I tested JBL’s newest earbuds, and their best feature is also the most understated

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• JBL’s Dwell Beam 3 earbuds retail for $200 and ship implausible audio playback, dependable noise cancellation, and nice battery life. 
• The earbuds ought to fulfill most customers with their sound, construct, and general worth. 
• Nevertheless, the good charging case is extra gimmicky than it’s purposeful. That might not be the case for you.

In some ways, JBL makes audio merchandise for the overall shopper, whether or not you are looking for a speaker or pair of headphones. From the merchandise we have examined at ZDNET, the model almost all the time meets the mark. Whereas the sound high quality could not match that of Sony or Bose, you may all the time anticipate lengthy battery life, audio that will not offend anybody, and a value you may justify when shopping for a JBL product.

That brings us to the brand new JBL Dwell Beam 3. The earbuds retail for $200, $50 lower than the model’s extra luxurious Tour Professional 2 earbuds or Apple’s AirPods Professional 2, and I have been testing a pair over the previous few weeks to see in the event that they maintain as much as JBL’s requirements. Spoiler alert: These earbuds sound implausible, and I’ve no downside recommending them, even when some options are extra gimmicky than sensible.

For starters, these earbuds are wonderful companions for transit, exercises, or deep work for the typical individual. They provide three listening modes: energetic noise-canceling, ambient conscious, and talk-through, and the general sound high quality is nice, clear, and impartial. 

Whereas I often discover ambient-aware modes on earbuds to be inconsistent and unreliable, JBL shocked me by juggling exterior noise and inside audio pretty effectively. Nevertheless, whereas listening to Lola Younger’s Immodest on excessive quantity, the earbuds simply barely missed the mark in delivering the readability of each instrument. The Dwell Beam 3 earbuds’ playback has a barely muddier high quality at larger volumes, however at mid-level quantity, it was very satisfying.

The noise cancellation mode is obvious and cancels out a considerable quantity of outdoor noise. Whereas it did not cancel out all of the sounds on my clanky subway rides to and from the workplace, I did not discover myself upset by this. I discover that too robust of noise cancellation in earbuds can compromise consolation, construct stress within the ear, and alienate you from all environment, proving harmful for those who’re listening in public.

On the subject of consolation, the Dwell Beam 3 are simple to put on for hours on finish. And you are able to do so thanks to a different space the place JBL excels: battery life. You are getting 40 hours of battery life with these, simply sufficient for churning by just a few workdays of music or loads of lengthy runs. Additionally they have an IP55 ranking, so you may get moist and sweat in them and never fear about destroying any of the tech inside.

Amid all of its strengths, there are just a few areas the place JBL may enhance the earbuds. The primary is its case. JBL carries the “good charging” design of the Tour Professional 2 earbuds case over to the Dwell Beam 3, so that you get a built-in touchscreen. On it, you may swipe by the carousel of slides to test your earbuds’ battery life, find misplaced buds, change quantity, or pause, play, and skip songs. The touchscreen is responsive about 40% of the time. On each different event, I’ve to double-, triple-, or quadruple-tap the display screen to wake it up and get a response. 

For these causes, I would be hard-pressed to advocate utilizing the touchscreen to alter songs or cancellation modes on a run or exercising. As a substitute, stick to the controls on the earbuds themselves or your telephone, that are each extra responsive than the display screen. In reality, the one viable use circumstances I discovered with the touchscreen have been to test on battery life and find earbuds.

One other space the place I would prefer to see an improve is the earbuds construct high quality. Whereas they’re snug to put on, the earbuds really feel plasticky and lightweight — a very good factor just for customers preferring one thing that is not a burden to put on. The matte end additionally makes the earbuds extra slippery, so preserve that in thoughts for those who’re all the time on the transfer.

Lastly, the spatial audio function wasn’t terribly robust; after I turned it on to hearken to a Moses Sumney album, all I may hear was louder quantity, not a lot music that adopted the actions of my head. 

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

Even with a few of the shortcomings of the JBL Dwell Beam 3, I would nonetheless advocate them to anybody available in the market for nice earbuds with a fairly enjoyable charging case twist, particularly for those who can snag them at a reduction. We have seen a number of JBL headphone fashions drop by tens and lots of of {dollars} throughout main gross sales occasions, and the upcoming Amazon Prime Day could also be your nearest greatest guess.