JLab - JBuds Air True Wireless Earbud Headphones - Black

I own many pairs of earbuds in different styles, with rigid wires that go behind your neck, loose wires that hang behind your neck, and true wireless like these. I also own another pair of JLab FitSport earbuds. Considering the total package these fall in the top of the pack, but audio wise they fit just above average. The presentation in the box for these is nice, and inside the box is a quickstart guide, a pair of earbuds, several "gel" cushion tips, a pair of "Cush Fins", and the charging case. The earbuds fit in the charging case with or without the optional Cush Fins on them, and it closes up into a nice package that is pretty easy to take with you. The attached Micro-USB cable fits into a spot at the bottom of the case made just for it, making it easy to charge these wherever you go. The case is designed nice and fairly compact, making it just small enough that it fits in your pocket, but bordering on the max size to be comfortable without a huge, awkward bulge in your pocket. In a backpack, laptop bag, purse, etc... these would fit really well, and still be protected. 3 LEDs at the front of the case indicate when the earbuds inside are charging via blue lights, and when the case is open, they turn white to indicate the case charge level. When you pull the earbuds out, they power on and connect, with a voice greeting you, and reporting the battery level once paired. Speaking of design, the earbuds follow the same design approach of the case, with a smooth, sleek exterior that fits in the ear fairly comfortably, again bordering that line of just big enough without being bulky and awkward. Smaller ears might find them to be a bit snug, but I would bet the average person will fit them just fine. You an use them without the silicone Cush Fins over them, but I prefer them with them installed, creating a better seal in my ear, blocking out more ambient noise. Compared to my FitSport earbuds, these are much easier to get comfortable, and consistently place in my ear. Actually, compared to my other pairs, these probably rate at the top for fitting into my ear consistently. They are light enough that I forget they are there after a couple minutes, and they don't have some weighty control box hanging on them like the FitSports do. Overall, for the price these come in at, the design of the case and the earbuds themselves remind me of some of the more expensive options that are available, and in some ways, I like the case and approach to these better than ones that are double the price. Powering them on and using them, though, brought up the areas for improvement that remind me why those pairs that are double the cost exist. The first thing that irritates me about these is the messaging on the packaging. It's marketing, I get it, but things like this annoy me about products. Right on the front of the box iis a black rectangle that reads "14 hours of playtime*" Note the asterisk. Flip to the bottom or the back of the box and it breaks it down that 14+ hours total, 3.5 per earbud at Medium volume, with 10.5+ in charging case. I am sure the others do it as well, but that doesn't make me like it more. Honestly, this battery life is about par for the course when compared to similar items. While the JLab FitSports gave me over 6.5 hours of battery on a single charge, most true-wireless earbuds average the 3-4 hours per charge mark. And you're not getting instant charge when you put them in the case, so it's 14hours of life between the case and earbuds, but the reality is, your music listening is 3.5 hours, then a break for charging over an hour or so, then they work again. That nuisance aside, I did test the time for them, and at 9:06am I synced them up with my laptop, streamed some music to them at a moderate volume, and let them go uninterrupted. I managed 3h40m of playtime before they shut off. I also tested them with streaming video from the laptop, and managed 4 hours on the dot. The next issue is the audio, and that's the primary reason you use earbuds, right? As I mentioned, these are just above average in my collection. The built-in equalizer offers three modes, like the other JLab sets: JLab Signature, which is supposed to be ideally tuned, balanced, and bass boost. On the bass boost, the bass was too heavy and prioritized, with high and mid range vocals sounding more muffled and difficult to hear. The balanced setting was too tinny, again missing some major marks in the mid range, but also losing decent bass. Vocals on video were pretty clear and worthwhile, but music suffered. The JLab Signature mode is my preferred on these. It sounds the most rounded, but the audio is still muffled a bit from the bass, while the high tones are clear up to a certain point. Calls on these use the right ear, and they were pretty clear, but still had a bit more bass and slightly muffled sound occasionally. On most music they sound acceptable, and given their pricepoint that is good as they sound better than most options at this same price, but they miss the mark when compared to those more expensive offerings. The other flaw for me is the control method. Thankfully, unlike the FitSports, these do not have the awkwardly heavy control box dangling from them, instead opting for single buttons on each earbud, masked a bit by the logo circle. The right and left earbuds have different roles for controls, so you need to use both, ideally, though you can use just the right one for phone calls since it contains the mic. The control scheme takes some getting used to, as much of it centers around clicking the buttons X times, or holding them for X number of seconds. For instance, click the right earbud once to increase volume, twice for smart assistant access on a phone, or 3 times to set the equalizer, but hold the button down for 1 second to fast forward. This is manageable with some training though. The difficulty in the controls scheme comes with the resistance of the buttons; they are tough. I don't recommend pressing them into your ears directly when pushing because it takes considerable pressure, and can make them uncomfortable. Instead, it's easier to push the earbud up and against the top of your ear with your thumb first, and then push the button. I found this to be much more comfortable and practical, though not truly ideal. I think this is an area they could greatly improve, using either a softer button, or a capacitive touch button. Overall this package is pretty solid, with a nicely designed case and earbud that is pretty darn compact and portable, with everything you need right in or onboard the case. The audio still needs improvement, however, if they want to compete with the more expensive units. That said, they are acceptable for what you get for the price, and they are probably my preferred outdoor, working in the lawn earbuds due to the fit and cost. If you know what to expect, I think these are a perfectly viable option for someone who doesn't need audiophile, hifi quality sound.

