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Sony WF-C510 review: I’d pick these cheap earbuds over more expensive AirPods 4
2:17 pm | September 17, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

Sony WF-C510: Two-minute review

Sony is one of the biggest players in the audio market but its focus has always seemed to lean towards the elite, top-quality premium earbuds or over-ears market. The Japanese tech giant doesn’t need to break a sweat to keep on top of the best budget earbuds market though, if the new Sony WF-C510 are anything to go by.

The company’s follow-up to 2021’s Sony WF-C500, and a newer and more affordable alterative to the top-rated WF-C700N, these new earbuds come at a time when there’s more and more competition at the low-end of the market. I’d name some competitors but I don’t really need to – not when Sony’s offerings are this good.

In fact, I think the WF-C510 could draw some fans away from the top-end Sony WF-1000XM5 and the new sans-ANC entry-level AirPods 4. Who needs to pay double, triple or even quadruple the price when cheap and cheery gets you this far?

I really liked the sound of the new Sonys; I prefer sound that prioritizes clean treble over thumping bass, and so the Sony WF-C510 tick all my boxes and then some. Home-brewed Sony algorithms and a reasonably responsive equalizer just add to my enjoyment of the audio.

The design is stellar too – the buds stuck in my ears like the Abba songs they played stayed stuck in my head. Thanks to the nice grippy material used for the tips, and each earpiece weighing less than 5g, never once did a bud fall from my ears. I even cycled confidently with them and completed a full workout at the gym without gravity doing its thing to them.

This lightweight design extends to the case too, which is tiny and can easily disappear into a pocket. Unfortunately this does contribute to one of my gripes: the case only offers 11 hours of extra listening time, which is much less than basically any rival on the market.

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)

That’s extra listening time over what the buds offer by default, but contrarily you can go 11 hours with these without needing to return them to the case. This is a fantastic amount of listening time, and the WF-C510 would be my first port of call over pricier rivals for long trips.

Part of the reason for this long battery life is that the Sonys don’t have ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), which is something I can’t knock the buds for as it’s a feature that’s never guaranteed at this price. Instead, they have an ambient mode which is pretty commonplace in wireless earbuds, but it’s only useful in certain situations so I didn’t use it much.

Noise cancellation isn’t the only feature that the WF-C510s lack: wear detection, low-latency mode, 'find my' locaters and a few other more premium perks don’t rear their heads here. Again, the price justifies this, but it’s something I’d be remiss not to flag – if you’ve got a certain mode or feature you love to use, you’d better check that the Sonys offer it.

Given that this is a two-minute review, I probably don’t have time to go into lots of detail about the other great parts of the Sony WF-C510, but between the responsive and easy-to-use touch buttons, the useful eartip fit test, the range of color options and the audio avoiding all the pitfalls I usually see in budget earbuds, I feel comfortable recommending these over some of the much pricier competitors I’ve tested this year.

Sony WF-C510 review: Price and release date

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Released in September 2024
  • Cost $59.99 / £54.99 / AU$109

The Sony WF-C510 were released in September 2024 as the new entries in Sony’s WF-C line of low-cost earbuds.

You can pick them up for $59.99 / £54.99 / AU$109, and at that price point they’re in contention with our list of the best cheap earbuds. In fact, as of their launch, they’re Sony’s cheapest true wireless earbuds, drastically undercutting the $119 / £89 / AU$199 WF-C700N (which we gave five stars to in our review). The WF-C500 aren’t officially ranged by Sony any more, but they launched for $99 / £89 / AU$149 three years ago, and have seen price cuts from third-party retailers since.

The cheap earbuds market is a competitive one, with fresh competitors hitting the market all the time; in the months before this Sony proposition I've also tested the likes of the Earfun Air Pro 4 and CMF Buds Pro 2 for the same price. And the WF-C510 is my pick of the bunch. 

Sony WF-C510 review: Specs

Sony WF-C510 review: Features

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • In-bud battery life is great – but the case less so
  • No ANC, but there is 'sound control'
  • Headphones app brings some extra features

Something I both love and hate about the Sony WF-C510 is the battery life. 

The buds themselves have a fantastic battery life: 8 hours with sound control on, and 11 hours with it off, makes these Sonys some of the longest-lasting earbuds I’ve tested recently. However, the case itself only offers one extra charge-up, while basically all others on the market give you at least two extra charges. As a result, these buds gave me more battery anxiety on trips than most others I’ve tested.

That 11-hour figure is Sony's. In my testing, with sound control turned off, the right bud lasted for 10 hours and 42 minutes, while the left one was still somehow blasting out music 40 minutes later when my phone ran out of charge. Gaping inconsistency aside, that averages over 11 hours, so I'll concur with Sony's estimate.

Audio fans might be wondering why I’ve referred to ‘sound control’ and not active noise cancellation – this is because the Sonys don’t have ANC, but do offer noise cancellation in the form of an ‘Ambient Sound Control’ mode. This amplifies sounds around you, so you can be aware of what’s going on regardless of how much noise would otherwise be drowned out by your music. It’s a fine mode, with results that are more subtle and nuanced than the similar equivalent that many rival earbuds have, but ambient modes are generally quite situational so I didn’t find myself using it a whole lot.

Of course, ambient noise control isn’t the same as noise cancellation – it’s ANC you may want at home – but the passive noise cancellation offered by the ear-tips was enough to make me happy.

For the rest of the feature set we’re going to have to boot up Sony’s Headphones app, which, while a great addition at this level, has a logo so generic that I kept losing it on my phone’s menu.

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)

Using said Headphones app, you can see the battery life of the earbuds, arrange which devices they’re connected to (up to two – yes, there's multi-point), toggle ambient mode off or on to a variety of intensities, play with an equalizer (including a test to find the best preset for you, and another to detect which eartips are best for you), set up 360 Reality Audio (Sony’s version of spatial audio), change what the buttons do, and enable Spotify Tap which basically makes Spotify play by default.

The equalizer gives you quite a few presets, with the ability to modify them too, and lots of the rest is par for the course. However, I found the EQ test quite confusing – unlike Nothing Ear’s fantastic automatic detection test, you basically have to ‘blind test’ some presets to see which you prefer. I found the difference between many of them inaudible, and sometimes I liked two equally. Ultimately, the mode is fine for people who know the sound they want (or the parts of recordings they usually augment), but for everyone else it’s perhaps not worth bothering with, although it does add value at this level.

Beyond ANC, there are a few features not present in the WF-C510 that some might miss, although I can’t hold these cheap buds to blame given the price. The major one is wear detection, so you have to pause music manually when you remove the buds. There’s also no low-latency mode which is quite common even amongst cheap buds, or any kind of ‘find my buds’ feature.

Another thing I should note, which is a problem I’ve had with other Sony audio products too, is that by default the volume sounds incredibly low – even when it shouldn’t. It’s because there’s a volume slider in the app, separate to your phone’s one, which I’d recommend you immediately raise to near-full intensity and rely on your phone’s volume rocker for control. The first time I used Sony headphones I thought they were incredibly quiet until I noticed this feature – what I should also note is that the in-app volume resets to 50% if you pair the earphones to a different device and then back to your phone, so you’ll need to rectify it manually. This is an irksome feature for people who are unaware, but even for those of us who’ve been using them for years, it’s an unnecessary extra step that most other earbuds don’t require.

  • Features score: 3.5/5

Sony WF-C510 review: Design

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Incredibly lightweight case
  • Buds fit nice and snug – and don't budge
  • Convenient-to-use physical button

The Sony WF-C510 charging case is lovely and svelte – it’s one of my favorite cases for slipping into my pocket or bag. 

A lozenge-shaped slither of plastic, it measures about 6.8 x 2.7 x 3.1 cm (all my measurements – I couldn’t find any on the Sony website) and weighs “approx” 31g (that’s Sony’s exact wording). Vague measurements aside, it’s really slender, with basically enough space for the buds and not much excess (which is probably why it doesn’t provide much charge!). Main points to note here are the USB-C port for charging, a small button for pairing and an LED status indicator. All par for the course, really.

I liked the textured plastic case, but I can see some finding it a bit cheap-feeling, and it does creak a little if you put pressure on it. That’s the trade-off with its light build.

The buds are equally light, weighing 4.6g each. At least Sony has an exact measurement for that! They’re in-ear buds so this particular figure is really important, as heavy in-ear buds (or those that aren't shaped carefully to distribute said weight) sometimes have trouble staying in the ear.

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)

No issue for the Sonys though: they always felt rigid in my testing, never once falling out or even feeling loose. The box includes larger and smaller alternatives, with the app having an ear fit test, if the default tips don’t fit. 

The fact that they fit and stay securely in my ears sounds simple enough, but so many competing options at double the price can't seem to do it. If you want cheap earbuds that don't budge and sound good, the Sony WF-C510 are it. 

There are a few color options for the aspiring fashionistas out there: black and white are pretty standard, but there’s also light blue and light yellow. The latter hue is modelled by me in the pictures.

One feature of note on the WF-C510s is a button on each bud – it’s quite big, and takes up most of the body of each. It’s a physical button, meaning you have to actually depress it to trigger it, but I found it sensitive enough that it was easy to use. The size also ensures that you don’t have to keep jabbing at the bud, and shoving it into your ear, to trigger the function (which is customizable in the app).

In terms of waterproofing, the buds are IPX4 resistant to water, which means they’ll survive splashes from any angle, but not jets. That’s what the rating stands for but in real life the difference between ‘splashes’ and ‘jets’ isn’t always apparent so I’d recommend doing your best to keep these away from anything wetter than rain or sweat.

  • Design score: 4.5/5

Sony WF-C510 review: Sound quality

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Bright sound; some might miss bass
  • High-quality given price
  • DSEE improves compressed music

I really like the sound of the Sony WF-C510s – obviously you have to set your expectations to a certain level with low-cost earbuds, but I found the audio high-quality and also certainly distinct in that Sony, "have this sound, and have it good and clear" way.

This is possibly thanks, at least in part, to Sony’s DSEE, which stands for digital sound enhancement engine – basically it’s tech that restores the range of the compressed audio tracks you’re playing from your chosen streaming service. It gives Sony earbuds, including the WF-C510, an edge over similar alternatives, as long as you remember to turn it on via the app.

The driver itself is a 6mm unit, so not necessarily as big as some similar-priced alternatives, but bigger than the more expensive WF-C700N.

The Sony WF-C510s have a slightly forward sound profile (and I say this as a compliment rather than a shortfall), offering clear and pronounced treble sounds like your guitars, vocals and piano parts. This is great for some genres of music, and I enjoyed listening to songs with prominent and distinct vocal lines that were beamed into my ears.

The flip side is that you can’t feel the bass quite as much in certain genres of music, which might be an issue for people who like their bass thumping to their back teeth. You can rectify it to a degree using the in-app equalizer, but not quite enough to please bass-heads.

I was surprised by the lack of peaking or distortion at normal listening volumes, and I had to really push the buds to a painfully-loud volume to hear any crackling, muddying or artefacts.

  • Sound quality: 4.5/5

Sony WF-C510 review: Value

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Look at the price
  • Seriously, look at it

I’d consider the Sony WF-C510 great value for money even if the audio was only ‘fine’. It’s not, though, and fans of Sony's typical sound profile (that's most of us) will really love what they’re getting here.

If you’re being offered the Sonys as a gift or bundled with another Sony product, you might think you’re just getting some cheap buds thrown in to sweeten the deal, but trust me when I say these are better than their lowly price suggests.

  • Value: 5/5

Should I buy the Sony WF-C510?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Sony WF-C510 review: Also consider

How I tested the Sony WF-C510

The Sony WF-C510 on a bronze table.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for two weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office and on trips

The Sony WF-C510 enjoyed two weeks of listening time for this review, and as mentioned earlier I've tested a string of their closest rivals recently, which helped with the comparisons.

I tested the buds while they were paired to my Android smartphone, and I connected them to a different mobile to test multi-point pairing. Mostly I listened to music with Spotify but to fully test the buds I also tried other apps including games and streaming services. Testing was done at home, in the office and on various trips around my city, including walks in the park and gym excursions.

I've been testing gadgets at TechRadar for over five years now, and in that time have used plenty of budget earbuds and other Sony products. Outside of reviewing headphones, my trusty Sony WH-1000XM3 are my go-to headphones so I'm well versed in Sony's audio products and software.

  • First reviewed in September 2024
Hands-on Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Higher-end features for all
3:20 pm | September 16, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation: Two-Minute Review

When they're in the ear, at first glance the Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation might not look much different to the third-generation AirPods. However, the design has been streamlined for a better fit, while the internal hardware has been upgraded, with many of the best features of AirPods Pro 2 trickling down to Apple's new entry-level earbuds, making them a tempting option among the best AirPods.

