to the charging case. The 1 hour of charging is usually enough to get me through to the end of the day (although I frequently have to take the out when I receive phone calls, or have to talk to co-workers). The wireless range is appropriate (about 30 feet from my phone). They are as comfortable as average earbuds, except for the fact that to change the track, or to pause – you have to push a button that presses the earbuds into your ear (which does not feel great). While you can pause & skip tracks, there does not appear to be any way to control the volume from the earbuds themselves. Also, be aware that you have to push these earbuds deep into your ears to get them to stay in place, which means that you cannot hear much of anything even when your music is paused. If you want to be able to ear somebody talking to you – an earbud will need to be removed. The audio quality is good, but bass is lacking and I don’t feel as though they get particularly loud. Luckily they muffle out most ambient noise – which keeps music sounding pleasant and mostly uninterrupted. If you have never used wireless headphones before, you will probably be blown away. But, JBL should have actually worked to make sure these truly fit nicely (and stay inside of) the ear. For me, they simply do not stay in. If you have never had any issues with earbuds falling out, and if you never listen to music for more than 4 hours, you will greatly enjoy these wireless earbuds. Sadly I just can’t keep them in my ears.

- Presentation - JBL did an amazing job with the presentation of these earbuds. The hockey puck size case serves both as a protective case and a recharge station. The earbuds plug into the case and draw power from the built-in battery. The left and right earbuds are stored in the case corresponding with which ear the earbud is designed for. Between the earbuds are symbols indicating which earbud controls which common function. Under the earbuds are four LEDs that indicate the amount of power left in the case’s battery. The LED indicators on the earbuds and the battery glow when you return the earbuds to the case. Close the case and you will see a happy face through the top of the clamshell housing. I love this! JBL really took a lot of time and energy to craft a unique customer experience. The earbuds seem big in the hand but hide well in the ear. I do not feel silly wearing these. The earbuds will last 4 hours on a single charge. The base holds an additional 20 hours of juice. The four LED indicators will tell you how much power is left in the battery to make it easy to tell when you need to recharge the case. The case does come with an orange USB charging cable for connection to your computer or other USB power source. - Feel - The earbuds come with three sets of silicon plugs for your ear canal. You should be able to find one size that fits your ear comfortably. It also ships with two pairs of silicon sleeves of different thicknesses. These are used to enhance comfort and fit for different size ears. I have small ears and found the sleeves uncomfortable. I also went with the medium plugs for my ear canal. I found that I needed the extra girth in my ear canal to hold the earbuds in place. The charging port of each earbud rests against my ear. The charging port has a small lip surrounding the indent that houses the electrical connections. The lip chafes my ear if I have the earbuds too tight against my ear. This is the main reason I need the tighter fit in my ear canal. I would have enjoyed these earbuds better if JBL had removed the lip. - Setup - Setup was easy. I connected these with my iPhone in a matter of minutes. Just be sure to fully charge the case and the earbuds before trying to sync. Also, read the included instructions. You must sync the right earbud with your device first and then sync the right earbud to the left earbud. There are also several functions controlled by the buttons located in the center of each earbud. You will need to read the manual if you hope to get the most out of these earbuds. The earbuds did fall out of sync with my iPhone a few times during testing. I use many Bluetooth devices and find that this a common issue with both iOS and Windows. However, the left and right earbuds do fall out of sync with each other from time to time. Sometimes, the fix was easy; turn off the earbuds and resync. Sometimes, I had to work through some combination of redocking the earbuds in the clamshell housing, pressing buttons for different time periods, removing the sync status from my iPhone, and then repeating until I found the proper combination of button presses. - Sound - Usually, everyone talks about how much bass headphones can produce. Sony would have you think that bass is the only important sound there is. The JBL Frees do produce solid bass. I was surprised how well they sounded for something this small at its current price point. I listened to some workout mixes that had solid base tracks and was satisfied with what I heard. My head will not explode from over pressurized bass waves but good enough. Mids seemed ok. Highs did feel a bit constrained. In all honestly, I’m listening to compressed music that is being further compressed over Bluetooth so there is going to be a lot of coloration and loose from the original audio signal. