JBL Endurance Peak 3 True Wireless  Headphones Review

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 look similar to their predecessor, the JBL Endurance Peak II True Wireless. They have chunky ear hooks, which you might like if stability is a priority. The manufacturer's logo is embossed on the side of the buds, and they come in four color variants: 'Black,' 'White,' 'Blue,' and 'Orange.'

They're fairly comfortable for most people. They don't have a deep in-ear fit, so they don't create a plunger-like feeling. They come with three different pairs of ear tips to help you get the best fit possible. Their ear hooks have 'TwistLock,' which refers to how they are fitted as you twist them backward to secure the hooks over your ears. However, the hooks can put pressure on the back of your ears, especially if you wear glasses. If you have smaller ears, you can accidentally turn the buds off when tightening their fit, which can be annoying. If you want more comfortable ear hook headphones, try the Beats Powerbeats Pro Truly Wireless or the Skullcandy Push Active True Wireless instead.

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 have basic controls. Unlike their predecessor, their touch-sensitive controls are split between the L/R buds. The controls are responsive, and feedback is given when registering commands. There's even voice feedback when turning the ambient sound mode on and off. However, they lack volume controls. You can remap the controls in the app to add a volume function, but you'll lose some of the default controls that way.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Enables 'Ambient Aware,' which allows you to stay aware of your surroundings without taking off the earbuds.
• Double tap: Enables 'TalkThru,' which lowers the volume of your audio so that you can have a conversation without removing your earbuds. It also answers and ends calls.
• Tap and hold: Activates voice assistant. If you're on a call, this command mutes and unmutes your mic.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double tap: Skips the track forward. It also answers and ends calls.
• Triple tap: Skips to the previous track.
• Tap and hold: Activates voice assistant. If you're on a call, this command mutes and unmutes your mic.

Because of their bulky ear hooks, they're bigger than conventional truly wireless buds but are still pretty portable. They can easily fit into most bags or pockets without an issue. They also come with a carrying case to help protect them when you're on the go.

Like the earbuds, the case is a bit bigger than other earbuds'. A strip of four LED lights is in the front of the case to indicate battery life. Unlike the buds, the case has no IP rating for dust or water resistance.

They have a great build quality. Although they're made of plastic and silicone material similar to their predecessor, they feel a step up from the JBL Endurance Peak II True Wireless. Their IP rating has gone from IPX7 to IP68 to indicate they're dust-tight and can survive submersion in water. While the silicone ear tips feel like they could rip over time, they're still sturdy enough to survive tough workouts or accidental impacts without taking damage.

The stability of these buds is great. Thanks to their 'TwistLock' design, the ear hooks hold the earbuds in place during even the toughest workouts. The ear tips can feel like they're popping out, and you may need to readjust them to ensure their fit.

• JBL Endurance Peak 3 headphones
• 3x earbud tips
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Charging case
• Manuals

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 have a very bass-heavy sound profile. If you enjoy genres like electronica and hip-hop, their intense thump, rumble, and boom can help keep you pumped up at the gym. The rest of the response is fairly flat, but the extra bass still overwhelms voices and instruments. If you prefer a different sound, their companion app offers a graphic EQ and presets to help you get the most out of your buds.

These buds have outstanding frequency response consistency. Once you achieve a good fit using the included ear tips, you'll get consistent bass and treble delivery each time you use them.

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 deliver a lot of extra bass, which is handy if you're a basshead. Their visceral thump and rumble and intense punch and boom is great if you love songs with a prominent bassline, like Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. However, this amount of bass also muddies the rest of the mix and isn't ideal if you prefer a neutral, accurate sound.

The mid accuracy is excellent. The response is fairly flat. Vocals and instruments are detailed and clear, but a dip in the mid-mid nudges them to the back of the mix. In isolation, the mid-range is quite suitable for vocal-centric content. However, the extra bass muddies the entire mix, including the mid-range.