For one, both styles of AirPods 4 – these and the standard version, which don’t offer noise cancellation – are powered by the Apple-made H2 chip that stretches the battery life, delivers excellent audio playback, and provides enough horsepower for Apple to offer Adaptive Audio on the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. 

While it doesn't entirely block out the world around you in the way that the best noise cancelling earbuds do – remember these are open-ear earbuds – when paired with music, it can reduce loud rumbles, like a jet engine, down to a drastically reduced sound. 

I think folks who desire the ability to block out the world around them without fully sealing off the ear will find a nice middle ground here. The Transparency mode, as well as how these pick up the user's voice, is very well done and sounds incredibly natural.

You'll also be able to answer or decline calls with a shake of your head and press the stems for easy control, other than for adjusting the volume. Sadly, the ability to swipe to change the volume didn't trickle down from AirPods Pro 2. However, excellent audio quality with a wide soundstage did, and that's paired with support for Personalized Spatial Audio. 

Overall, the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation make a bit more sense over the entry-level for the price and provide some future-proofing, but they also make an impact as powerful open-ear earbuds.

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Pricing and Availability

The Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are priced at $179 / £179 / AU$299. They're available from September 20th, 2024, though are available to order already. 

The $129 / £129 / AU$219 entry-level AirPods 4 do not offer noise cancellation, or, as their pricier siblings do, a Find My-enabled case and a couple of other features, but they still offer excellent audio quality and spatial audio support.

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Specs

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Features

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

Much like the AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, AirPods Max, or even the third-generation model that they replace, the AirPods 4 – with or without active noise cancellation – offer several useful features, which make them an excellent choice for anyone with an iPhone, or who’s otherwise invested in Apple’s device ecosystem.

After unboxing, you need to flip the lid open and hold the AirPods 4 near your iPhone to start the pairing process. You’ll see a prompt appear on the bottom half of your screen and can click ‘Connect’ to pair the AirPods 4 with your iPhone and your iCloud account for easy syncing between devices. I found that this process took just a few seconds to complete. 

Fast-pairing and quick switching between devices have long been staples of AirPods, with the former dating back to the first generation, and they perform well here. Right after pairing, I was able to begin listening on my iPhone, and I could quickly switch to listening to audio on a 14-inch MacBook Pro or an iPad. Apple’s various platforms will even automatically switch your AirPods between devices based on what you’re actively using or playing audio on,, but I found this to be a little less helpful. 

One very helpful feature here, though, is the arrival of gesture controls. First announced as an upgrade for the AirPods Pro 2nd Generation at Apple’s WWDC in June, these head gestures launch on day one with AirPods 4, allowing you to easily answer or dismiss a call with a simple head shake. Just in my few days of using the AirPods 4 this has come in handy several times, especially when my hands are full or I’m walking around town. It works for phone calls, FaceTime, and other calling apps that use Apple’s APIs.

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

Aside from nodding your head or saying “yes” or “no”, you can also press the stems, or press and hold, to trigger a few actions. A single press lets you play or pause, while a long press lets you select listening modes. While these open-ear earbuds won’t fully isolate you from your surroundings, the AirPods 4 offer active noise cancellation, transparency, and Adaptive Audio (blending those two) modes. You cannot, however, swipe or down on the stem to adjust the volume – the ability to do this on the AirPods Pro is super-handy, but seemingly, Apple wants to keep that feature for its flagship earbuds.

Apple’s H2 chip – the same chip found in AirPods Pro – powers all of these features, as well as the microphones, custom algorithms, and sensors. As I wrote in my hands-on review, after I tried the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation right after the launch event to quiet down a noisy space, they offer seriously impressive noise cancellation for open-ear earbuds or buds that don’t fully seal off the ear. In that space, with ANC engaged, the sound of the crowded space was muffled, and when music playback began, it was mostly quieted down.

On an airplane, it was much the same experience – you can get some peace and quiet with them, but they won't fully drown out the environmental noise as the AirPods Pro can. Part of this might be due to the fact that your body is feeling vibrations and wants to match them with sound, but I think another factor is that without the full seal and as you move your head, ambient sound has more opportunity to enter your ear. The result is that AirPods 4 block out most sound, but on an airplane – or a train – you’ll still hear the engine roar and even some cabin noise. Still, though, these effectively block out a lot of noise.

I’ve long thought that the AirPods Pro offered the best transparency mode, in which they intelligently let environmental sounds in and lower the decibels so as not to harm your ears. I think the AirPods 4 outpace those, though – with transparency mode enabled here, any sense of roboticness or noise being piped in is pretty much removed; with Conversation Awareness turned on, you can also effectively have conversations with folks quite naturally, at times even forgetting these are in your ears. Your own voice, or in this case my voice, sounds a bit more natural and less processed as well.

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Design

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation don’t stray too far from the working formula of Apple’s other true-wireless earbuds. They opt for short stems like the AirPods Pro or the AirPods 3rd Generation that these directly replace. The curved portion of hard plastic that sits in your ear has been slightly redesigned and is now more curved, to provide a better fit in the ear.

I found the AirPods 4 to be pretty cozy in my ears. I comfortably wore them for over four and a half hours while on a flight and for countless hours with intermittent usage while working. They still just kind of plop in your ear and rest there. I didn’t have them fall out on any occasion, whether on a turbulent flight, while working out, or while walking indoors and outside in a bustling city. 

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The case is downright tiny given the smaller footprint that the left and right AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation take up. It’s much smaller than the AirPods Pro 2nd Generation case, and even the case for the cheaper AirPods 4, and is shorter than the AirPods 2nd Generation’s case. You still flip it open to take out or put back your AirPods 4, and there’s a multi-purpose indicator light on the front.

There’s no back button on the back case for easy pairing, though. Instead, you’ll double-press the back to trigger pairing for other devices, including non-Apple ones. It’s an easter egg that Apple needs to publicize a bit more.

To charge the AirPods 4, you can plug them in via USB-C, though there’s no longer a charger in the box. If you get the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, you can also place them on any Qi-wireless charger or Apple Watch charging puck.

In my testing, I found that with active noise cancellation, transparent, or Adaptive Audio enabled, you’ll get around four hours and 15 to 20 minutes of usage. That’s beyond Apple’s promised four hours of playback with a listening mode enabled. With no mode on, you can get about five to five-and-a-half hours of playback, depending on the volume you’re listening at. A quick five minutes of charging in the case also provides at least an hour of listening.

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Sound Quality

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

To sum up, the AirPods 4 essentially sound as good as AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, and, as with their predecessors, that’s without the buds providing a true seal of the ear. There’s a clear and rich audio mix with a fairly wide sound stage, but the real chef’s kiss here would be the Spatial Audio support.

Powering the audio experience is Adaptive EQ via the H2 chip, and pushing out sound is a custom high-excursion drive and a high-dynamic range amplifier. It’s also worth noting that there’s a single H2 chip in each bud, with audio sent over Bluetooth 5.3 from the connected device. 

This all comes together to give you a balanced representation of the track you’re listening to, but if you’re listening to something that bops with more oomph the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation won’t shy away from raising the lower-end or really offering a surprising amount of bass for earbuds of this size. For instance, with Burnin’ Train by Bruce Springsteen, the track starts off with a rising guitar riff that’s quickly joined by drums, piano, and vocals all across the sound spectrum – it sounds sonically here and in lossless via Apple Music I didn’t notice any distortion or dropouts. 

With a pop/EDM track like Apple by Charli XCX, you can see how the AirPods 4 handle layering of sound, with a surprisingly sharp bass track that doesn’t distort with the singer’s vocals on top at higher frequencies, with various electrical beats in between. The AirPods 4 tend to handle almost all genres well, and even without a full seal, deliver a great balanced mix, although at higher volumes you will have some sound leakage. 

Spatial Audio here essentially gets rid of stereo’s left and right channels, with various elements of a track flowing around you. It’s a more immersive listening experience, and Apple’s implementation here is excellent. I particularly like spinning it with a live track, but I think the album version of Down On The Corner by Creedence Clearwater Revival is one of the best examples. Not to mention, it also works with some movies and TV shows to put you right in the middle of the action.

Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation review: Value

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

At $179 / £169 / AU$279 with active noise cancellation or $129 without, AirPods 4 offers a variety of features previously found only on Apple’s most high-end earbuds. The new design language streamlines the AirPods' appearance, as they all look similar. 

If you’re sold on open-ear earbuds or ones that lack silicone tips, AirPods 4 are likely your best bet if you want to be within Apple’s ecosystem. The higher price might only be $70 away from AirPods Pro, but you still get a lot of value for the price: three listening modes, a comfortable open-ear design that doesn’t fall out, solid battery life, and a findable case should they go missing. 

The $129 / £129 edition of AirPods 4 will lose the listening modes and the Find My enabled case, but it still offers a rich, crisp audio experience, all of the handy Apple ecosystem features, and support for Spatial Audio. 

Should I Buy Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation?

Buy them if...

If you want an open-ear fit that works in the Apple ecosystem

Replacing AirPods 2nd and 3rd gen, AirPods 4 are the new open-ear, non-ear sealing earbuds that work extremely well with the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac.

Don't buy them if...

If you want the best noise cancellation in an earbud

Considering AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation don't seal off your ear with a silicone ear-tip, these earbuds won't block out all environmental sound. So if you're looking for that consider another pair like AirPods Pro 2nd Gen or one of the best wireless earbuds from elsewhere.

How I tested Apple AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation

For the past several days, I've been living with and using Apple's AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation with an iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad Mini, iPad Pro, 14-inch MacBook Pro, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple TV 4K. 

I tested audio playback, standard, and Spatial Audio tracks in various locations to gauge and track performance and see if there was sound leakage since these are open-ear earbuds. I threw various tracks across genres at AirPods 4, streamed from Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and Nugs.net. 

I used active noise cancellation, transparency, and "Adaptive Audio" listening modes in various locations, including at home, in an office environment, while walking around a city, on a train, in a car, and on a plane. I tracked and measured how long the battery lasted with these modes on and off and the charging time. 

  • First reviewed September 2024. 
AirPods 4 review – Seriously impressive noise cancellation for no ear tip earbuds
8:05 pm | September 10, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

Hands-on AirPods 4 review: Two-minute preview

AirPods fans take notice: You no longer need to go Pro to get active noise cancellation. Furthermore, Apple has answered the call if you have a distaste for ear tips or simply don’t want your ears sealed off.

AirPods 4 are now official and come in two flavors: just AirPods 4 at $129 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation at $179. After spending some time with the iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series X, I dashed over to the AirPods 4 on display. I got the chance to briefly test the higher-end option – including putting the noise cancelation to the test in a noisy, loud, and crowded hands-on area. 

For one, the case is very compact and tiny, appearing smaller than the AirPods Pro or even the third-generation AirPods. In fact, it’s kind of like a shorter AirPods second-generation carrying case in terms of width across. You should have no issue bringing these with you and fitting them within most pockets.

Apple AirPods 4, bottom of case.

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation also trickles down some of my favorite features of the AirPods Pro case. Bluetooth Low-Energy is inside and a speaker, making the case here findable within Find My. So, if you lose it, you can ping it from another Apple device to help you find it. There is also a USB-C port for charging, and a cable comes in the box, but the rear here also supports recharging with an Apple Watch charger or a standard Qi charger. 

Flip open the lid, and you’ll find the left and right AirPods 4, which Apple dubs the “best-fitting AirPods ever.” I’ll need to spend more time with them, but they’re very compact, with short stems containing the force sensor for intuitive controls. However, the overall look is similar to that of AirPods' third generation. 

Apple has redesigned the fit here to better stay in the ear, be comfortable for an extended period, and for the best acoustic performance. I found them comfortable during my brief demo, and even with a few headshakes, I couldn’t get them to fall out. However, I haven’t had that issue with previous open-ear style AirPods like the first-, second-, or third-generation models. 

With their lack of silicone ear tips, AirPods 4 rest in your ear and won’t fully seal it off from the world around you. With no audio playing and no listening mode on, you will still hear a good bit of the world around you. With the H2 onboard here and the higher price, these feature listening modes, though.

These seriously impressed me in my brief demo – I started with Transparency mode engaged and 1901 by Phoenix playing in the background at a low volume. I could hear the track playing and the noisy crowd of folks demoing other gadgets around me, albeit at a slightly lower volume. The overall audio mix was vibrant and crisp. I couldn't test out "Personalized Spatial Audio" in this space, but AirPods 4 does support it.

AirPods 4 in hand

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

When I engaged the AirPods 4's Active Noise Cancellation feature and had the track playing, it pretty much lowered the volume of the crowd completely – this was with audio at about 60-70%. At a lower volume, that crowd roar can still be there a bit, but considering the open style of AirPods 4, these performed way better than I had initially anticipated. I’m curious how these might perform with blocking out noise in other situations, be it a plane or a place with a roaring HVAC system. I didn’t get the chance to try Adaptive Audio here, but I look forward to testing that and seeing how it handles blending transparency and active noise cancellation together.

