Customer Ratings & Reviews

tl;dr The JLab Go Pods ANC earbuds offer a decent sound at a reasonable price. The active noise cancellation (ANC) helps isolate the user a bit more, but is nowhere close to a premium experience. These did very well listening to spoken word audio (i.e. podcasts) and also have clear microphone pick ups. They would work nicely for conference calls at home or a quiet office. Music is lacking definition and color. Sound Quality The Go Pods ANC deliver a weak and unfulfilling sound. Volume and bass are no issue, but clarity and fidelity are missing. I would generally choose laptop speakers over these ear buds when listening to music. They are well balanced overall with all frequencies falling short of a satisfying experience. Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) The ANC does a decent job reducing the impact of ambient sounds. It’s about as effective as Dolby B NR on an old tape deck. It’s a noticeable difference, but the noise is still there if you listen for it. The earbuds isolate well from the outside world. Comfort and Fit JLab includes a few different sizes of silicon ear plug. I found the default size most comfortable. I was able to wear them comfortably for around 30-40 minutes before they started to hurt my ears. It was enough to get through a 30 minute meeting while using these as a headset. I wouldn’t expect to go any longer, however. Battery Life and Charging Battery life was very good. Charging the case is easy, if you have an accessible USB-C port, such as on your laptop. While I appreciate the convenience of a built in charge cable, it doesn’t work well with my set up. The charger I typically use sits directly on the wall, leaving the earbud case dangling. The case allows charging the buds several times between charges. There’s a color changing LED which indicates when the case needs charging. Otherwise, it’s quite small and fits in my pocket easily. Controls and Connectivity Touch controls on the earbuds are nice, but were not intuitive to me. Pause requires multiple taps, but volume requires holding a finger down. It’s best to keep the instructions nearby until you’re completely comfortable with the earbuds. Pairing with devices is straightforward and maintains a stable connection. Overall Impression The true wireless earbuds market is very crowded. While these are feature rich for their price, I’d save up so you can get the full job of listening to music in addition to podcasts. Buds from brands such as Sony, Bose, or Jabra can be had in the $150 range, especially on sale. If you’re truly on a budget, I’d look into a wired set instead of getting these.

The JLAB GO Pods ANC earbuds is a decent product (for the price) - with a couple of glaring flaws. On the one hand, you have noise cancellation - on | off | and ‘be aware’ (which enhances ambient sounds). It also offers a great app with a selection of EQ settings, as well as the ability to customize the EQ. The touch controls are responsive and allow you to select EQ settings and ANC options along with the standard controls of play, pause, volume, next track, personal assistant, etc. The case is small, holds a substantial charge, and fits easily in your pocket. The JLAB GO Pods ANC also support dual pairing. All of this adds up to a good product - especially for the price. On the other hand … Audio quality is so-so (decent but not impressive). Ambient sounds were significantly audible even when ANC was activated. But, at this price, I’m not sure this would be a deal breaker. However, there are 2 frustrating things about these earbuds: In fairness, the first issue may just be me. The case has a small, attached USB-C dongle (under 2”) that requires you to plug it into whatever appropriate USB-C charger you may choose to use. I find this very inconvenient. I have a few USB-C charging cables at various locations that I use to charge a variety of gadgets. Other cases I’ve seen have a USB-C port so you can simply plug the charging cable into the case - easy and convenient. This is irritating to me, but may not be an issue for you. The most glaring omission (and one that puzzles me) is this: There is no touch control option for causing the buds to go into pairing mode. When you first use them, they automatically go into pairing mode and are easily paired with your device. There are also instructions for how to establish dual-pairing. This requires you to pair with device #1, turn device #1’s bluetooth off, pair with device #2, and then turn device #1’s bluetooth back on. A lot of work, but ok. However, if you later want to pair with another device, you cannot simple put the earbuds into pairing mode. Instead, you’ll need to find one of the devices it has previously been paired with and disconnect it from that device’s bluetooth in order for it to be available to pair with the new device. That’s a hassle. For instance, I was in bed (in the evening) and wanted to use the earbuds to listen to a video on my iPad. But, since I could not simply put them into pairing mode, I had to get up out of bed, fire up my living room AppleTV and disconnect the earbuds from there so they would go into pairing mode for me to connect them to my iPad. What?! I did chat with JLAB support to see if I missed something, as there was no mention of a way to put them in pairing mode in any of the documentation. Unfortunately, the support person confirmed that there was no control option for initiating pairing mode. If you only intend to pair these with one or two devices, and you don’t mind the charging dongle, this may be a good value for you. For me, I would not recommend them because of these 2 issues - inspite of their value-pricing.

The sound that these produce is passable, but you won't be completely satisfied if you're used to listening with expensive earbuds. There really is no way to block all the sound necessary for ANC to work because the lack of customization. The fitment options arent there with thease either. I could see picking these up for up almost disposable use. Like when you need to hop on a plane and you need noise canceling headphones, and you don't want to buy more expensive versions. There is definitely a market for these, but they are subpar when it comes to ANC and overall sound quality but you get what you pay for in this world. Call quality really suffered trying to use these on my phone for calls. The other party just could not hear me very well. This could be possibly be sorted out by some firmware updates in the future. We will see. The build quality is actually pretty good considering the price point. Honestly, its pretty amazing to be able to get Bluetooth earbuds this good at at this price point. Sure, you can get better sounding buds, but when you're just trying to get the job done, it may not be worth 5 to 10 times the cost to pickup a higher tier.

These are good for $30, but not amazing. It's great that they have active noise cancelling, but it's at about 70% of what you'll find on more expensive headphones. It also isn't the best functioning, as sudden noises will not be cancelled and will result in the ANC popping in your ears. There is also an odd effect, I'm guessing based on the location of the microphones, where adjusting the position in your ear results in this odd whistling sound which can be uncomfortable to painful. The audio on these is decent, but nothing amazing. There does seem to be a little dip in the volume of mid-frequencies, and a little muddiness in the lows, but these are quite inexpensive with ANC. When using these for calls, the audio that the other end hears is also just OK. Some words will not be clear, but these are serviceable. I tried running in these, and found that they didn't particularly stay in well. This can be problematic with the aforementioned whistling sound... The battery life is as advertised. Good for indoor listening and blocking out routine sounds like dishwashers and air conditioning.

These are good for the price. Comfortable and convenient.

Earbuds work great and have a comfortable fit! Comes with extra ear pieces

Thin sound. You have to shove them deep in your ear to head mids and lows. For the price its not worth.