JLab Audio JBuds Air Truly Wireless   Headphones Review

The JLab Audio JBuds Air are all-black truly wireless earbuds. Their central touch buttons are detailed with the company logo on both ears. The earbuds are a bit thick, though, and they protrude out of your ear.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air are fairly comfortably headphones but their in-ear fit won't be suitable for all users. As they're angled to give you a more comfortable fit, this design can put more pressure on their inner ear, especially when you're pushing the button controls to register a command. JLab includes three differently sized tips to help you find a better fit.

The JBuds Air have unremarkable controls. Located on both ears, these two buttons feel fairly stiff and to register a command, you have to push the earbud deeper into your ear. They have common controls like play/pause, track skipping, and call management, as well as a cycle of three EQs. Unfortunately, there's no prompt to indicate which preset you're on but there are voice prompts for pairing and battery information when first powered on.

The JBuds Air have excellent breathability. As these are in-ear headphones, they won't trap much heat at all. If you like to listen to music while you run, these headphones are a good choice and you shouldn't sweat more than usual while wearing them.

Like many truly wireless earbuds, these earbuds are very portable. They'll easily fit in most pockets. Although their charging case is a bit bulky, if you store your headphones in them, you'll still be able to fit them into larger pockets.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air come with an alright charging case. It has an integrated USB charging cable but it's short and if it breaks, the whole case will need to be replaced. Luckily, you can buy a spare case separately if you need it. On the downside, the lid feels a bit plasticky and the case is slightly bulkier than some of the other truly wireless headphones we've tested so far. If you're trying to cut down on cables and like the ease of wireless Qi charging, check out the Sabbat E12 True Wireless.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air have a good build. The earbuds feel dense and should be able to survive drops or impacts without getting too damaged. They also have a rating of IP55 for dust and water resistance, although we don't currently test for it. The charging case feels slightly cheaper, especially the plasticky lid. Unfortunately, if the integrated charging cable breaks, you'll need to buy a new case.

The JBuds Air are impressively stable and are a great choice to wear while running or working out. Thanks to their three differently sized ear tips and one stability sleeve, they won't move around too much. As they're also truly wireless headphones, you don't have to worry about snagging a cable on something and yanking them out of your ears.

• JLab Audio JBuds Air earbuds
• Charging case
• 3x tip sizes
• 1x stability sleeve
• Manuals

Their sound profile is very bass-heavy. EDM and hip-hop lovers will rejoice at the deep, thumpy bass but others will find their mixes to be very muddy and boomy. The treble is also a bit uneven, and its peaks can make instruments like cymbals bright and even piercing.

The frequency response consistency is excellent. If the user achieves a proper fit and an air-tight seal using the assortment of tips that come with these earbuds, then they'll be able to get consistent bass and treble delivery every time they use the headphones.

The bass accuracy performance of the JBuds Air is poor. Although it's overemphasized across the range, some users will like the intensity of the thump and rumbles. However, others will find this bass to be overpowering, boomy, and muddy.

The mid accuracy performance of these earbuds is excellent. Although there's still some slight overemphasis carried over from the bass range, which can make sounds muddy and cluttered, the rest of the response is fairly flat. Lead instruments and vocals will sound smooth and clear.

The treble performance accuracy of the JBuds Air is great. Although it's a little uneven, the mid-treble, in particular, is mostly overemphasized. While this can make mixes brighter, some may find it piercing, as sibilants like S and T sounds will sound sharper. A steep peak between the mid and high-treble can also sound hissy.

The peaks and dips performance of the JLab Audio JBuds Air is very good. There's a peak in the high bass that'll add a touch of boominess while the dip into the mid-mid will further push instruments to the back of the mix. Another dip in the low treble weakens the clarity of vocals and lead instruments. The two peaks in the treble range can further sharpen sibilants.

The imaging of these earbuds is excellent. The group delay response stays well below the audibility threshold, suggesting a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our test unit are also well-matched in frequency, amplitude, and phase response. This is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The JBuds Air's soundstage is poor. To create an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage, the pinna or outer ear has to be activated by sound resonances. Since in-ear earbuds are designed to completely bypass the pinna and not interact with it, their soundstage will feel as if it's contained within the listener's head. These earbuds are also closed-back and won't feel as spacious as open-back earbuds such as the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless, the Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless, or the Google Pixel Buds Wireless.

These earbuds don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance of these earbuds is alright. There's some distortion in the treble range, even at moderately loud volumes, but this might not be noticeable to all listeners. The frequencies otherwise fall within good limits, which will result in clear and pure audio reproduction.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air results are only valid for these settings.

However, we were unable to determine the firmware version. If you own these headphones and know where to find it, let us know in the discussion section below.

The noise isolation performance of these earbuds is decent. They can block out some deep rumble sounds like train engines, but it might not be enough for public transit. The mid-range fares better and will help to cut down voices. Sounds in the treble range, such as the hum of A/C units, are also significantly reduced. If you're looking for a pair of similarly designed earbuds with an ANC feature, consider the JLab Audio JBuds Air ANC Truly Wireless.

The leakage performance of these earbuds is outstanding. You should be able to crank up your music in places like an office without others around you hearing it.

These earbuds have an integrated microphone so you can't see it.

The JBuds Air's microphone has an okay recording quality. Voices sound thin, muffled, and lacking in detail. However, you'll still be understandable to whoever is on the other line.

Update 11/26/2021: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test noise handling. We now use a subjective evaluation of our audio clips. This new method has resulted in different results than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, the scoring of this box has changed, and we have updated our results.

The microphone has alright noise handling. The mic's recording quality sometimes seems to drop with moderate noise in the background, but your voice should still be understandable. Ηowever, it can be almost completely drowned out by loud noises like a passing train.

The battery performance of the JBuds Air is poor. At 3.3 hours of continuous battery life, they fall short compared to other truly wireless earbuds like the Skullcandy Grind Fuel True Wireless. While they do offer 10 additional charges from their case, they also take almost two hours to charge and they don't have any power-saving features to help conserve their low battery life.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air headphones don't have any app support. However, they do offer three preset EQs built into the earbuds and they can be cycled through by triple tapping the left or right buttons.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air are truly wireless Bluetooth earbuds with an impressive line of sight range, allowing you to move around while your device is somewhere else. However, they don't have multi-device or NFC pairing. Their latency is also very high for all devices, and won't be ideal if you like to watch videos or play video games. However, some apps can compensate for this so your mileage may vary.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air are Bluetooth-only earbuds.

As these earbuds are truly wireless, they can't be used wired.

The JBuds Air aren't compatible with the Xbox One.

The JLab Audio JBuds Air have a charging case that offers 10 additional charges. It doesn't have any inputs, but similarly to the JLab Audio JBuds Air Executive Truly Wireless, it offers an integrated USB power cable. However, if it's broken or damaged, the whole case will need to be replaced.