That about sums up my first impressions of AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. For one, they make noise cancellation more affordable within the AirPods lineup – though $179 is still not the cheapest – and also deliver a potentially more comfortable fit for folks who don’t like ear tips. I especially like that it ushers in some of the nicer-to-have features of AirPods Pro, like Find My for the case and the H2 chip, which should deliver great sound playback. AirPods 4 will also feature gesture controls like nodding your head up or down to answer a call or left and right to ignore it. 

AirPods 4 tour in case

(Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

You can also use “Hey Siri” hands-free for things like sending a message or asking a topical question. Apple promises five hours of playback on a full charge and 30 hours with recharges in the case. If you engage Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency, or Adaptive Audio, that will drop to 20 hours with recharges.

Of course, if you don’t need noise cancellation and can live without wirelessly charging the AirPods case, the $129 AirPods 4 might be a better fit – pun intended – and won’t be as big of a hit on your wallet. These have the same fit from the redesign and have the H2 chip inside.

@techradar

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CMF Buds Pro 2 review: super-cheap earbuds with a literal twist
4:30 pm | August 28, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

CMF Buds Pro 2: Two-minute review

British tech brand Nothing has, in just a few short years, become a popular name for tech fans with its smartphones and earbuds proving you don’t need to spend a lot to get decent quality. It’s recent CMF by Nothing sub-brand pushes that idea to its extreme, but it doesn’t always work.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 are a good example of that: if you’re used to getting a lot more than you pay for with Nothing products, you’ll be surprised to find that these CMF earbuds give you exactly what you pay for. Nothing more, nothing less.

These are really budget earbuds too; you won’t find worthwhile products for less, and they’re among the cream of the bargain bin… if not the crop. At $59 / £59 / AU$99, your wallet will thank you.

Your ears might thank you too, because the CMF Buds Pro 2 sound good compared to same-price rivals, likely thanks to the union of a bass driver and a tweeter. Bass is the focus of music for sure but treble isn't lost, and the equaliser gives you some customization over your sound. I've certainly tested worse earbuds, including some that cost more.

The noise cancellation is a feature that doesn’t really impress, sadly. I found that it didn’t really compare to most of the CMF Buds’ rivals, even similarly-priced ones, and the Transparency mode was particularly poor. Still, any level of ANC is nothing to get snobby about, given that many rivals in this super-affordable category lack it.

What could have been the redeeming feature of the Buds Pro 2 is a returning feature from other CMF earbuds: the case has a swivel dial which you can use to control your music, rotating it to alter volume or pressing it for play/pause, and this partly replaces on-bud controls that most headphones have. 

In practice, though, the implementation of this feature is poor. The dial is prone to accidental turns or presses in your pocket, the notification sound to tell you that a function has been triggered is startlingly loud, and there’s a significant delay between using the dial and hearing its result. 

Lots of these issues can be overlooked if you consider the low price, but I’d recommend putting a little extra aside beyond the Buds 2 Pro’s asking price: the in-box ear tips are made from a material that isn’t very grippy, and they didn’t reliably stick in my ears. I’d recommend you look to third-party ear tips if you’re considering the CMFs.

There are some parts of the CMF Buds that I liked. The case-buds combo comes in four colors, including a distinctive orange (pictured) and a suave navy blue, so you have more options than for many other buds you may be considering. Plus a few Nothing-exclusive features like its bass boost mode and ChatGPT integration (as long as you’re using a Nothing phone) return, even if the overall feature set is nothing impressive.

It’s easy to look at any super-cheap earbuds and hand-wave any issues as being a symptom of the price, and that’s true with the CMF Buds Pro 2 as well – they’re basically what you’d expect for buds costing this much. However the budget bud market is competitive and a few rivals get you better value for money – more on them in the 'Also consider' section below.

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Price and release date

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Unveiled in July 2024
  • Costs you $59 / £59 / AU$99

The CMF Buds Pro 2 were but on sale in July 2024, just a short time after two other pairs of earbuds from Nothing: the Nothing Ear and Nothing Ear (a). This won’t be the last time you hear about these rivals in this review.

You can pick up the Buds Pro 2 for $59 / £59 / AU$99, so they’re not just cheap earbuds, but they’re cheap earbuds. That’s a $10 / £10 / AU$10 price increase over the original Buds Pro, and I can’t compare the price to a non-Pro CMF Buds 2 because, at the time of writing, no such model exists.

This area of the market is incredibly competitive, with Nothing itself offering some tempting entries into the sub-$100 / £100 / AU$200 price bracket, and so a low price alone isn’t enough for the CMFs to get winning grades.

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Specs

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Features

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 11-hour buds battery, 43-hour with case
  • Limited features in app, including spatial audio
  • Mediocre ANC

The CMF Buds Pro 2 uses Nothing’s smartphone tie-in app, called Nothing X, and as a result it borrows a few Nothing features.

Using Nothing X you can fiddle with an equalizer, change the case control scheme, toggle Spatial Audio, change between a few ANC modes and turn on ‘Ultra Bass’ which does what it says on the tin. Hidden in a menu are toggles for wear detection, high-latency mode, a default to LDAC audio, a find-my-buds feature, and an ear tip fit test. Good for the money, eh? Well, on paper, yes. 

I'm going to get into the equaliser in the sound section, so stay tuned for that. The noise cancellation in the app is similar, in theory, to other Nothing earbuds: you can change between it being off, in Transparency mode (which belts surrounding sounds into your ears so loud that you can barely hear your music) and between four ANC intensities: low, mid, high and adaptive. 

I’d recommend sticking with high ANC mode; the Buds Pro 2’s noise cancellation isn’t very strong, and you’ll want to make the most of it when you can. In testing it struggled to do anything about surrounding chatter, air conditioning unit hums, microwaves and other similar noises. Saying that, ANC is far from a given in buds this cheap and so knocking what there is here, rudimentary though it is, feels a little churlish.

Features like Spatial Audio, in-ear detection and an ear tip fit test are useful, but there are a few far more basic features lacking, that many of similar-priced rivals have. The lack of touch controls is something I’ve mentioned before, but many rivals have a full equalizer experience, not truncated ones like this. I also miss Nothing’s much more effective custom listening profile detector from the Nothing Ear.

In terms of battery life, the CMF Buds Pro 2 hit that ‘bang-average’ button: the buds will get you roughly six and a half hours of listening if you’ve got ANC turned on, and 11 if you’ve got it turned off. Those figures are pretty standard for wireless earbuds.

By using the case you can dial those figures up to 26 or 43 hours respectively, the latter of which is actually rather respectable, but remember, the ANC isn't amazing. 

  • Features score: 3/5

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Design

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Novel dial-toting case has issues
  • Earbuds don't stick in ear well
  • Buds and case are light and protected

Perhaps the most unique part of the CMF Buds Pro 2 is the case design. 

It starts with the color: no boring black or white here but dark gray, light gray (okay, those two are a bit boring), navy blue and bright orange. You can tell which one I tested – ‘bright’ is an understatement – and it’s nice to see earbuds with a range of colors.

The next special feature is the dial, which can be turned left or right or pressed in. This lets you change the volume or pause/play songs easily. 

In theory this is a novel concept, and I did find it really easy to pause music when the case was within reach, but changing volume definitely wasn’t as convenient as bud touch controls tend to be, and I found a range of inconveniences with the buds over the testing period. In fact, I ended up turning off the controls by the latter half of my testing time.

Firstly, rotating the dial resulted in a deafening beep to indicate that the volume was changing. I can see what Nothing was going for here, but the beep didn’t correspond with the new volume; the noise could be painfully loud at times. That became especially annoying bearing in mind that the dial didn’t adjust music much, and I’d need to turn it through endless resolutions to get the same effect as one simple press on my phone’s volume rocker. Oh, and there was a delay between using the dial and seeing an effect which effectively ruled out swiveling the dial loads to bump up the sound, as I’d only find out too late if I’d turned it far too loud.

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)

However, the most annoying aspect for me was that the dial could be quite sensitive in my pocket; I was subjected to endless accidental presses. On one journey in a closely-packed bus, people walking past me would nudge the case in my jacket pocket, pausing my music. When I wore certain pairs of trousers, the constricting and flexing of my pockets when I walked would sometimes press the pause button. And sometimes when I put the case loose in my bad, its companion items would jostle against it and press the button. In the end these everyday annoyances pushed me to turn off the controls, despite my best attempts to like the controls.

Looking at the case itself, it measures 53.4 x 53.4 x 23mm and weighs 46g (not including the buds). Beyond the dial it only has a small button to enable pairing, and a USB-C port for charging.

The earbuds themselves match whichever color of case you opt for. They’re lightweight stem-toting buds weighing 4.9g each. Despite what you'd think given the presence of the dial, the buds also do have touch controls, but I found them quite sensitive and would often accidentally press them when trying to re-align the buds in my ear every time they slipped (for reasons you'll learn in just a moment). As a result I turned them off pretty quickly.

The buds have an IP55 rating against dust ingress and showers of water, though the case has no official rating.

While these buds are light enough to sit comfortably in your ear, they’re also light enough that you might not notice if they fall out of your ear (well, other than your music stopping). And fall they will: Nothing has seemingly opted to use soap for its ear tip material given how slippery they are, and during testing they just wouldn’t stay in my ears reliably, even when I tried different tip sizes. I put this down to the material, which doesn’t seem to have as much friction as the usual silicon tips you see in earbuds. 

It’s fairly easy to remove the Buds 2 Pro ear tips and I’d recommend you try out some third-party ones if you can, because the in-box ones just weren’t reliable for me. Worst of all, they kept sliding just far enough out of my ear for wear detection to think I wasn’t wearing them any more, so it kept pausing my music, and as a result I had to turn that feature off too.

Side-note: if you turn off wear detection, the buds don't even pause your music when you return them to the case, unlike basically every other earbud I've tested. Remember to turn your tunes off yourself!

  • Design score: 2.5/5

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Sound quality

  • Heavy bass focus, but treble isn't lost
  • Limited sound stage
  • Equaliser brings some benefits

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)

As in many other Nothing-built earbuds, bass is the focus of the CMF Buds Pro 2. Whatever genre of music I listened to, the bass was the most palpable part of any song.  

That might put some people off, but it's a staple feature of cheap and cheery earbuds like this. Treble and especially upper mids do suffer a little, but much less than in some other buds I've tested at this price.

That's possibly thanks to the fact that the 11mm bass driver is joined by a 6mm tweeter to carry the flag for higher-pitched lines.

I did miss the sense of soundstage that some other buds offer: the CMF seem to present all elements of a song in one solid block rather than spread out, and it meant that some instruments disappeared behind the omnipresent bass.

The Nothing X app offers the ability to add even more bass to its buds, and I've enjoyed this feature in other propositions from the company. However I couldn't hear much of a bass boost in the CMF Buds Pro 2, even when ratcheting it up to full power.

The equalizer in the app also lets you tweak your music, to a degree. For those of you who’ve cut your teeth on earbud app equalizers, this isn’t quite as in-depth; you can change the prominence of bass, mid and treble, to +/- 6 points. There are also six presets: pop, rock, classic, electronic, vocal enhancement or something called Dirac Opteo which apparently changes the EQ based on your music, but to my ears had little effect.

This EQ isn't hugely powerful, but it's a lot simpler to use than some others, and I did manage to rescue the treble somewhat from songs.

  • Sound quality: 4/5

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Value

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • The incredibly low price means they offer value for money
  • Definitely consider buying extra eartips though

I've been quite critical of the CMF Buds Pro 2 throughout this review, and that's because the design and feature set don't quite work for me. That said, the price makes the setbacks all-too-easy to overlook.

For just $59 / £59 / AU$99, these are some of the cheapest buds you can find from a reputable company, and while it's a very low benchmark, these buds do offer you reasonable value for money.

That's because you can de-activate the annoying features, leaving a case with an ornamental wheel, earbuds that sound decent for your price, and maybe a slight extra bill for when you buy third-party ear tips.

  • Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the CMF Buds Pro 2?

Buy it if…

You're on a budget
It's easy to overlook many issues when buds are so gentle on the bank account, and so if you want super-cheap buds the CMF could be a safe bet.

Don’t buy it if…

CMF Buds Pro 2 review: Also consider

How I tested the CMF Buds Pro 2

The CMF Buds Pro 2 on a white-and-orange background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for 3 weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office and on walks

I tested the CMF Buds Pro 2 for over three weeks, and that review time saw them paired with both my Android smartphone and Windows laptop. I didn't test them alongside a Nothing phone.