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto sounded compressed in the mids. I played Lady ’95, from Styx, to see how Dennis DeYoung’s vocals stood up with these earbuds. The very high end of his range felt constrained. I then played Lindsey Stirling’s Electric Daisy Violin. The base was strong, vocals clear, and the violin sounds good. Overall, I feel that I am getting the performance I would expect from earbuds of this size and price point. - Use - I use these earbuds mostly for working at my desk and working out at the gym. I can hear what is happening around me at the office. I must turn up the sound if I want to block out the office noise. Unfortunately, the tradeoff is hearing damage. They can get painfully loud. I have them turned down to the lowest level of my iPhone’s audio and found them loud enough. I will turn to noise canceling headphones if I want to block the world out. I have not had any issues using these at the gym. They stay in place as I use the workout machines. They also offer enough music to keep me in the workout zone. Sweat does not seem to bother them. I do take these out when I’m stretching or swinging my head around during aerobic exercise. I do not know if they will fly out of my ears. I do not want to worry about it. What I do not know is if I can rinse these off. They are rated as sweat proof. That does not mean I can simply drop them in a bowl of soapy water or under a running facet to clean. Be sure to check with JBL before cleaning. - Phone - These earbuds stink for voice transmission. Listening to a phone call is mono; right earbud only. Sound is of the same quality as the music. The mic sensitivity on these earbuds are weak. I was forced to abandon the earbuds due to mic’s weak gain. The person on the other end reported that I sounded far away and was difficult to hear. I used my normal speaking voice for testing. The experience did improve when I spoke louder than normal. This would not be an issue if I were one of those people who liked making my conversations public. I do not. These earbuds are useless to me for hands free communications. - Final thoughts - I like the sound of these the best when compared to other earbuds I have owned. Unfortunately, I will continue to use my wired apple earbuds for hands-free communications. I wish JBL chose to smooth out the charging ports so that the earbuds would be more comfortable with smaller ears. I have found a way to manage the issue so that the earbuds do fit comfortably in my ears. Hopefully, JBL will improve upon this with future releases. I love the clamshell storage and charging case. It is just cool! The designers really did their homework and made something unique, fun, and portable. I can throw this in my work bag and not worry about damaging the earbuds. Overall, I like these earbuds and will get a lot of musical enjoyment from these in the office and at the gym. I hope you found this review useful.

These JBL - FREE True Wireless In-Ear Headphones really rock! They sound fantastic, the look great, and the feel very comfortable. Having completely wire free headphones these days is pretty much a must. They need to be lightweight and comfortable, have a good battery life and be able to work in extreme environments. These JBL manage all this in a stylish and convenient package. Opening the box, you have a charger/carry case, the two ear pieces, a charging cable and the instructions. There are three ear tip covers included and two gel sizes that actually fill the ear cavity when placed over the ear bud, so there are plenty of ways to make sure you have a great fit with these ear buds. Connecting the headphones via bluetooth was a breeze, just press the large JBL logo on the side and it will put them in to pairing mode. Look on your phone under bluetooth and you'll see them pair up quick enough. The sound is crisp and clear, with decent bass throughout different types of music, from Classical to Rock, the sound came through with a nice punch and cleanliness to it. One thing I did notice was using these earbuds to watch video content on Netflix, there appeared to be a millisecond delay from what you see and what you hear on the screen. It could be just a poor connection with the Netflix server, but there was just the slightest of lags between what you saw and the sound you heard. This is of course negligible when listening to music as there is nothing of any note to sync with. The charging case has LED indicators to let you know the state of charge, and the ear buds connect to your phone (or iPad) as soon as you take them out of the charging case, you don't have to re-pair them each time. They have a cool white LED ring around the JBL logo while in the case, and the LED charging status lights give a subtle human face look to the charging case when you close the translucent lid while charging. Don't know if that was intentional to 'humanize' the product, but a nice touch none the less. The wireless range was adequate walking around the downstairs of the house (about 30ft) but moving upstairs, the ear buds did cut out until brought back into range of the phone, but that is to be expected. Battery life in my testing seemed to be on par with other wireless ear buds at about 4 hours. The charging case can charge your buds a further 4 times, without having to be hooked back up to power again, via the included USB cable. Overall, these are very nice, ergonomically designed, comfortable, great sounding headphones.