The treble accuracy is also excellent. Vocals and instruments are adequately detailed, while sibilants like S and T are bright and present. If you're listening to bass-heavy tracks, the treble has some trouble cutting through the boom. For example, hi-hats in the song Satisfaction by Benny Benassi are meant to emphasize the lead and bassline but feel weak compared to the extra rumble and boom.

They have a good peaks and dips performance, meaning they follow their own sound profile well. There are a few relatively small deviations across the range: a small bump in the low treble adds extra thump and rumble into mixes. A dip starting in the low-mid extends into the mid-mid, thinning out vocals and instruments and pushing them to the back of the mix. Small peaks in the low treble accentuate the details of vocals and instruments, but the sharp spike in the mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals piercing.

They have excellent imaging performance. Many of JBL's headphones have good imaging performances, although there have been mismatch issues with their other products in the past, like the JBL Tune 130NC TWS Truly Wireless, which can indicate JBL's larger quality control and ergonomics. That said, our unit's L/R drivers are well-matched. The group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The drivers are also evenly balanced in amplitude, frequency, and phase response, which ensures the accurate placement of objects like voices within the stereo image. However, imaging varies between units, so you might have a different experience.

They don't have a good passive soundstage, which is normal for in-ear headphones, which bypass your outer ear by design. This soundstage is perceived as small and as if coming from the inside of your head rather than from speakers in the room around you. Since they also have a closed-back design, their soundstage doesn't feel very spacious or open, either.

These headphones have a great weighted harmonic distortion performance. Although there's a small peak in between the low- to mid-treble, it's very minor. Most frequencies fall within acceptable limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the JBL Peak 3. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

They have a decent noise isolation performance. They don't have an active noise cancelling system, so they don't block out much of the low rumble of bus and plane engines. That said, they do a good job of passively reducing mid- to high-pitched sounds, so they can help cut down on ambient chatter or a humming A/C unit at the gym.

The leakage performance is outstanding. Leakage is mostly concentrated in the bass and treble range. However, the leakage is low, so even if you're listening to audio at high volumes, others around you won't hear it.

The integrated mic has poor recording quality. Recorded speech sounds dark and unnatural and lacks depth.

The mic has a good noise-handling performance. It can separate your voice from moderate noise fairly well, but your voice can get temporarily drowned out by very loud sounds, like a train pulling up to the station. However, if you're taking a call from a consistently noisy place like a busy street, you'll have no problems being understood clearly.

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 have great battery performance. The manufacturer advertises them to last 10 hours continuously, and we measured a similar amount. Battery life varies depending on use, though. Their carrying case also holds an extra three charges. They also have a quick charge feature, which the manufacturer advertises to provide one hour of playback from 10 minutes of charging. There's an auto-off timer to conserve battery life when not in use.

Unlike the JBL Endurance Peak II True Wireless, these buds are compatible with the JBL Headphones app. You can see a video of how it works here. You don't need an account to use the app. You can access a 10-band EQ and presets, turn on/off or cycle between ambient mode controls, and remap controls. You can also adjust the voice assistant and voice prompts as well as access dedicated audio and video modes to help improve audio quality and lower audio lag, respectively.

Their Bluetooth connectivity is okay. On the one hand, they don't support multi-device pairing and have high latency across all devices with the default codec, which isn't great for streaming video. On the flip side, they have a smart video mode in their companion app, which is meant to help lower latency. It lowers latency with iOS devices to within good levels, so you can watch a video on your iPhone without audio syncing issues. However, latency with Android still falls just outside of good levels, and PC latency is still high, so your audio and video will likely be out of sync if you use them to watch a movie on your computer or play a mobile game with your Android phone. That said, some devices and apps compensate for latency.

These headphones have a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging the carrying case. However, you can't use these buds wired.

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and mic support. However, this is the only way to connect these headphones to your PC.

The JBL Endurance Peak 3 come with a carrying case that has a USB-C port. It holds three additional charges but doesn't support Qi Wireless charging.