To test the buds I listened to music on Spotify, watched TV shows on Netflix and Prime Video, partook in voice and video calls and played games on my phone. Most of this was done at home or in the office but I used the buds on several long journeys on trains and buses.

I've been testing gadgets for TechRadar for over five years, and in that time I've reviewed many budget headphones, as well as phones, tablets, watches and electric scooters.

  • First reviewed in August 2024
Earfun Air Pro 4 review: good-value cheap earbuds with just a few too many features
2:40 pm | August 14, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Tags: | Comments: Off

Earfun Air Pro 4: Two-minute review

I never thought I’d be knocking a set of good budget earbuds having too many features, or excluding a set of earbuds from our best noise-cancelling earbuds guide for offering too many ANC profiles. But this Earfun Air Pro 4 review changes that.

If you’ve ever heard of Earfun before, you’ll know it as a brand well versed in putting out low-cost but competitive earbuds. You'll also know that its naming conventions can be quite baffling. 

The Air Pro 4 are the successors to 2023’s Air Pro 3 (which we gave a near-perfect review to), and their main difference from the same-priced Free Pro 3 from late 2023 is that they have stems, rather than being purely in-ear beans. They’re also more premium alternatives to the Earfun Air 2, released earlier in 2024, which (like all those other Earfun options) offered some great features at really low prices. But that's a lot of Frees, Airs and graces Pros to get your head around. 

Suffice to say that Earfun has a bustling product suite, perhaps an overwhelming number for people who don’t know which to opt for, and ‘too much’ is the theme of this review too.

In its quest to offer buyers on a budget a wide range of options, Earfun has gone a bit too far, and I found some elements of the experience a little too overwhelming. There are five different ANC modes (not counting ‘off’ and ‘ambient’) and I couldn’t get my head around the differences; there are a whopping 30 equalizer presets and scrolling through the list to find the right option for certain songs or genres was more work than it was worth.

So testing the Earfun Air Pro 4 was initially a bit exhausting – until I gave up, and just stuck to the same modes. I think that's what you'll do too. Do that, and you'll reveal great low-budget earbuds that offer loads of options and fairly respectable, robust audio quality for the price. It's just that wading through the extraneous options becomes a little wearying. 

They feel premium enough too, with a lightweight minimalist design that remains comfortably in the ear, and the case is lovely and small enough to slip into little pockets even though it packs a few premium features like wireless charging.

The sound quality is perfectly acceptable for the price (though if your budget breaches the $/£100 barrier, you’ll have a few more tempting options) and definitely matches the ‘cheap’ with the ‘cheerful’ for most songs.

I also appreciated how the Earfun Air Pro 4’s battery life outstrips most competitors, with 7.5 hours per bud with ANC on and 11 hours with it off. That’s a fair few songs more than you’ll get on most earbuds in this price bracket. 

So if you’re happy to ignore a few too many superfluous and potentially confusing features, or are willing to try and get your head around them, then the Earfun Air Pro 4 are good picks for people on a budget. But if not, then the company has loads more options for you – as do its competitors (more on that later).

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Price and release date

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Unveiled in July 2024
  • Cost $89.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$140) 

The Earfun Air Pro 4 were announced right at the end of July 2024, and became available to purchase shortly afterwards. The company sells them in certain regions but also has a global option on its website, listed in USD, which is why we don’t have an AUD price.

The buds cost $89.99 / £79.99 (roughly AU$140) which is notably a lower price than the $99.99 / £99.99 (roughly AU$160) Air Pro 3 – those earbuds got price cuts almost immediately after launch, so it's possible that the Air Pro 4 could too.

Earfun has a busy line-up of earbuds and the Air Pro 4 slot in just ahead of most of the others in terms of price; the Air Pro 3, Free Pro 3 and Air Pro SV all cost just a small amount less. The company specializes in low-cost earbuds and these new models are no different.

So yes, the Earfun Air Pro 4 definitely count as cheap earbuds; they won’t break the bank and that fact helps set expectations with the sound quality and features.

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Specs

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Features

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Many (many) equalizer presets
  • ANC is good but too many modes
  • Good battery life compared to rivals

One of my favorite things about Earfun’s other earbuds is that they often trump the competition in terms of battery life, and that’s certainly the case with the Air Pro 4.

With ANC turned on, the buds last for roughly seven and a half hours before you need to return them to the case to power back up; turn ANC off and that figure is even longer at 11 hours. Most same-price rivals go for about 6 and 9 hours respectively, so the Pro 4 is, ahem, Pro-4-ming well here.

Earfun has said that the case can provide up the 52 hours of music playback between all its charges; the website doesn’t state whether that’s with ANC on or off, but I’d imagine it’s with it off. At an estimate, I’d give you 35 and a half hours of listening time from the case if you only listen with ANC on.

On the topic of ANC: it has potential on the Air Pro 4, but an annoying abundance of choice makes it hard for you to make the most of it.

The standard ANC is pretty heavy-duty, cutting out annoying background noises to help you enjoy your music without the chattering of keyboards or whine of noisy trains that you’re working on (at least, those are my favorite uses of it!).

The thing is, in the app there’s no one noise cancellation mode. Instead, there are seven.

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)

These include ambient mode and no ANC (pretty self-explanatory) but five different versions of ANC: strong, balance, AI environment adaptive, AI ear adaptive, and wind noise cancellation. These five all have descriptions about how they’re different but it’s all very vague and I couldn’t hear much of a difference between them, especially the adaptive one. After a few listening sessions of confused testing, I decided just to stick to ‘strong’ and hope for the best.

Beyond this confusing ANC situation, the Earfun app offers the basic features that most companion apps do: a few toggle-able features such as wear detection and low-latency mode for gaming, the ability to customize the controls and a ‘find my headphones’ feature.

There’s an equalizer too and I really took to it: you can customize your sound yourself, or rely on a sound profile mode that tests your hearing (I didn’t find this mode quite as accurate or useful as other companies’ equivalents though, like Nothing’s in the Nothing Ear (a) and Nothing Ear). But the best part is the presets: there are 30 in all, and lots of them make marked differences on the sound profile, so it’s useful if you want to tailor your mix to what you’re listening to.

Frankly, 30 is far too many, and I didn’t want to scroll through a whole list of ‘Bass Reducer 1, 2 and 3’s in order to find specific ones. Instead I stick to a core 15 based on genres of music, and that seemed enough – in situations like this, less is definitely more. I’m just surprised that there can be 30 without any for spoken word or podcasts!

  • Features score: 3.5/5

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Design

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • AirPods-style stem earbuds
  • Fairly small charging case
  • IPX5 rating against limited showers

The Air Pro 4 aren’t the smallest earbuds I’ve ever seen, even within Earfun's lineup, but they’re still pretty slender. The buds weigh roughly 5g each (according to my kitchen scales; no official weight is listed) and consist of an eartip, a small body and an AirPods-style stem.

The default tip fit in my ear comfortably and stayed nice and secure through the entire testing process, but Earfun has packed four extra sizes into the box, which is at least one more than you normally see in earbuds – and two more at this budget level. These range from extra-small to extra-large and I commend Earfun on it.

Each bud has a small button, which is the round indentation at the top of the stem that you can see in the images. This only required a gentle touch and so I found them easy to use, although there was a noticeable delay between the press and the desired action being triggered.

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)

The buds have an IPX5 rating, making them protected from streams of water but not immersion in liquid, so you can wear them in the rain or even in the shower, but not in the bath (or pool).

Keeping the Air Pro 4 cozy and safe when you’re not using them is their charging case; from product listing images and the size of the box, you’d imagine this would be quite big, but it was a lot smaller than I expected. It weighs 56g (when the buds are in) and measures 62.4 x 46.6 x 29.2mm.

Said case, which opens in a clamshell style, has a USB-C port for charging but also supports wireless powering. Despite being a small plastic pebble that’s smaller than the average size of a field mouse, it felt sturdy enough to protect the buds well.

  • Design score: 3.5/5

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Sound quality

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Good sound, rather than great
  • Equalizer gives you customization over sound
  • Several upgrades over predecessor

It’s good that the Earfun equalizer is so in depth in letting you customize your music, because in default mode the buds are good, but not great. For the price, they are better than lots of rivals, but you’d definitely get better audio by paying more.

Unless you boost the treble in the app, it’s a little lacking by default, falling in the mix behind the relatively meaty bass. Mid is also hiding in the back, but I found it susceptible to peaking and distortion at times, with instruments like hi-hats and acoustic guitars getting mushy.

However once you turn to the equalizer, and push the music to its limits, you can get a lot more legroom for enjoying your music. Bass, which is already pretty meaty by default, can gain even more prominence, though it’ll never turn as forceful as on something like the Nothing Buds. 

I enjoyed rescuing the treble, with certain presets pulling it further forward, and the mid to a certain extent – though this put both at higher risk of peaking in songs. And while the presets let you play around with how the different sounds interact, I rarely felt that sounds found energetic.

A few additions to the Air Pro 4 over the Pro 3 is support for a new audio codic, LDAC, allowing for 24-bit/96kbps streaming from supported files or apps, as well as Bluetooth 5.4 for a more reliable connection. This offsets what might, on paper, look like a downgrade in the driver size to 10mm from 11mm.

  • Sound quality: 3.5/5

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Value

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Good feature set for price
  • More cash will get you better audio

If you know low-cost earbuds, you’ll know that Earfun always gives you good value for money, and that’s no different here.

The Air Pro 4 give you decent music quality, a long-lasting battery and admirable noise cancellation, and the only thing more slender than the easily-pocketable charging case is the price.

Sure, the Earfun Air Pro 4 isn’t quite as feature-packed as some of the biggest names on the market, but it also costs a third of its big Bose, Apple and Samsung alternatives. 

  • Value: 4/5

Should I buy the Earfun Air Pro 4?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Earfun Air Pro 4 review: Also consider

How I tested the Earfun Air Pro 4

The Earfun Air Pro 4

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for two weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office and on trips

I tested the Earfun Air Pro 4 for two weeks to write this review, which is the standard testing time for earbuds like this. I mainly used them connected to my Android phone, but also paired them to my Windows laptop and iPad during testing.

The listening for this review was done at home, in the office, at the gym, on walks around my neighborhood and also on a couple of long train journeys, so their ANC was really put to the test. I listened to music, podcasts and audio books on Spotify and also watched YouTube videos, streamed Netflix movies, caught lots of the Olympics on Discovery Plus and partook in phone and video calls, all using the buds.

I've been testing gadgets at TechRadar for over five years now, and in that time have used plenty of budget earbuds including previous Earfun options.

  • First reviewed in August 2024
I tried the new Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, and the fit is way less clunky than before
8:10 pm | August 13, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

Google first introduced the inaugural Pixel Buds Pro back in 2022, so it’s about time we had a new model, and the technology giant has unveiled just that, alongside the third-generation Pixel Watch and four phones under the Pixel 9 umbrella. 

Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 might look a bit similar to their older siblings, but the portion that rests in your ear is slimmer and delivers a more comfortable fit, at least from my first impressions. Under the hood, these are the first earbuds with a Google Tensor chip to power some Pixel Buds-only features like ‘Clear Calling’ and promise improvements to both noise cancellation and battery life.

Now, ahead of a full-fat review, I’m sharing my very early first impressions. How early are we talking? I got to wear them in my ears with a medium-sized ear tip, but I didn’t get to listen to music or test out the new features. So I’ll share my opinions on fit and also run through the latest promised enhancements. And of course, I'll go hands-on as soon as possible and fully test them for a review as well.

Pricing and availability

Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 in pink, on a desk

(Image credit: Future)

Regardless of which color you choose, Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 will cost $229.99 / £219 / around AU$379. You can pick between Hazel, Porcelain, Wintergreen, or Peony – and having seen 'em all, those last two are my favorite and the most fun.

If you’re already sold, preorders are open. However, Google isn’t shipping the Pixel Buds Pro 2 until September 26, 2024, so you’ll have to wait a bit – in fact, that’s after the Pixel 9 family, including Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and Pixel Watch 3

The wait to jam might very well be worth it, though.

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Much lighter and way more cozy

Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 in Wintergreen

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

The earbuds still have a friendly circle that sticks out of your ear to the world with a “G” Google logo and capacitive touch controls, but it’s no longer attached to a longer, ovular piece that goes in the ear and attached to the ear tip. 

It’s now a molded, black, circular piece of plastic with an ear tip attached to the end. You’ll still get several sizes in the box, but the real significance is that each Pixel Bud Pro 2 weighs in at just 4.7 grams, which is 27% lighter than the original.

In my short first impressions, I slid the Pixel Buds Pro 2 into my ears and immediately noticed a more nestled, cozy fit that didn’t weigh down my ears as much. They also protrude far less and have a new twist-to-adjust stabilizer, which is not a wing tip but, like Studio Buds Plus from Beats, kind of like a corkscrew that you can turn to the left or right to stabilize these in your ear.

