JBL Free X - True Wireless in-Ear Headphone - Black

Best in ear buds I’ve ever used.

Belinda Joyner

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2024

The sound is amazing and better than Airpod Pros. They don’t have the controlsl the Airpods have and there’s no find feature. Active Noise cancellation is very good. When i want to seriously listen to music I pick these.

RayL

Didn't last 5 weeks

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2021

I have cheaper ear buds that worked way better than these did (AND both of those sets still work!).
My son gave these to me for fathers day. I typically only use one ear bud at a time unless cutting the grass. Unfortunately these did not work independently from one another, only the right ear bud- or both (now neither). In the beginning, they charged faster than my others and lasted A LOT longer. They never got loud enough for me to hear my audio books over my the lawn mower (even though my cheaper ones do). Playing music sounded great. I only used them a few times a week, but last week I noticed the charge didn't last long enough to mow. I put them back on the charger and as soon as they were full charge, or so I thought, it only lasted 30 or so minutes. Again I charged it (way longer than normal) and that night it only lasted about 20 minutes.

The reason I thought it was charging is because it was only acknowledging the left ear bud. When I remove the left ear bud from the station it doesn't see the right one at all now. It's been on charge all day and it didn't last 5 minutes tonight. I will contact the seller and return to leave feedback.

Right now- I wouldn't consider recommending these to anyone.

6 people found this helpful

Great sound, okay battery, poor latency and microphone

Mark F. Rockstroh

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2020

The JBL Free X headphones are a rather good set of truly wireless Bluetooth headsets with a few glaring faults that hold them back from being the best.

Strictly from a sound reproduction standpoint, they're superb for their price point and design. Tests from RTings.com demonstrate that they offer a very well-balanced profile, and I can back this up with my own experience. The lab tests suggest a bit of a lack in treble and a slight over-emphasis on bass, but I can't personally claim to notice either, though I'm not exactly a true audiophile. From my layman's perspective they sound great and don't seem overdone or underbaked on anything I've thrown at them (my tastes include metal, industrial, electronic, folk, orchestral, etc. so they've seen a lot). Serious audiophiles will probably find many faults in these, but then again serious audiophiles would also never stoop to using a $150 pair of headphones.

Worse than the sound performance is the battery life of the buds, though it's not the worst. The buds allegedly carry a charge for around 4 hours of continuous listening, and while I've never actually run them down to empty I think that's a reasonable estimate. The battery case supposedly holds an additional 20 hours of charge, though I can't say I've ever used it all just from my own use. The maximum of 24 hours of listening time on a single (combined) charge is not bad, and I'm probably not going to use these for 4 consecutive hours required to drain the buds, but if you're looking for buds to use for 8 hours at the office or such these won't be great for your needs.

The worst parts of these buds are their latency and their recording quality, but neither should come as a surprise given that they're built on Bluetooth 4.2. Having said that, they're apparently still sub-par even by the standards of truly wireless Bluetooth headphones (again, reference to RTings.com). The microphone on these is genuinely terrible; voices sound incredibly compressed, worse than the mic on my smartphone (Samsung Galaxy S9+ since I'm sure someone will wonder), which isn't brilliant. However, if you're planning to just use these for listening, which most people probably will, this isn't a big deal. What is a big deal, however, is the latency. I can't give numbers from my own experience, but the lag is definitely noticeable, causing a major uncanny valley effect when watching videos. It's obviously fine for listening to music, podcasts, radio shows, etc, but for anything with a visual aspect it definitely has a detrimental effect on the experience.

Overall, the JBL Free X headphones offer a great listening experience at a very reasonable price point. However, they're restricted in the kind of content they're suitable for due to the latency issues and they're terrible for creating audio for others to listen to. The 4 star rating is because my primary use case (listening to music or spoken background audio periodically when I'm away from my full-sized headphones) is exactly what these are good at. However, they do have noticeable flaws, and while they're good for my purposes others might find these issues dealbreaking.

10 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Eduardo Haro Gonzalez

Diseño maravilloso

Reviewed in Mexico on June 21, 2023

Sonido unico

Maycon Donizete Machado

A JBL me surpreendeu com esse modelo de fone

Reviewed in Brazil on May 16, 2023

Color: BlackVerified Purchase

Comprei esse fone bluetooth da JBL em 2019, design muito bonito, achei confortável na orelha mas não gosto muito de usar pra praticar esporte que precisar correr porque ele cai fácil da minha orelha; Em relação a qualidade áudio e durabilidade, sem comentários... Continua ótima a qualidade depois de 4 anos, o problema é que as vezes dá umas falhas no bluetooth e eu preciso reiniciar o aparelho, mas creio que isso também valha pra quase qualquer produto com uma mesma quantidade de idade.
Design muito bonito, rapidez pra carregar e bom tempo de bateria.
Só estou escrevendo essa avaliação porque sexta feira passada eu por acidente esqueci ele na minha bermuda e ele bateu junto com as roupas na máquina de lavar. Só notei na hora de estender a roupa, mas quando encontrei rapidamente coloquei num recipiente afundado no arroz. O fone que molhou era o lado direito, logo o fone principal que possui controle sob o lado esquerdo e ainda o que tem microfone... Mano depois de 4 dias secando ele tá bom igual se não tivesse acontecido nada, slc eu definitivamente dei bastante sorte tb mas não dá pra negar que pelo preço que se paguei por ele, foram resultados muito positivo até hoje.

Desfrutando mais um dia de Kendrick Lamar graças a durabilidade e qualidade desse fone.

One person found this helpful

César Muñoz

Muy buena relación calidad - precio

Reviewed in Mexico on November 5, 2022

Lo único que no me agrada es que si no usas el audífono derecho el izquierdo no se puede usar

Denise

Ear buds

Reviewed in Canada on December 31, 2020

Color: BlackVerified Purchase

I had to return the first set because the right ear piece must of been faulty and the earbuds wouldn’t connect to my device. Amazon was very good in trying to help solve the issue and providing a replacement. The replacement were good and sound good. The only issue I have is that the ear buds fall out quite easily. Maybe they’re too big for my ears. I’m keeping them!

Sibi

Trug betalen

Reviewed in the Netherlands on November 25, 2020

Color: BlackVerified Purchase

Ik heb op 11November spullen truge gestuurd vandaag is 25November geld is noge niet in mijn account.