At first, I thought I would have issues with these earbuds staying in my ears, I was very surprised by how securely they fit! I previously have steered clear of true wireless earbuds that did have ear loops to secure them to my head, out of fear and experience with the earbuds falling out when running, biking, or just walking around the house. The fit on these earbuds, and the 3 included tips for your ear canal, really pair up nicely to give you a solid, secure, and comfortable fit! The sound quality is good, JLAB offers 3 different equalizer settings that allow you to adjust the sound in the earbuds, the size of the case is absolutely fantastic! The carrying case is small enough to fit in pants pockets but big enough where it won't get lost in a backpack or purse, the earbuds are also held in by magnets to ensure they won't fall out of the case if it happens to open up. Extremely quick and easy setup (including instructions right on the packaging so you don't have to dig out the manual)!

So here I am. Since Aug-2019, I am trying good earbuds under $50. I don’t wanna spend a fortune for apple earpods. I have used like 10-12 earbuds ( JBL 120, Free, those Chinese ones, even Jabra), but hands down, this is I found best so far that too under 50 bucks. I got it at $30 in BF sale. Cons I did not find so far, Pros 1- Fits good if not perfect. You need to change the tip, large fits me 2- Sound-wise, select the JLAB signature. It's best. You can change the setting by clicking 3 times on any earbuds. The bass mode in JBL is still best though 3- Though buds are a bit hard to press, but it works every time unline somewhere you don’t even know what you are doing 4- Battery, woohoo, what I tell about it – I am using it for 1 month and the battery still says “high”. Use time – 10-20 mins per day average 5- Every time it says, ‘connected’, battery status unlike big brand I can go on and on. In short, BEST among a lot also, Download manual from the JBL site. the best buy has outdated

First let me say these sound amazing for the 49.99 they cost. The included magnetic charging case, and underside attached charging cable is a very nice touch. Bluetooth pairing to my phone was painless and quick. I have smaller ears, and these feel to be overly lage in my ears. The added rubber ring help, but not much. I can see using these to cut the grass, lr while playing my drums. But more than a hour would be uncomfortable in my opinion. These need to be more contoured the inside of your ear. Subtracted a star for this. These have 3 different eq settings. Pressing the left btoon 1x turn volume down, 1x on the right side button volume up. You can answer phone calls, skip/pause songs. Very nice features on these lower budget earbuds. Battery life was great, charing is fast, around a hour and a half when dead. I reccommend these, but for shorter use

These wireless earbuds worked very well. Worn in heavy rain and still holds up. Battery life is not great but for $30, they worked very well. They fit good and I feel like they stick out a bit much. You get what you pay for for $30 if you can get it on sale but I am not disappointed in them. As of 2021, I now use Galaxy Buds but still use these from time to time.