I have used a number of wireless headphones over the years and these JBL’s have so far been one of my favorites! PROS: - My biggest concern with True Wireless Earbuds is they will be too bulk or will constantly fall out. The JBL Frees does not do either! They are very slim in the ear profile which I liked and I used the standard earpiece they have and they did not fall out. I worked out in these while lifting weights, running, and playing sports and they did not fall out once. Very impressed! - The sound is great right out of the box. There is no app to tweak them which is nice to not over complicate things but still can be helpful. I would say they are more bass heavy but it is not over done. - The controls are simple on these. You just take them off, they auto turn on, connect to your device, and you’re off! I used them with a few different devices and I never had any connectivity issues which was great. There is a small lag when trying to play/pause something with the buttons on the earbuds but it wasn’t a big deal. CONS: - My biggest issue is you can not control the volume from the earbuds. You have to turn it up and down from the device your connected to. The earbuds have forward, back, play/pause, but is missing volume control and I really wish it had it. - I really did not like the lack of voice prompts on the earbuds. As in, no “ON” “OFF” or “BLUETOOTH CONNECTED” voice. Instead it’s just some different beeps which aren’t entirely clear for me. - On that note, there is not great way to tell what the battery level is at. The earbuds won’t tell you but the case does have an indicator but it’s for the case not the buds. - When the buds are charging, the case will remain on for awhile with lights showing while the case is closed. I get it’s nice to see the charging level while it’s closed but I think it would preserve battery if it didn’t do that - I wish the case had either USB-C charging or supported Wireless charging for the case. Really would have been a huge step to the future. BOTTOM LINE: Although I wish these had more features and usability, they really are a great pair of earbuds. They are easy to use while sitting at work or running around outside and that’s exactly what you want from something like this. If you are in the market for a pair of True Wireless Earbuds to use across multiple devices for multiple purposes you will mainly love these!

The JBL FREE wireless headphones are one of the tougher headphones I have reviewed (and I have reviewed quite a few headphones). Let's get the important part out of the way, they sound really good. They have a nice balanced sound with adequate bass (assuming you can get them sealed) and good extension in the highs. Mid-range is solid and vocals sound true. That said they do tend to distort above 75% volume. So, if you like your music really loud these might not be for you. I have two gripes with the headphones. Each one was a star deduction because that is how much each issue matters to me (and probably you too). First, the fit. They are pretty large and getting them in and set is far more difficult than it should be. I look at the Jabra Elite 65t as a guidepost of compact and great fitting. I will also admit the JBL sound better though once you can get them in tight. That all said, the situation gets truly ridiculous when you install the rubber jackets to make them sweatproof. Now I understand what JBL was trying to do here. The rubber not only helps repel water, but allows an even more secure fit by upping the friction. Unfortunately, I can't really get them in my ears once the jacket is on. So it is all for not in my case. I think JBL should have looked at a more in-device solution to accomplish their goal. Others have created sweatproof headphones without resorting to a jacket. Second gripe is the connection itself with my iPhone. The right ear piece connects almost immediately, but the left one usually ends up requiring me playing a game with turning it off and on until they finally sync up. It's a real drag as both my AirPods and Jabra Elites work immediately. I would like to think this could be solved by a firmware update, but for the life of me I don't see a way to accomplish that as I have found no information as to how. It would really blow my mind if JBL didn't allow for it though. The included case is nice and provides magnetic slots to seat the earpieces into and contains a battery to rapidly charge the headphones. The case is a tad large in my opinion, but still very manageable. Battery life seems pretty good as a whole, but given the size of the earpieces I would have liked to have seen better battery life per session. I got about 3 1/2 hours my first go round and almost 4 hours the second time all at about 50% volume.. Overall, they should get about 24 hours with the case included and that is probably more or less accurate. I should also point out that the battery in the case tends to drain if it sits for long periods so keep that in mind if you only use them when traveling. You will probably need to charge it up before hitting the door. I really wanted to like the JBL FREE more than I did. They really have potential and I can only hope that a revised pair maybe for 2019 will solves some of my quibbles. If you are in the market for truly wireless headphones than these should be on your list. The fact is they sound great and that is not so easy to come by in the truly wireless category.