It aims to ensure the Pixel Buds Pro 2 won’t fall out, but the added bonus is a better seal in your ear. This way, whatever you’re listening to sounds better, and you can passively block out environmental sounds around you. This refreshed design and the onboard Google-made Tensor A1 chip also promises up to two times more effective active noise cancellation. Google is calling this Silent Seal 2.0, and I’m really keen to try it out, especially considering how good of a passive seal these provide. 

Google Pixel Bud Pro 2 in Wintergreen

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

Much like AirPods Pro 2, Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 have a conversation detection feature that allows you to have a conversation with someone without removing the earbuds. The device switches into a listening mode that lets environmental sound in.

Powering the audio in each Pixel Buds Pro 2 will be a new 11-millimeter driver with a high-frequency chamber that works with the Tensor A1 chip for audio processing. These also still offer support for ‘Spatial Audio with Head Tracking’ with the right tracks.

Aside from music playback and noise cancellation, like other listening modes, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will also pair and connect seamlessly between other Pixel devices –be it a Pixel phone, Tablet, or Watch. Similar to how Google Gemini is unashamedly front-and-center within its latest phones, you will be able to use Gemini on Pixel Buds Pro 2, and it will effectively be the smart assistant here. I hope it yields some improvements with the live translation features of the past.

Regarding battery life, Google says that Pixel Buds Pro 2 can last for up to 12 hours with active noise cancellation off or 8 hours with that listening mode enabled. That’s pretty much in line with other similarly priced earbuds, and I’m eager to see how this claim runs in our testing. When you factor in recharges in the case, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 should last for up to 30 hours. Here's the rub: the older set will serve up to 11 hours from the buds, or up to 31 hours total listening time with the wireless charging case… so a minor downgrade there. 

Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, bottom of case

(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

As I was hoping to see, just like the AirPods Pro 2, Google added a speaker to the Pixel Buds case. This means that when you misplace the Pro 2, you can still see the location but can also ping the case, and make it emit a sound so you can hear it. 

Considering the improved design – and the lovely shades of Peony and Wintergreen – plus the more comfortable design, I have high hopes for the audio playback and noise cancellation chops here. 

Most importantly, though they stick out less and aren’t as cumbersome. So, let’s just hope the other aspects live up to the hype.

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Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: great earbuds that took the wrong leaf from the AirPods playbook
5:50 pm | July 25, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Tags: , | Comments: Off

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: Two-minute review

People are quick to label any stem-toting wireless earbud as ‘AirPods clones’ but Samsung isn’t doing itself any favors to deflect the term with its Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. They look like what you'd get if you threw Apple’s earbuds and a Toblerone into a blender. Can we see past their oh-so-familiar design if they're the best earbuds out there? Of course. But let's not jump the gun. 

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are Samsung’s new-for-2024 top-end earbuds, launched alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 at a launch event in July of the year, and they fill a void in the company’s line-up given that the Buds 2 Pro were getting long in the tooth.

If you know anything about Samsung’s line-up, you’re probably expecting big things from a product boasting the Korean tech giant’s name, as well as the word ‘Pro’ thrown in for good measure, and you won't be left high and dry with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro.

Frankly, these earbuds sound fantastic, with some of the best sound in any earbuds I’ve tested. The V-shaped audio means you’re getting meaty bass but also defined treble, so whether you’re listening to the highest opera or the lowest synthwave you’re going to be enjoying your music.

There’s no need to worry about background noises getting in the way either, with the powerful noise cancellation of the buds doing an amazing job at eradicating noises around you. I was really impressed with how the Buds 3 Pro didn’t just reduce the prominence of noises around me, but stopped me noticing many of them at all.

And I know I’ve been down on the AirPods’ – sorry, the Galaxy Buds’ – design, but it’s a popular shape in the wireless earbuds sector for a reason. The Buds 3 Pro are comfortable to wear, are light enough that they stay stuck in your ear and look pretty svelte too.

Some issues from our Galaxy Buds 2 Pro have been fixed too, including my personal sticking point: the low battery life. The Buds 3 Pro last a little longer in use but the case battery life has seen more noticeable increases, making the 3 Pro much better suited for longer journeys.

That’s a lot of praise, but it’s worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro aren’t for everyone. Not only is the high price prohibitively expensive for those who aren’t die-hard audiophiles (or get the Buds as part of a purchase incentive with a Galaxy phone), but some of the really cool features are locked behind an annoying wall.

This wall is ownership of a Samsung Galaxy device – not any old Samsung blower but a recent Galaxy S, Galaxy Z or Tab S device too, as per our handy compatibility explainer. If you don’t have such a device you can’t use Samsung's new AI features such as the language interpreter, improved codec support, the voice restorer or the smart dynamic ANC. Sure, it makes sense that the translation feature would only be available using AI computation on a Galaxy phone (and the levelled-up 24-bit/96kHz streaming support over Bluetooth uses Samsung's new and proprietary SSC UHQ codec), but dynamic ANC is commonplace in earbuds at half the Buds 3 Pro’s price.

Yes, Apple is also known for its closed ecosystem, which bans Android phone users from using AirPods' best features (Find My, head-tracked Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and so on), but did Samsung really need to take that leaf from Apple’s book?

None of these features are highlights of the buds, either, and you’d get a similar experience using the Buds 3 Pro when paired to any other mobile. Take that as you will.

One other ‘scandal’ that I should probably flag in this introduction is that many early adopters of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro found themselves breaking the eartips in a range of dramatic ways. This is because the proprietary system which connects the tips to the buds holds onto them too tightly, and the tips themselves are pretty fragile, so it’s easy to accidentally rip the tips when you’re trying to replace them with a different size. I’ve found a way to reliably replace them which you can read about below, but it’s indicative of the manufacturing issues which caused the buds’ release to be delayed.

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Price and release date

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Unveiled on July 10, 2024, alongside Buds 3
  • Cost $249 / £219 (roughly AU$380)
  • Price increase over 2022 Buds 2 Pro

The Galaxy Buds 3 Pro were announced on July 10, 2024 alongside other products, including the non-Pro alternatives. At the time of writing, release date delays mean you can pre-order them, but in the UK at least Samsung's checkout informs you to 'Order now to receive from 22 August'.

You can pick up the buds for $249 / £219 (roughly AU$380, with exact Australian pricing pending), so they’re pricey buds which also present a small price hike over their $229 / £219 / AU$349 predecessors. The Buds 3 are much cheaper at $179 / £159 / AU$229, but at a time when competition is fierce and most manufacturers are shaving extra dollars (or pounds) off new propositions, a $20 increase is a bold strategy from Samsung. 

Depending on where you live, these buds are therefore as expensive as, or slightly cheaper than, the $249 / £229 / AU$399 AirPods Pro 2 – but bear in mind that the Apple earbuds' advanced age means they're now regularly available for less than those quoted prices. 

You’ll be able to find more competitors below, but know for now that these are some of the priciest earbuds that general consumers might opt to buy. Deep-wallet audiophiles have plenty more options though. 

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Features

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • 6-hour buds battery, 30-hour with case, longer with ANC off
  • Noise cancellation is heavy-duty and impressive
  • Galaxy-exclusive features aren't all that handy

One of our biggest gripes with the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro was their limited battery life; you’ll be glad to know that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro improve on that staying power. It’s not a huge increase, but it’s something.

According to Samsung the buds will last for 6 hours if ANC is turned on, and an extra hour on top of that if it’s off. After my testing, I’d concur with this estimate – though when I tried to do unbroken playback tests, the buds would turn off when out of my ear for 15 minutes, even when auto-detect was turned off. The charging case rounds those totals up to 26 (ANC on) or 30 (ANC off) hours of stamina, and you can charge this case wirelessly as well as with a USB-C cable.

I can see how some people would consider 6 hours still far too short for an earbud's battery life, and I’m in the same camp. That’s why the battery life isn’t on the review’s ‘cons’ list any more, but hasn’t made it to the ‘pros’ one.

So what of that ANC, or Active Noise Cancellation? Generally, it’s really great – the buds throw a blanket over whatever background noise is going on when you’re trying to listen to music. I’ve just moved into a flat backing onto a rail line and I could rarely tell when trains were passing when using the earbuds. This was on the maximum intensity mode, of course, but the others work well if you still want some surrounding awareness.

The Samsung Wearable app does offer two further modes: Ambient and Adaptive (the latter exclusive to Samsung users, more on that later). Ostensibly the former is to allow certain background noises to penetrate a mid-level noise cancellation, while the latter changes your ANC based on your environment, but in practice these both seemed to have exactly the same result.

Wearable, the Buds’ companion app, is a little barebones compared to the wider world of earbuds tie-in software. It lets you tweak with the ANC, change on-ear controls, tweak with an equaliser and do a few other small tasks, but I didn’t find myself using it very much. In fact, of the two phones I tested the Galaxy Buds alongside, for one of them (the non-Galaxy one) I didn’t even download the app, and found the buds worked just fine.

So let’s get onto that Samsung-related issue, which you’ve already seen listed in the ‘cons’ section of the review.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)

The Galaxy AI features, which include the adaptive ANC, a feature which restores crackling voice in poor-quality calls and a much-touted live audio translation feature, are all exclusive to people who own a top-end Samsung smartphone. Already, non-Samsung users may be closing their web page… but this ‘con’ isn’t as much of a ‘con’ as you’d think, for better or worse.

As I’ve mentioned, the adaptive ANC didn’t seem to add much, and I didn’t get to test the call quality improver since I didn’t experience any bad phone calls over testing. I tried to use the translation feature but I couldn’t see how the buds really added anything to the apps’ equation. The way it’s meant to work is that you can say something in one language and it’s translated into another, so two people who speak different languages can maintain a conversation. And that’s true without the earbuds, so you don’t need to buy them to use the feature.

This is all to say, the Galaxy AI features aren’t really that important in the overall picture of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, so your lack of a Samsung smartphone shouldn’t put you off buying the earbuds. Some other exclusive features that don’t fall under the Galaxy AI umbrella include multipoint pairing to two Galaxy devices only, better quality audio using Samsung's 24-bit/96kHz new SSC UHQ codec, and audio casting to various devices. I only used the Buds alongside one Samsung device so couldn’t use most of these.

It’s a shame that Samsung has opted to put some of the features you’re paying for behind a pay-wall, especially when perks like adaptive ANC and multi-point pairing are commonplace in cheaper earbuds, but I don’t imagine many Samsung customers will use these either feature.

A few Galaxy Buds 3 Pro features are open to everyone, and they’re pretty handy. The 360 audio works well for immersive sound, with head tracking adding a little bit for those who don’t find it disconcerting, plus an earbud fit test helps you work out which tips to use (if you think you can handle changing them!).

The buds pack Bluetooth 5.4 which is reliable and can let you listen over relatively long distances from your phone. Through the entire testing process I didn’t have a single issue with drop-outs or connection problems.

One final thing I want to flag is that, unlike the vast majority of earbuds, wear detection doesn’t come enabled by default. For a large part of the testing I thought the buds didn’t have it; they do, you just need to toggle it on in the app. 

  • Features score: 4/5

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Design

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • AirPods lookalikes with Toblerone stem
  • Sit comfortably in ears, but replacing tips is a nightmare
  • 5.4g per bud and 46.5g for case, with IP57 protection

For the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Samsung has steered away from the pebble-body design ethos of the Buds 2 Pro towards a more AirPods Pro-like design, featuring a tip, a small body and stems that point down towards the floor.

The design is close in plenty of ways to those Apple ones, with tips that point down at an angle, the clean white design of the default model and even the silver trim around the edges of the stem. The only major difference is that instead of being rounded, the stem is prismic like a Toblerone chocolate bar.

White isn’t the only color option, as there’s also a black one for sale, and each has a small hint of color in the form of red and blue dots that correlate to spaces in the charging case, so you know which bud goes where.

The stems also have what Samsung is calling a 'blade light', or a small LED strip over the ridge to act as an indicator. Of what? I couldn’t tell, and given that you can’t see the earbuds when they’re in use, it seems like a gimmicky feature to me. You can use the stems for controls too: swiping up and down to change the volume was easy but due to the prism shape of the stem, trying to pinch it to pause music was a faff.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)

Each earbud weighs a gentle 5.4g and I found they fit quite comfortably and reliably in the ear, never falling out or causing earache from the weight. They’re IP57 rated, which means they’re protected from dust to a limited degree, and will survive immersion in water of up to 1 meter deep for a short amount of time.

A major problem with the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, that we’ve already covered extensively, pertains to replacing the eartips. Samsung uses a home-brewed clasping system to hold its tips in place, that’s similar to something Apple does but is different to the vast majority of earbuds manufacturers. 