Headphones are often subject to compromise, if you want a pair that excel in one area - chances are it’ll lag behind in another. This is universally true with many products and generally the only way to narrow that gap is to throw more money at the problem. An ‘all in one’ anything usually means it does a bunch of things mediocre, and not anything great. Such has been my experience with ‘true’ wireless earphones. As an early adopter to gadgets I was quick to purchase a set of these wireless-styled earbuds, a different name brand than I’m reviewing here. Those were more than twice the twice, and didn’t sound great. But they were a whole new experience because of their completely wireless design. The JLAB JBuds Air come in at a very attractive price point. They’re not the cheapest, they’re not the most expensive. I’d say they are right in a sweet spot where a consumer would willing to spend an amount of their hard-earned money for a product that performs well in a specialized category. After a couple weeks of usage, I feel good giving these a thumbs-up. Here’s why… JLAB isn’t a name that comes to mind when you are thinking about a pair of performance earphones. But this little company out of southern California has been brimming right along over the past few years, producing products that perform well at a competitive price. They got a boost in sales and notoriety working with Major League Soccer. JLAB is a scrappy little company that provides an alternative to the giant name brands at a competitive price. Running on sort of the ‘designer beer’ marketing mechanism, JLAB is filling a gap. So about the earbuds themselves… I like’em! First off you have to understand that wireless earbuds inherently have limitations. They have to each hold their own electronics, and their own batteries. Both of which mean that the buds themselves tend to be bigger and heavier because of it. But they’re getting better… The ‘Air’ model looks hefty and bulky, but surprisingly you don’t notice that once set in your ears. Earbuds like these fit everyone a bit differently. It’s a very personal experience… You’ll either love or hate wireless earbuds, whether they’re made by JLAB or some other manufacturer. What I like about true wireless earbuds is that there literally isn’t any wires! The reason that is great is because wires that dangle, tend to bounce around a lot. When that happens the wires drag on your clothing, bump against your body - and all of that generates noise that gets transmitted to your eardrums. Some wires are coated with better materials and don’t transmit as much noise, but they all do it nonetheless. Take away the wire, and you take away the noise! Problem solved! What I don’t like about true wireless earbuds (of any make), is that they are clumsy little things. If you have big stupid fingers like me, trying to hold onto these buggers and get them into your ears, and turning them on and changing the volume - well, it ain’t easy. The other thing is that these things don’t magically stick in your ears (at least they don’t in mine). It’s really easy for either one of them to fall out, and when one does it can get out of sight and lost in a hurry. There’s no wire that acts as a lifeline should one pop out of your ear. These little guys little guys are tiny, and are free to escape should they fall out inadvertently. I can imagine that a lot of people that own these type of earbuds eventually have to buy a new pair because they lost just one of the earbuds. Manufacturers would be smart to sell replacements in just single units. What’s to like about the JLAB Air? Several things actually… I like the innovative storage case that also double as a charger, AND doubles as a backup power supply. KUDOS to the JLAB engineers for thinking this out. Seems like a common sense things, except I haven’t found anyone else who does it. First the clamshell design is easy to drop in your pocket or backpack. It’s a sturdy design that’s not going to fall apart and will likely survive the occasional accidently drop. Also, JLAB was wicked smart by putting tiny little neodymium magnets inside the the fitted case and on the inside of the earbuds casing. That allows them to ‘snap’ in place by merely putting them close to each other. Really slick and it works well. Nice thoughtful design! Next the case has a built-in USB cable. It has an ultra-short cable, which I was on the fence about. But actually it’s all you need. You don’t need a long cable to plug this into an outlet, it’ll dangle just fine until it’s fully charged. The connector itself is also a smart design, it’s a dual-sided USB connector so that there’s isn’t an up or a down. You stick it into a USB receptacle and it’s always the right side up. Smart! One thing that would be a nice add-on is an extension connector cable for those times that you would like to run a longer cable to the charging case. The other cool thing about the case is that it has its own built-in battery pack. Genius! So you get about 3.5 hours of run time on the earbuds themselves. Then when you run out of just pop them back into the charging case and it’ll charge your earbuds ‘untethered’ for almost 3 more complete charges! Really nice! The sound? Actually, quite impressive! These don’t sound as good as fully wired headphones, they don’t sound as good as partially wired Bluetooth headphones (that I’ve used). However… They sound really good for what they are, in this specific category. These are the best sounding true-wireless earbuds I’ve ever owned. I’ve owned several older generations, some were more costly, and these do sound better. Are they the best sounding true wireless earbuds on the market? I seriously doubt it! But for the price category these are in, I bet they’d go head to head with any other manufacturer. When I test headphones I play all sorts of source material, and at different levels of volume. A pair of headphones that sound great at max volume could sound like crap at a very soft volume. I’ve listened to a wide range of music for several hours with JLAB Air earbuds and I really enjoyed them. The sound is well balanced, not overly bright, and not overly heavy. Decent sound that is easy to listen to for a long period and not get tired of hearing them. Ironically my benchmark Bluetooth headphones are a no-name brand I picked up for under twenty bucks. I’ve compared them to earbud style headphones costing 5x as much and still like these better. In fact I ran out and bought a second pair so that I will have another set to use when these eventually die. Pairing was a piece of cake, I was up and running very quickly on my Apple iPhone. JLAB offers a free “burn-in” app if you wish to exercise your drivers to wear them in. Supposedly the best sound starts after about 40 hours of initial break-in. Eh… That’s not for me, I’m not looking for audiophile sound out of these. I just want decent sound in a completely wireless design that will stay comfortably in my ears as I work out. And these do that. The other nice feature JLAB added to the Air’s is that when you remove them from their magnetized case, they automatically turn-on and pair. That’s smart! I like it, it saves me a step and I wouldn’t be removing them from the case if I weren’t going to be using them anyhow. The EQ controls are a nice touch, and I did notice an improvement in sound depending on the source materials. I wasn’t particularly crazy about the function controls those, as it requires a decent amount of pressure to ‘click’ the built-in button. Some functions require multiple repetitive clicks to work. If the earbuds are set in your ears this can be a bit painful, depending on your sensitivity. You are better off changing the functions while the earbuds are not inserted in your ears. But that’s not easy either… I’ve yet to find any earphone that does this particular feature well. The other thing that these earbuds do, which others do as well - and I dislike all of them - is that they announce when an event occurs. In other words when you are pairing and you have the earbuds in place - they scream in your ears ‘paired!’. The worst is when they start running low on power. They announce ‘low power’ loudly in your ears. And they continue to announce they are dying every minute until they can’t announce any more. It’s really silly, but this is true with every other similar product I’ve tried. I suspect that’s because the chipsets that manufacturer’s use to build these devices are common and therefore have the same shortcomings. One other thing I noted about these earbuds was that their range was fine so long as you stayed close to the Bluetooth source. If I strayed even just 15 feet I’d experience cut-outs. Of course this is a very subjective test, and depends on whether there are walls and other objects in-line. Those are all the quirks, and faults, and highlights and cool things that I both liked and didn’t like about the JLAB Air JBuds. Add all of that up together, and I give it a passing score and will be gladly keeping these to use for my workouts. I recommend them, give them a try - I think you’ll be a satisfied consumer.

