Jlab Jbuds air Review: plainness in a case

Ever since the release of Airpods in 2016, true wireless earbuds have been a commodity of modern technology.  Airpods may have made them popular, but not everyone can afford them, and those of us on Android can’t even try to use them.  That’s why there’s a sprawling industry of cheap wireless earbuds, in this review I’m going to cover the Jlab Jbuds air, are they worth your money or are they just another earbud? This is the BenTechCode JLab Jbuds air Review.

Lets start at design, honestly there’s not much to look at.  The buds come in black and white, as do the cases.  They come with Comfort fins and small, medium, and large ear tips(although I put custom ear tips in mine). The buds themselves are larger compared to the more expensive and more mainstream pixel buds and are more the size of the Samsung galaxy buds, and even bigger than those.  The buds side profile sticks out and I wish they could be smaller and thinner.  I also want you to know that because they use ear tips, you “feel” the earbuds in your ear and can get tiring to wear after 3 hours or more of listening.  The case is pocketable but not small enough to be compact, they charge the earbuds in 15 minutes for 1 extra hour of playtime and from empty to full in 1 hour and 5 minutes and the buds slip right in to charge in the case.  

Speaking of charging Battery life is ok on these earbuds, I get about 5 hours and 30 min on average, and even more when left on standby.  The earbuds are driven by the right earbud as the main Bluetooth connection and mic, while the left earbud pairs to the right earbud, therefore only allowing you to use the right earbud solo.  This method of load distribution really puts more strain on the right earbud, therefore draining it faster.  Thankfully, the case caries 3 full charges of the earbuds inducing about 16 more hours of combined playtime.  

Now I really need to talk about connectivity. These earbuds run on Class 1 Bluetooth 5, that means the range is about 382 feet and about 100 meters.  The buds pair fine and sound great on my phone but they simply do not work with my laptop.  This may be my laptop, but I find that an annoyance I need to deal with.  Thanks to Bluetooth the buds can also play/pause by double tapping on the right earbud, raise/lower volume by taping the right and left earbud once, respectively.  A double press on the left earbud can summon the voice assistant of choice while long press can turn off the earbuds.  The earbuds entail a delicate sound to them. Bass is rich along with nice mids but kind of muddy highs.  When I only have one earbud, the sound is incomplete and bass is completely drowned out.  If you prefer a unique sound, you can change the EQ from signature which is very mids and highs focused with bass taking a back seat, to balanced which is....well balanced, and bass heavy which really bring out the bass.  They are definitely nowhere near as good as any of the more expensive earbuds but they serve their purpose.  I wish it had better isolation and passive noise cancelling along with seal.  

Microphones are ok but definitely not great, callers told me on some occasions that the earbuds where better and on other occasions that the phone mic was better so the mic is ok but not world class.   The seal is a problem as I find myself having to tap them back in every once in a while running or exercising.  The fins help but not much, even walking down the sidewalk will loosen the earbuds.  Honestly, these earbuds need work to not only fit in but stay in our ears.  The buds also let noise in and although that’s great, the volume doesn’t go loud enough to block noise when I need to.

Thankfully, these earbuds are IP55 water resistant so they can withstand light sprays and sweat from workouts, but does all this really matter when you look at the alternatives? Android central has a wonderful guide to better earbuds than the Jlab Jbuds.  The Jbuds cost 50$, although not much there are better earbuds at comparable prices, I can only recommend if you find these at a discount of at least 40%.  I will continue to use these buds but you don’t have to, there are better alternatives to buy, so go and do that.  Hopefully, you’ll thank me later.

Thanks for reading and watching, 

Best,

BenTechCoder