Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood headphones but not user-friendly; insanely loud
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2020
Overall, these headphones are pretty solid but they have a few flaws that outweigh the positives and left me wishing I'd bought headphones from a different brand.
First, the good: The sound quality, in-ear fit, battery life, and charging case on these are all positives in my mind. I'm no audiophile, but the sound on these is plenty good for my tastes. Likewise, these fit in my ear well with the default earpieces and I've never once had them fall out or come loose. The charging case is small enough to fit easily in any sized pocket and has some heft to it, giving it a sturdy feel. Finally, I love how the buds charge in the case even if/when it's not plugged in, and the case itself can go a long time between charges. I use these headphones for about an hour a day, five days a week and can usually go two weeks or more before I have to plug in the charging case.
Now, for the cons:
- First, these do not have any sort of volume control native to the headphones themselves, relying instead on the device and/or music service's native volume controls. This wouldn't be a bad thing if these headphones weren't so ungodly loud. I have my iPhone's volume level set to the absolute lowest level, as well as that of Amazon Music or Pandora, etc., and even with both on their lowest levels the headphones are louder than what I would normally choose and borderline uncomfortably loud. As a result, I only use these for working out now and largely have reverted back to using my wired Apple earbuds for all other uses due to the volume issue
- Finicky Bluetooth connectivity and pairing. When you take these headphones out of the charging case, they will automatically turn on, sync to each other, and then to your device. This usually works well in practice but if you aren't quick enough in taking the second bud out of the case (or drop it on the floor when trying to take it out of the case, like me), only one will turn on and sync to the phone. Again, this wouldn't be a big deal if it were simple to turn the other one on and have it sync, but that's not the case with JBL. To get both buds sync'd to the phone, you have to turn both off, return them to the charging case, and then start over. This has happened to me probably two or three times and it usually takes a few minutes before both are up and running as they're supposed to.
- The connector pins between the buds and charging case require meticulous cleaning to ensure they connect/charge/turn off.
- No app support. My previous headphones were from Jaybird ("wireless" earbuds that had a cord connecting the two earbuds; I only purchased these JBL headphones because I wanted a truly "wireless" set of headphones), which has an app to assist with things like set-up, volume control, etc. I didn't realize how helpful that was until coming over to JBL which does not have an app or any support to speak of. All you get with these buds is a "quick start" guide which contains only basic information and does not cover how to reset the buds in the case of something like one bud not syncing to your device.
Overall, these headphones do what they advertise: fit well in ear and provide respectable sound quality. However, several minor shortcomings add up to outweigh the positives and left me wishing I'd have purchased from Jaybird or similar.