To put it simply, the eartips are held in place incredibly firmly, and are pretty hard to remove from the buds when you want to change sizes. People have reported tearing the tips when trying to remove them, and I gouged out a chunk with my nail by accident when trying to do the same. I found that the best way to remove the tips is to pinch as near to the buds themselves as possible when pulling, but honestly if you are worried about the risk of breaking your earbuds, you may consider looking at the non-Pro options instead.

The other design aspect of the Buds 3 Pro is the case, a lightweight 46.5g plastic container that’s not too big. It has an LED charging light, USB-C charging port, reset button; the usual accoutrements. As a fan of see-through charging cases I was happy to see a little viewing port in the Buds’ case.

  • Design score: 3.5/5

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Sound quality

  • Bass-heavy sound
  • Treble is lacking
  • Equalizer lets you tweak sound to an extent

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro are some of the best wireless earbuds I’ve tested for sound, and they’ve got a grocery list of fancy-sounding technologies to back up that statement.

There’s the Samsung Seamless Codec, which compresses and decodes music of up to 24-bit/96kHz when used with Samsung Galaxy S23 or later, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 / Z Flip 5 or later, or Tab S9 series. The company calls this Ultra High Quality Sound (note the caps!) and it cetainly is that. Then, there's the two-way speaker which includes both a woofer and tweeter, plus Adaptive EQ which uses AI to detect your listening and tweak the equalizer as a result (another Galaxy-locked device which curiously I couldn’t find on my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra).

Whatever jargon Samsung throws at you, and however much you understand it, there’s one thing to say for sure: the Buds 3 Pro sound great. 

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)

The Buds have a V-shaped sound, which means that both the bass and treble are elevated and distinct, while the mids are just a little stepped back. Some could consider this the optimal type of sound signature as it caters to both bass-heads and treble fans. Listening to a song, you can appreciate the bassline and drum kicks just as much as the vocal melody or guitar solo, and music is dynamic and full of energy as a result. It creates a wide sound stage and you feel that different instruments are really around you.

If I were being pedantic, I’d say the that the treble sounds just a little more elevated than the bass, and you can ‘feel’ the bass a bit more than you can ‘hear’ it, but this is nit-picking for sure.

As is the natural effect of V-shaped audio, mid sounds are a little further back in the mix. I’m personally a fan of the mids (a mid fan? Or does that sound like I’m only half a fan?) so this was a shame, but I found the equalizer was handy and let me bring them up in the mix. The presets will also be useful here. 

I was impressed by the maximum volume of the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro: too many earbuds think an audible level of output is optional, but Samsung clearly disagrees. You can get a nice meaty output if you want, and I didn’t linger too long in the higher-volume areas for fear of harming my hearing.

  • Sound quality: 4.5/5

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Value

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Top-tier earbuds that come with a fittingly high price
  • More affordable options exist

It’s hard to keep a straight face when considering the value proposition of the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, given that they’re some of the most expensive earbuds designed for general consumers.

There’s no doubt that these are top-end earbuds, especially in the audio quality and noise cancellation departments, and if money is no concern then you’re looking in the right place for your new set of buds.

But if you want to make sure your cash goes as far as it possibly can, there are a plethora of more affordable options that offer competitive sound, a bigger range of features and a longer-lasting battery life. Plus, most let you change the eartips without shredding them…

  • Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro?

Buy them if...

You have a diverse music taste
I found the Buds 3 Pro's sound profile was just as appropriate for rock as it is for jazz, hip-hop, folk, classical, spoken word and so on. 

Don’t buy them if…

Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro

The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro against a leafy background.

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for 2 weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office and on walks

I used the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro for over two weeks to test them, and together we enjoyed a wide range of trials and tribulations.

Paired alongside (varyingly) a Xiaomi Mi Note 10 or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, I used them in the office, on walks around neighbourhoods of varying noise levels, on trains, on a run once and also while in my new flat (that backs onto a railway and is also under a flight path. I know). 

They got to cancel a lot of noise, and I generally relied on the top-tier form of ANC on the Buds 3 Pro as a result. In terms of EQ, I generally relied on the default option but did play around a little bit for testing purposes.

I mostly listened using Tidal, Spotify, Netflix or YouTube, mainly relying on the former for testing with music and audio books. 

My tech reviewing history for TechRadar spans more than five years now, including countless earbuds and other Samsung products; in fact the first ever launch event I attended was for the original Samsung Galaxy Buds (and the Galaxy S10). So I've got a wealth of experience with gadgets such as this.

  • First reviewed in July 2024
Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: one cool new earbuds feature won’t save Jabra’s swan song
2:00 pm | July 14, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Tags: | Comments: Off

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2: Two-minute review

In the ten minutes between me receiving the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review unit, and actually turning them on, I received the news that Jabra is pulling out of the headphone market. These second-gen wired earbuds have thus become the last pair it’s going to sell and support.

That gives this Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review a somewhat elegiac undertone: is this a well-tuned swan song from the legacy audio company, or an out-of-tune dying rasp? Since you’ve already read the verdict (or at least the star-rating) above I won’t press this dichotomy – we're veering towards the latter. They aren't among the best earbuds we've ever tested.

Jabra’s parent company GN cited increasing competition in the wireless earbuds market as one of the key reasons it was leaving the fray, and it’s easy to see why the company thinks that, as the 10 Gen 2 simply aren’t competitive enough.

Before we get further in, though, let’s first unpick that name: these are the successors to the Jabra Elite 10, which were only nine months old when these Gen 2 buds came out. As the name suggests, the Elite 10 stood at the top of Jabra’s line of true wireless earbuds, with a meaty price to signify it.

However, when I started testing the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2, I didn’t look up the price, and based on the sound quality and feature set made a guess as to what I thought the price would be. Lo and behold, the buds actually cost about twice what I would’ve guessed. Simply put, their price is too high for what you’re getting, when you consider how competitive the true wireless earbud market is – no wonder GN is stepping back.

The most telling issue is that the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2’s sound quality just isn’t great. Music has more peaking than a meringue tray bake, with acoustic guitars and hi-hats struggling to emerge from something of a white-noise melee despite this, while mids turn tinny to become the most prominent in the mix. Treble stands its ground fairly well, but bass is all but lost in this sadly confusing recipe.

The sound isn’t bad, it’s just not… Elite.

Unfortunately, the fit isn’t very reliable when you’re in motion either; the buds often become loose and needed to be pushed back in when I walked outside. 

A potential saving grace, and one that could have been in a hail-Mary feature for Jabra, is a little perk that lets you plug the case into any other device using an in-box cable so you can stream audio straight from the device to the buds. However as we’ll get to later, this is only situationally useful and didn’t work properly lots of the time. 

It’s a shame that the Elite 10 Gen 2 are so disappointing, because some aspects of them are really impressive. I usually hate on-ear buttons, but the Jabras have easily the best I’ve ever used – they’re easy to find and press, and you don’t have to push so hard that the buds end up half-way to your eardrum before the song pauses.

The app has a range of soundscapes you can turn on to get some peace and quiet and detox for a little bit. White noise, chattering crowds, rain, there are a range of options for you to choose from.

And while the earbuds themselves don’t have a great battery life, the case really does, so you can rely on it to keep you charged up for a weekend away… as long as you’re happy frequently returning the buds to their case to get them charged back up.

So there are parts of the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 to like and other aspects that are disappointing; as consumer products then, they’re fine, but as the earbuds we’ll remember Jabra by, they are uninspiring reminders of a departing giant.

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Price and release date

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Unveiled in June 2024
  • Premium price at $279.99 / £259.99 (roughly AU$420)

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 were unveiled in June 2024 and put on sale shortly afterwards. A single day after the June 11 release, Jabra announced that they would be its last earbuds (alongside the Elite 8 Active Gen 2, which were shown off at the same time).

You can buy the Elite 10 Gen 2 for $279.99 / £259.99 (roughly AU$420), which makes them $30 / £30 more expensive than their predecessors. In Australia, there’s not been a confirmed release for the Gen 2 just yet, but the first-gen models cost AU$379.

At that price, these are Jabra’s most premium true wireless earbuds, ahead of the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 which are slightly less top-end and the Elite 5 which are mid-range offerings.

You can pick up our highest-rated earbuds for about that price – the Technics EAH AZ80 go for $299 / £259 / AU$499 and, for the iHeads, the AirPods Pro 2 actually come in at slightly less than that. So it’s an incredibly competitive market segment. 

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Specs

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Features

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Can plug case into other devices to stream audio
  • 6-hour buds battery, 36-hour with case
  • App has some features, including soundscapes

I’m going to start with the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2’s signature feature: using a cable included in the box, you can plug the case into any device that has a 3.5mm headphone jack or USB-C port, and immediately stream audio from the device into your earbuds.

In practice, this didn’t always work, and when it did it wasn’t ideal. Not all devices recognized the Elites, and sometimes I just couldn’t use the feature – on other devices I had to manually change the audio output to the device, which was annoying and fiddly.

When it did work, it… well, worked as intended: I used the feature to stream music from an MP3 player and from my iPad (with less effort than actually setting up the Bluetooth itself). Other than when I was intentionally using the feature to test it, though, I found myself totally ignoring it: it simply doesn’t seem that useful.

Two examples Jabra gives for the feature's handiness include for TV viewing and on a treadmill. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a treadmill with any kind of music port (maybe it’s just the gyms I go to?) and my TV has this thing called a ‘speaker’ which is a bit better for audio. The other use case, which it’s touting more than the others, is on planes for in-flight entertainment. I can see the point, but between the middling noise cancellation and low max volume, there’s no way you’re going to hear subtle dialogue in your movie over the sound of the engines and air-con. 

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)

The feature becomes less impressive when you remember that plenty of over-ear headphones have 3.5mm jacks and will naturally block out lots of background noise by virtue of their design. Many of them also have ANC and spatial audio like the Jabra. Check out our list of the best noise cancelling headphones for some great options – just make sure that they come with a 3.5mm cable in-box to save you buying one separately.

Okay, so I’ve torn apart the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2’s key feature, how do they fare beyond that? Uh… fine, I guess. 

The battery life isn’t amazing, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen: with the buds, you’re getting just over 6 hours of listening time with ANC on or 8 hours with it turned off. Using the case you can get 27 hours of playback total with ANC and 36 hours with it turned off, which is actually pretty good compared to some rivals.

There are two modes of active noise cancellation on the Jabra: first is the standard one. It’s okay for removing the worst of background noise, but it doesn’t cut it for louder environments. If you’re on a train or by a busy road it’ll barely make a dent in what’s around you.

Then there’s ‘hearthrough’, which is supposed to allow certain sounds in, to keep you safe. It generally worked well, pulling through nearby noises that the standard ANC mode removed. One thing that confused me was that in the app, the hearthrough mode gives you a slider to change the intensity. I could never tell if this corresponded to how much background sound was allowed through, or how much was cancelled out.

And there’s my segue to the app: Sound+, as it’s called, gives you the basic features that most Bluetooth headphone tie-in apps offer. You can change the ANC, turn on spatial audio, fiddle with an equalizer and also turn on a range of background soundscapes if you want to relax. None of these are new to earbuds but they all work well, with the Elite 10 giving accurate head tracking for the spatial sound and the range of soundscapes being pretty impressive.

  • Features score: 3.5/5

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Design

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Fairly small earbuds, average-sized case
  • Easy-to-press on-bud buttons
  • Five color options, IP57 rated

The case for the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 is fairly standard as wireless earbuds go, and is nigh-on identical to the first-gen version. It’s a small clamshell that houses the buds, which has space for a USB-C port to charge with (and for one other feature…).

It’s a lightweight case, weighing 46.6g and measuring 19.6 x 18.8 x 28.2mm. It’s made of plastic but feels nice and smooth in the hand. However the pinkish-beige color of our test unit showed up marks, stains and smears very easily, and I had to wipe the unit a few times to clean it.

The four other color options will likely avoid this problem, all being darker. There’s the greenish-blue Denim, brown Cocoa, black Titanium Black and also black Gloss Black.

Then onto the music machines themselves: these are small bean-style buds with a tip and a little oval body. They weigh 5.5g so they’re basically average for earbuds like this – weight is doubly important for bean-style wireless earbuds like this as, if they’re too heavy, it can make them prone to falling out of your ears.

When I was sitting still, the buds fit fine and were totally comfortable; when walking they sometimes got a little loose, requiring me to push them back into position, but it didn’t happen nearly as often as on some other earbuds I’ve tested.

Each bud has a button on it – if you look at the pictures, this is the large silver panel, and it only takes a slight depress to press. Of all the earbuds I’ve ever tested, this is one of the easiest to use as it’s easy to hit the button due to their large size, and the fact you only need a little bit of pressure to trigger them ensures you’re not jamming the buds right up your ear canal every time you want to pause a song.