The jlabs work great for music... They are OK for talking to someone. But if you want great sound for video or audio they are perfect!

Tl;dr: The Jbuds are a must buy if you're looking for an affordable alternative to Apple Airpods while still maintaining good sound quality. They are comfortable/secure in the ear, and possess a decent charge time/battery life. My only nitpick when it comes to these earbuds is the button function inputs - it took a while for me to learn, and even then I find it easier to use my phone to pause/skip songs than the buds's buttons. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Price: This is the Jbuds' biggest draw. Most of its competitors go for $100+ retail, but the Jbuds are sold for a fair $50. Heck, I was lucky enough to nab it for $30 during Best Buy's Black Friday sale week. It's an absolute steal and a great investment. Sound: While nothing worthy of praise, the Jbuds' sound quality is slightly better than the pair of headphones that likely came packaged with your smartphone. There are 3 equalizer options to cycle through - Balanced, Bass Boost, and JLab Signature. I found Balanced to be the worst of the three, it made most of my music sound washed out, however Bass Boost & Signature really brought out the best in my music library. Genre of music definitely matters when picking an equalizer, so you'll have to play around to match your preferences. Comfort: This comes packaged with 3 ear rubber ear tips of varying sizes and 2 rubber cushions to make it more comfortable and fitting in your ear. They remain in my ear while I workout and I do not feel any discomfort during the 2 hours I have them on each session. The only nitpick one may have with these is that they might be clunky to some people. Battery Life: Thankfully, these come with a pill shaped charging case that can juice your earbuds for 14 hours on full charge. The earbuds themselves last around 4 hours of consistent use, and since you have to pop them back in the case, they're almost always at full charge. So essentially, I've only had to charge the case once a week on average. Accessibility: Pairing the earbuds to your phone is a piece of cake. However, the button functions can take a while to get used to. For example, to play or pause a song, you need to double click the button on the LEFT earbud. If you do it on the right earbud, it activates Siri on an iPhone. While double clicking a button on a typical headphone would probably skip the song. It's a minor nitpick not a flaw, so don't let that discourage you from this product.