JLab JBuds Air Executive True Wireless
BUDS ON A BUDGET.
TRUE WIRELESS EARBUDS are increasingly dropping in price; while you can fork out for a model from big names like Apple, Sony, Beats, and Bose, more and more companies are releasing their own AirPods alternatives for under $250.
JLab’s latest offering, the JBuds Air Executive True Wireless earbuds are one of these alternatives – but can they measure up to pricier options in terms of connectivity, battery life, and sound quality?
The JBuds Air Executive buds aren’t the prettiest earbuds we’ve seen, sporting chunky black housings with the JLab logo in silver – with their protruding stems, they look like a beefed-up and less polished version of the Apple AirPods.
The housings are touch-sensitive, and can be used to control your music playback, summon your device’s voice assistant, answer and reject phone calls, and control the EQ settings of the earbuds.
We found that these touch controls worked well enough; however, with myriad different functions assigned to each bud, you’ll need to remember a number of different ‘tap’ combinations, which can become confusing.
Tapping the right earbud three times activates Be Aware Mode; this allows environmental noise to pass through the buds, which is great if you’re crossing a busy street and need to be aware of your surroundings.
We found the eartips a little uncomfortable initially; however, JLab includes three alternative sizes as well as fins to help keep the buds in place, so after a little trial and error we settled on the smallest tips and found they were much more comfortable, creating a better seal against our ear canals.
The JLab JBud Air Executive True Wireless earbuds offer six hours of battery life, while the charging case provides an additional 24 hours – that’s not bad for true wireless buds, and it should be more than enough to get you through a long-haul flight.
Pairing the earbuds to our smartphone was a breeze, and we didn’t experience any connection dropouts while we were using them.
Once you’ve connected to these buds once, they’ll automatically pair with your device when you remove them from the charging case; while this process isn’t as quick as the Apple AirPods’ lightning-fast connectivity, it’s still a helpful feature that will save you the tedious job of scrolling through your Bluetooth settings to pair them manually.
Generally, the audio quality of the JLab Audio Air Executives is passable; they provide a warm, rounded-off soundstage that’s enjoyable to listen to and easy on the ears.
They don’t get particularly loud, but if you can achieve a good seal (you should be able to do this by trying out the different ear tips included in the box), you’ll find the listening experience far more immersive.
This warm soundstage causes the lowest bass frequencies to bleed into the mids, resulting in a slightly muddy tone; it’s not a huge issue if you’re going to use these earbuds for casual listening on your commute or during a workout, but audiophiles will likely be frustrated by the lack of clarity and separation between frequencies.