  • Design score: 4/5

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Sound quality

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tinny audio
  • Bass lost in the mix
  • Equalizer fixes some issues

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 are by no means the worst-sounding wireless earbuds I’ve tested, but when you consider how much you have to pay for them, they’re not great.

The main problem, that I noticed as soon as I started to test the Jabras and that never abated through testing, is simply that audio sounds quite tinny.

This peaking is most noticeable in parts of songs that are prone to peaking: drum cymbals and hi-hats, acoustic guitar rhythms, shakers and other background percussion, sometimes vocal harmonies. But it would also show up where I wasn’t expecting it: the vocal lines of some songs would show symptoms, as would electric guitar solos or piano accompaniments. 

For some kinds of music, this was noticeable but not a big issue. But for some songs, particularly in folksy or acoustic-heavy genres, it drastically reduced the quality: tunes like Langhorne Slim and the Law’s Strangers or City of the Sun’s W. 16th St missed the edge that made me love them in the first place.

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)

Treble is audible in the Elite 10 Gen 2’s mix but I don’t see bass-loving audiophiles enjoying the Jabra either – lower-frequency sounds struggle to be heard in the mix by default.

If there’s a bigger problem than its sound quality, though, it’s that the Jabra Elites are just too quiet. At max volume and with noise cancellation turned up to max, it can still be quite hard to hear music when you’re in a busy environment. I’m writing this paragraph while on a train, and I had to give up on podcast listening because I was losing every couple of words — music doesn’t sound great either if you can only hear the most prominent instruments and lines!

You’d hope that the Jabra app would solve some of these issues, but let’s rule the latter out straight way: there are no volume controls in Sound+. There is an equalizer, though.

Using this equalizer, I managed to fix a few problems with the buds; boosting the bass reduces the impact of the tinny sound to a degree. It wasn’t a fix-all cure, but if you know what you’re doing with equalizers, you might be able to improve the sound quality somewhat. There are some presets too and I’d recommend trying out the Bass boost, Energize or Smooth options first.

  • Sound quality: 3/5

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Value

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Wait for a discount
  • There are better-value alternatives

At their current asking price, the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 just don’t offer you good value for money.

Their feature set, battery life and design are all on par with earbuds that cost half as much, while the sound quality is actually worse than many cheaper rivals that I’ve tested – it’s just incredibly hard to recommend the buds.

That’ll change if you can find them seriously discounted in sales, but at their asking price, there’s no way these offer decent value for money.

If you’re about to say “yes, but I need the wired audio feature” follow my advice from the features section – find over-ear headphones that have a 3.5mm jack. You’ll thank me later. 

  • Value: 2.5/5

Should I buy the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 review: Also consider

How I tested the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

The Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for 2 weeks
  • Tested at home, in the office, on walks and on holiday

I tested the Jabra Elite 10 Gen 2 for just over two weeks, which included plenty of natural and real-life testing, and standardized TechRadar tests too – including our new mic test. 

I mainly used the headphones paired to either my Android phone or iPad, but using the wired cable I tested it briefly alongside my laptop, computer, MP3 player and another smartphone. Testing was generally for music or TV shows but also on podcasts and phone calls.

My tech testing experience at TechRadar spans over five years, and recently it's been largely focusing on audio products; I've tested plenty of the true wireless headphones that you might consider alongside the Jabra.

  • First reviewed in July 2024
Sennheiser IE 600 review: these wired earbuds illuminate details you didn’t even know existed
3:00 pm | July 5, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Comments: Off

Sennheiser IE 600 review

The Sennheiser IE 600 are a pair of in-ear monitors that paint the most delicate details onto a canvas. They excel in tying several sonic elements together into a beautiful work of art, with exceptionally clear and beautifully balanced audio, plus strong separation, too. Of course, such qualities come at a steep price (around $800 / £700 / AU$1,200), but there’s no denying that the Sennheiser IE 600 offer excellent quality on a number of levels.

First of all, the Sennheiser IE 600 are particularly skilled in supplying defined audio – in part because of their dual two-chamber absorbers. These essentially capture and attenuate multiple sounds occupying the same frequency range, according to Sennheiser, meaning that you can enjoy textured audio and pick out the finer details. As a result, it never feels like you have to go on a mission to discover intricate audio attributes – the Sennheiser IE 600 does all the necessary heavy lifting to ensure that each unique sonic element is unearthed.

The IE 600 perform fantastically across all frequencies – perhaps unsurprising given that they’re the higher-priced sibling of the Sennheiser IE 300, which proudly sit on our list of the best wired headphones.  When listening to Rains again by Solji, the rain coming down throughout the introduction is utteraly natural and convincing, with each drop defined. In addition to that, the earphones perfectly captured the delicate nature of the track’s high-pitched vocals and finer details, such as the click of the singer's tongue on the palate. Vocals in the mid-range also pop really well on the IE 600, and often sound slightly forward, but never in a way that disrupts overall balance.

Sennheiser claims that the IE 600 deliver “fast, accurate bass”, and it isn’t wrong. When tuning into Black Eye by Allie X, I was wowed by the rapid pumping of the drum machine as the bassline dipped to impressive depths; it bounced up in a very controlled manner. The depth of the bass was certainly imposing, so if you’re the kind of person who wants to experience meaty low-frequency sounds, these IEMs won’t disappoint.

The authoritative nature of the bass ties into a wider theme with the IE 600; they excel in serving up powerful, full-bodied audio. When switching between the far cheaper, but still fantastic, Sennheiser IE 200 and the IE 600, I certainly felt that the latter offered a more all-encompassing listening experience, mainly due to their ability to show off subtle sonic details. For instance, I used the IE 600 to test out I Want You by Moloko and felt genuinely energized by the almost cinematic reproduction of the tune. The IE 600 faithfully captured the track’s complexity, including the intro’s breathy vocals, natural-sounding keys, and the several instruments that enter the fray later in the track to form a dense, layered mix.

Of course, you understand why they're so difference when you compare the IE 200's price of $149.95 / £129.99 / AU$239.95 to the IE 600 at 4-5 times that. No wonder the IE 600 are a cut above for sound, and will impress hardcore audiophiles.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk design. The IE 600 are beautifully manufactured, and their 3D-printed metal casing rocks a textured, classy look. Fun fact: the metal used to build the IE 600 – ZR01 amorphous zirconium – is the same type used for the drilling head of NASA's Mars Rover. Now, that’s pretty sturdy. The earphones are still small and relatively lightweight, though. Coming in at 0.21oz / 6g (per bud), they bring elegance alongside durability. They also fit really well, and it took me no time at all to find the right feel. The earphones are attached to a bendy cable, which makes it easy to adjust the fit around your ear and achieve maximum comfort. Speaking of which, I never felt any irritation while wearing the IE 600, even when keeping them in for full work days. Thankfully, I was subjected to very limited cable noise, something that can be a real mood-killer with a lot of wired in-ear headphones.

My personal feeling is that the IE 600’s gray cable is a bit of a downgrade on the plaited silver one included with the IE 200. Although the IE 600’s wire has a smooth, clean aesthetic, I found myself more attached to the feeling and chain-like appearance of the cheaper model. Like the IE 200, it’s a shame that the included cable here doesn’t include an in-line controller or mic, which makes the IE 600 a little inconvenient if you’re on the go and have to adjust volume via the source device. There’s a way around this – but it involves spending an additional £59.99 (about $75 / AU$115) on an alternative Sennheiser cable with built-in controller.

The default wire for the IE 600 has a 3.5mm connector, but the box also includes one with a 4.4mm connector that you can attach the earphones to instead. There are other extras bundled in too, including a hard carry case, a cleaning tool, a clip that you can attach to the IE 600’s cable, and a collection of different-sized foam and gel ear tips. I found that the foam tips were the most comfortable, and they assist in enabling pretty solid noise isolation. If you want near-silence, though, you'll get a greater effect from the best noise cancelling earbuds

Overall, the Sennheiser IE 600 are a brilliant pair of IEMs that I thoroughly enjoyed using. If you’re looking to invest in some top-quality wired in-ear headphones, these will almost certainly sound the part – and last you for many years to come. As a result, I can definitely recommend the Sennheiser IE 600 – especially because you shouldn't need to pay list price (which is a touch high in my opinion), but should be able to pay more like $500 / £500 / AU$1,000.

Sennheiser IE 600 next to gray/black carry case

(Image credit: Future)

Sennheiser IE 600 review: Price and release date

  • $799 / £699 / AU$1,199
  • Launched in March 2022

There’s no denying it, the Sennheiser IE 600 are pretty expensive. With a list price of $799 / £699 / AU$1,199, they’re truly in the high-end category compared to the likes of the Sennheiser IE 200 – although they’re capable of fuller, more detailed sound. On the flip side, the IE 600 are considerably cheaper than their even more premium sibling, the Sennheiser IE 900, which have a list price of $1,499 / £1,299 / AU$2,399. 

A crucial factor here is that it’s pretty unlikely you’ll have to fork out the list price to get your hands on the Sennheiser IE 600. I spotted them for as little as $469.95, £499.99, and AU$972 (in the latter’s case via Sennheiser’s own online store), so be a savvy shopper.

Sennheiser IE 600 review: Specs

'Sennheiser IE 600' is engraved on the reverse side of one of the Sennheiser IE 600 earphones

(Image credit: Future)

Should you buy the Sennheiser IE 600?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

Sennheiser IE 600 review: Also consider

How I tested the Sennheiser IE 600

Sennheiser IE 600 plugged into FiiO M11S music player

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested across the course of two weeks
  • Used in the office and on walks
  • Predominantly tested using Tidal on the FiiO M11S music player

I put the Sennheiser IE 600 to the test over two weeks. I predominantly used the IEMs while seated in the office, but I also used them while on walks and at home. Most of the time, I used the IE 600 with the FiiO M11S hi-res music player, listening to tunes on Tidal.

When playing music, I started by tuning into the TechRadar testing playlist, which contains tracks from a wide variety of genres. I also used the IE 600 with my Windows laptop when watching YouTube videos or playing games, to ensure quality was high across multiple devices and media. I also used the Sennheiser IE 200 and Shure Aonic 3 to directly compare audio quality, comfort levels, and design features, when appropriate. 

Read more about how we test earbuds.

JBL Live Beam 3 review: a strong case for stellar earbuds that easily outlast the rest
7:30 pm | June 29, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Audio Computers Earbuds & Airpods Gadgets Headphones | Tags: , , | Comments: Off

JBL Live Beam 3: Two-minute review

There are lots of great options on our guide to the best noise-cancelling earbuds, but there's one feature that none of those excellent buds offer: a screen on the case. And the screen on the JBL Live Beam 3 is so much more fun than the display of its predecessor, because now you can select a lock-screen wallpaper from any of the photos stored on your paired smartphone, and the image will even flip so it stays the right way up (so all your friends can see it) when you snap open the case. 

I still wouldn't describe it as a must-have – it still feels as if JBL could deliver greater more through this touchscreen, since it still doesn't present functionality that your smartwatch can, for example –  but given the fact that to tweak the volume by tapping the buds results in the loss of either playback control or ANC profile-scrolling (you don't have to sacrifice anything using the box), it's certainly useful. In addition, the lock-screen wallpaper personalization feature is a nice touch. 

However, the real improvements here aren't to do with the screen. No, the real star here is the improved audio quality. It's typically Harman curve-esque and meaty – but in the best way. There's an expansive soundstage; there's dynamic agility; there's cohesion across the frequencies this time around. 

Plus, battery life is excellent at up to 12 hours from the earbuds alone, minus noise cancellation, or 10 hours with it engaged (and nearer nine with adaptive ANC on –more on the efficacy of this later). The case, too, delivers three further charges, taking your total audio playback time up to a class-leading 48 hours. For clarity, Apple's priciest Pro-suffixed AirPods only deliver 5.5 hours with its top-tier Spatial Audio deployed, or a maximum of 30 hours including the case. 

The JBL Live Beam 3 also boast a very well-rounded feature set, including auto-off when you remove one bud, a fit test, multipoint connectivity, plus a few novel bits and pieces – including "Personi-Fi", where a detailed hearing test of each ear enables you to better tailor the sound to your liking. 

I wasn't convinced by the spatial audio profiles, which is a shame, since JBL has offered a total of three immersive soundscapes for music, movies and games. If you're expecting sonic articles in a three-dimensional space here, you'll be disappointed – and although the ANC is fine, it isn't about to challenge Sony or Bose in the supreme bubble-of-silence stakes. Yes, low-level constants are massaged (my microwave humming away didn't filter through, for example), but the sound of cars outside simply floating away wasn't quite there. 