Totally wireless ear bud headphones are a relatively new technology and each generation seems to get better and better. The first wireless ear buds I bought a couple of years ago caused about an hour of total frustration. First you had to get both the left and the right ones paired with your phone and THEN you had to go through another page of instructions to sync the left with the right. You had to make sure to do everything in the proper order and still there were problems. With these JBL’s, as soon as you have the buds charged, you remove the right one from the case, your phone connects to it, you remove the left one, it lights up blue and you’re good to go. The sound is very good, I was surprised at the bass response these little buds have. The button on each one is large and easy to get your hand on. The right button will pause your music or answer the phone if it rings. Pushing it twice will connect you to Siri or Google Now if you have it. The button on the left will let you go forward or backwards in your music library. Popping these buds back into their charging case is super easy. They must have a magnet in the case because the buds literally “pop in” to recharge. With other buds I’ve tried, you have to constantly fiddle with the buds back and forth until they make contact with the charger correctly. Facts you should know: These buds have NO volume control. You need to adjust that on your Bluetooth music source. If you get a phone call it comes through on your right ear only while the music is automatically paused. The caller comes through to you loud and clear, however your voice to the caller does have a “tin can” effect. This is not a surprise because of the compact nature of these buds. You wouldn’t want to conduct a business call through these. Here are a couple of tips if you purchase these; facts that are not in the ‘quick start’ manual (I could not find a more complete manual on-line.) The charging case is fully charged if all four LED’s on the case are constantly lit without blinking. And you know that the BUDS are charged up when they’re in the case and the white LED ring on each goes out. The buds themselves are supposed to play for 4 hours without a charge and the case is supposed to have enough juice for 20 hours. I did not test this myself. More than any other ear buds I’ve ever worn, wireless or not, these are the most comfortable to me and very easy to put on. You just inherently know by feel how to pop them in your ear (Some other models I actually had to look in a mirror each time I put them in to make sure they were positioned properly.) They feel snug, I don’t have the feeling they’re going to pop out at any minute. They come with three different ear tip sizes. I was happy with the ones that were already on the buds, so I didn’t open the envelope to try the other sizes out. Bottom line, if you’re tired of wires when you listen to music, I can’t see how you could not be happy with the JBL Free in-ear headphones.

No wire-free earphones have hit the bullseye yet. AirPods top the list but the slippery plastic just couldn’t stay in my ears despite maneuvers such as switching orientation, L in right ear, artificial hooks, sleeves, etc. Jabra Elite series is more expensive, does have a very good sound, fit, and call quality, but I experience issues with its left earpiece. JayBird Run is just a failure on the connectivity front despite having an above average sound quality for both music and calls. JBL Free came next in the list in the sub $150 wire-free range for me to try out. Pro 1: Sound quality is on par with comparables such as Bose SoundSport and Jabra Elite — if you get the fit right. Remember the device should fit snugly in your ears. It shouldn’t move. And almost no air should enter your ears and you shouldn’t be able to hear anything but the music. I was able to achieve the fit using Comply ear tips that I have but faced an issue when I did so. Con 1: Neither tips that came with the earphones work for me. I noticed that the tips are quite “short” in height so when I used tips that work for me, fitting the earphones back into the case became a hassle. Using out of the box tips allows the earphones to beautifully attach themselves magnetically right away. My solution was to simply remove the tips and store them in between the two earphones while they’re in the case. I took half star off for this lack of flexibility. It may have been possible to design the case to allow slightly taller tips. Pro 2: Built to last. I don’t see any issues with this. The buttons are much better than Jabra Elite and don’t cause pain to the ears when pressed Con 2: The controls themselves took a bit getting used to. Pro 3: Bluetooth connectivity seems better than JayBird Run and somewhat on par with Jabra Elite. Con 3: I did experience a couple of cutting out but not enough for me to return them to the stores. JayBird Run went back. Hope it doesn’t become a deal breaker in the near future. Pro 4: Call quality is okay. The person was able to hear me okay but... Con 4: I took another half star off because the microphone let all the surrounding sound in and the person on the other end complained that it’s too loud. And it was loud. And the microphone did a mediocre job cancelling the noise. Four stars are still on here. Buy these if AirPods do not work for you and if your budget is under $150