One truly valuable addition few competitors offer is something JBL is calling Smart Talk. It lowers the volume of your music and activates JBL's TalkThru mode as soon as you speak, then resumes to normal service either five, 15 or 20 seconds after you've stopped. It's a great little feature because you don't have to touch the buds to engage it  – for example, when someone in the office wants to know where that report is. And, of course, if you don't like it, it's easy enough to toggle it off in the JBL Headphones app. 

The fit is great, the battery is seemingly never-ending and, honestly, the JBL Beam 3 quickly became my go-to earbuds for confident, banging, thumping bass – and given my qualms over the audio in previous stablemates, it's a big leap forward for JBL, for which I commend the company. 

For the price, JBL offers a very reasonable sound-per-pound proposition here. Having said that, the price in the UK is currently £179.99 – not the initially reported £149.99. Nevertheless, the JBL Beam 3 still represent value for money, particularly if stamina is a priority in noise-cancelling earbuds. 

JBL LIve Beam 3 on starry blanket

(Image credit: Future)

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Price & release date

  • Unveiled January 2024 (but only available to buy from June 3, 2024)
  • Priced $199.95 / £179.99 / AU$249

The keen-eyed will note that the prices above mean the JBL Live Beam 3 (thus called because of the "beams", or stems attached) retail for $50, £50 or AU$100 cheaper than the screen-on-case-enhanced earbuds they effectively replace, the JBL Tour Pro 2.

The Live Beam 3 are actually one of three earbuds propositions with cases that JBL unveiled simultaneously in January 2024. The Live 3 range comprises the Buds, Flex and Beam, the latter of which we're reviewing here. The Buds 3 look most like standard earbuds; the Flex 3 are akin to the shape of regular Apple AirPods, with a stick design but no silicone tip that sits in the ear canal; and the Beam 3 are similar to Apple's AirPods Pro, with a stick design plus an in-ear fit and ear tips. 

All three options boast JBL's smart screen case, True Adaptive Noise Cancelling, Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio, JBL Spatial Sound, LDAC Hi-Res Audio for compatible phones, multi-point connectivity, wireless charging, and six external mics to facilitate noise cancellation and to help with calls. Also, all are similarly priced. 

There are a few differences to quickly scoot through: Buds and Beam are certified IP55 for water-resistance, while the Flex are IP54; the Buds and Beam have 10mm dynamic drivers compared to 12mm for the Flex; and the quoted battery life is up to 40 hours on the Buds, 48 on the Beam, and 50 on the Flex (for the buds and case combined).

A picture of a seal on the JBL Live Beam 3's lock-screen

Want a photo of a judgemental seal on your case? Have it…  (Image credit: Future)

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Specs

Becky Scarrott dancing, in a lock-screen on the JBL Live Beam 3

Or how about a dramatic dance shot by Peter Mares?  (Image credit: Peter Mares (Avid Images))

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Features

  • Excellent call quality features
  • Personal amplification and Personi-Fi add value
  • The case – you can't ignore it

JBL has thrown everything it has at these earbuds – and that's putting the charging case to one side for a moment, concentrating on the various audio augmentations and fixes instead. 

Call-handling is ace, thanks in no small part to the numerous options you have available to enhance the experience, including Sound Level Optimiser, which balances the volume of the voice on the other end of the line; Sound Setting, with which you can increase the bass or treble of that voice, or keep things "natural"; Voice Setting, which is the same thing, but for your own voice; VoiceAware, which is a slider to control how much of your own voice you'd like to hear during calls; and Private Call Mode, which actually lets you remove one bud and use it as a mic, so you might lower your voice a little and keep the convo private. During tests, the majority of folk on the other end said that I sounded as if I was just talking on the phone – which certainly can't be said of every set of earphones I've ever tested. 

This level of attention to detail continues across the board. You have six EQ presets or the option to create your own, plus Adaptive EQ for real-time adjustments, with the option of toggling on "Low Volume EQ" to boost highs and lows, even if you're listening at low volumes. There's even "Leakage Compensation", to sort the sonics if the tips you've fitted don't offer an optimal seal. 

The ANC has similar scope. Deploy ANC (over Ambient Aware, TalkThru or off all together) and you can customize functionality by toggling Adaptive ANC – which adjusts the level of cancellation based on your surroundings – and Auto Compensation, which adjusts things based on your ear canal and wearing status once more. 

But we're not done: if you switch Adaptive ANC off, you're presented with a slider that offers seven increments of noise-nixing, irrespective of your location. On paper, it sounds exceptional – and in reality it's good. The seventh level nixes most low-level thrums happily; it certainly doesn't color or negatively impact the presentation. Nevertheless, I think Adaptive is the way to go, because I felt it did a fair job of making adjustments when I was at the beach, on the street, and at home. Does it lower the noise floor in your noggin as deftly as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds or the AirPods Pro 2 can? Not quite. And that goes for the JBL Beam 3's spatial audio profiles (movies, music or gaming have been supplied), too. Things feel a little warmer, more bass-centric and cosier for sure; but it isn't the eyebrow-raising, bullets-over-my-head performance I might have dreamt of. 

That's the reason I knocked half a star off the score for this section, but I maintain that there's still so much here to love – and I haven't even spoken about Personi-Fi yet! This involves a lengthy hearing test of ever-quieter tones at various frequencies dealt to each ear (after an initial fit test). But it's worth it. 

After the tests, you're presented with a written report, which offers a mini verdict on the compensation required for each ear and the option to "have a try" by toggling it on and off. Suffice to say, it's not just parlour tricks or fun graphics (although there is one); it does genuinely make the music ever-so-slightly more detailed, the leading edges of notes more impactful, and the overall presentation is layered with greater precision – to my ears, at any rate. I tended to deploy this, but leave spatial audio to one side when wearing the JBL Live Beam 3. 

Lastly, to the case. I used it much more than I did when testing the JBL Tour Pro 2. It's responsive and far easier to navigate than the previous iteration, plus you can hide features you won't use in the app – the flashlight feature is fun, but it essentially just turns the screen a bright white; my iPhone's torch feature is better. I also really liked the lock-screen wallpaper. Yes, it might be the high-tech equivalent of a Polaroid sticker on your earbuds case; but so what? We're allowed to want that. 

  • Features score: 4.5/5

JBL Live Beam 3's JBL Headphones app, three screen-grabs showing smart charging case settings

(Image credit: JBL )

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Sound quality

  • LDAC tracks are beautifully relayed 
  • Bass is resolute; treble well handled
  • Greatly improved audio 

No matter what you listen to, the JBL Live Beam 3 will sound rather good, but it seems a shame to listen to lowly compressed Spotify streams when Sony's LDAC (from a compatible device – a Sony Xperia smartphone, for instance) is on the menu with these JBLs. Apple Music tracks are handled with zeal and flair, as are my trusted Qobuz tracks. 

Melissa Etheridge's' I'm the Only One is a bass-walking, axe-talking country romp. Etheridge's textured vocal is central and emotive in a mix that shines a light on each solo, riff or musical passage; it will have you dancing wherever you listen to it. 

Baby Lasagna's Rim Tim Tagi Dim is a tough ask for the driver-snap, dynamic nuance and musical cohesion in any set of earbuds, but the JBL Live Beam 3 don't shy away from it. This is techno, and it can easily be muddied in lesser earbuds. Here, though,  I felt every cymbal as it darted from my left to right ear, but never at the expense of the vocal. 

The JBL Live Beam 3 are able to unearth an extra ounce of detail through the strummed guitars and vocal in Noah Kahan's acoustic Stick Season, too, and the fact that I was tapping my foot along is proof that the timing here and agility through the low end is greatly improved over the JBL Tour Pro 2, which I felt were a tad treble-centric, even tinny on occasion. 

The sound is typically JBL at its best again, and you love to see it – sonically, they're a big hit. Want big, exuberant sound that knows when to deliver large, but also when to pull back just a little, allowing the detail to shine through? That's the sonic recipe the JBL Beam 3 present – and I like it for the money. 

  • Sound quality score: 5/5

JBL Live Beam 3, showing an incoming call, case held in a hand with red fingernails

The multi-function button on the WF-C700N beats any capacitive touch option I've tried. (Image credit: Future)

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Design

  • Earpieces fit snugly and securely
  • On-ear functions require compromise
  • The case is very likeable

I found these earbuds easy to wear – despite my small ears. However, it's worth noting that the Live Beam 3's earpiece design does sit rather far into your ear canals. Those who find this type of fit claustrophobic – think AirPods Pro 2 – may want to look at JBL's other designs, although I can't vouch for those. Again, it won't be an issue for most, just worth noting. 

The on-ear touch functions respond well and can be customised, but this does lead me to a minor negative: you need to ditch a set of functions. To explain, your command options are Playback Control, Ambient Sound Control, and Volume Control, but you have only two ears – and only two earbuds to assign jobs to. I often criticize earbuds that don't offer a way to tweak the volume of music without having to dig out a phone (or ask Siri); while the JBL Beam 3 do offer volume control, assigning that to the left earbud and Playback Control to the right meant I had to forego on-ear ANC. Yes, the touchscreen enabled me to quickly access the ANC, Ambient or TalkThru modes (although not the extra adaptive toggles), but at this level I don't think it's churlish to expect your earbuds to be able to handle all three – because other options, such as the Cambridge Audio Melomania M100, do. 

However, that's where the criticism ends; because the case is very fun. Where the JBL Tour Pro 2 felt like a prototype, the JBL Beam 3 feel every millimeter a second-gen upgrade. They've been refined, made more sleek – and more svelte, too. Yes, the case is still deeper than your average case at 3.25cm (or just over one-and-a-quarter inches) thick, but the little lanyard spot on the top right (as you look at the screen) is quite delightful – because you've now got lock-screen wallpaper to show off. 

The build quality of this case feels resoundingly expensive – and I maintain that Apple is watching from afar, to implement in future AirPods designs. And while the screen isn't an essential yet for functionality, the resolution, responsiveness and brightness – which can be adjusted; you get three levels – is spot on. 

  • Design score: 4/5

JBL LIve Beam 3 on starry blanket

The buds are comfy, honestly!  (Image credit: Future)

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Value

  • Exceptional battery life; great sound
  • The classy finish feels expensive
  • Spatial audio performance is the only issue 

The JBL Live Beam 3's battery life, sound quality (with its smorgasbord of customisations), build and finish are more than worthy of the money here. And the noise cancellation will please all but the most picky of noise-nixers. Oh, and you also get a screen – which in no way affects the stellar stamina. 

My only real gripes are the compromises relating to on-ear functionality, plus the somewhat disappointing spatial audio trio JBL offers here. If you're after buds that are great for movies, for example, I'd point you to the (much more expensive) Sonos Ace headphones, or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

But given the competitive asking price of the JBL Live Beam 3 (the Bose alternative listed above cost $299 / £299 / AU$449, which is $100 / £120 or AU$200 more than the JBLs), there's so, so much still to enjoy for the money. 

  • Value score: 5/5

Should I buy the JBL Live Beam 3?

Buy them if...

Don't buy them if...

JBL Live Beam 3 review: Also consider

Cambridge Audio Melomania M100
Another pricier option (although not as pricy as the Bose), but the ANC here is very good indeed – as is the sound quality. And to top it all off, you also get the option of Matt Berry on voice prompts (his "Waiting to pair!" is the best you've ever heard). No screen on the case, mind, and the overall aesthetic is far more shy and retiring.
Make your choice by reading our Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 review

How I tested the JBL Live Beam 3

JBL Live Beam 3 held in a hand with red fingernails

(Image credit: Future)
  • Tested for two weeks; listened against the Cambridge Audio Melomania M100, AirPods Pro 2 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra
  • Used at work (in the office, walking through London, on a train), at home and on the beach
  • Listened to Tidal Masters, Apple Music Lossless tracks and Spotify on an iPhone 13 Pro, a Sony Xperia 1 V and a MacBook Pro

The JBL Live Beam became my musical companions for two weeks – after a thorough 48-hour run-in period (during which I loaded many lock-screen wallpaper options to the case). 

They accompanied me to work on weekdays (walking brusquely to the station; on the London Underground network; at the office), and throughout a week in Dorset, with regular trips along the promenade and to the beach at low tide – which is a great way to test any wind-interference from mics during calls.

To better test the comfort levels and security of the JBL Live Beam 3, I wore them to the gym – and they certainly did not budge during training. 

To check the audio quality across the frequencies, I listened to various playlists (spanning everything from classical to crunk) on Apple Music, Qobuz and Tidal, but also to podcasts and albums on Spotify – and YouTube tutorials (mostly about soldering sterling silver bezels to make jewelry from the sea glass collected at the beach, if you're curious) on my MacBook Pro. 

I’ve been testing audio products for over five years now. As a dancer, aerialist and musical theater performer in another life, sound quality, fit and the user experience have always taken priority for me – but having heard how wonderful ANC can be when done well, I know what to look for. 

Read more about how we test

  • First reviewed: June 2024
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