The earbud industry as we have said many times is packed with brands offering the best in technology but what do you do if the budget won’t allow for the likes of B&O, Sennheiser or Apple Airpods Pro. Well in this review we focus on the JLab Go Air Pop which was released early this year and only cost £20 meaning it won’t damage your wallet.

What I think our readers would like to know is will they get burned for buying a cheap pair of earbuds? Let’s find out…

 

First Impressions

 

The JLab Go Air Pro turn the saying buy cheap buy twice completely on its head. Yes, they are very affordable but they are actually not that bad when it comes to the design and I challenge you to find better at this price point. They also sound much better than expected which is no bad thing at all. 

 

Also for £20, they come in 4 lovely colours – Black, Lilac, Slate & Teal (Red not available in the UK)

Unboxing

 

When the JLab Go Air Pop arrived in that card box that was just a little bigger than a box of playing cards. You may think JLab have forgotten to pack everything but you do have everything you need – a set of earbuds, a charging case, a USB-A charging cable and extra tips all included. 

Design

The earbuds are a teardrop-shaped pair of earbuds that are very lightweight at just 3.7g per bud and will fit most people’s ears with ease. They are lovely and small and won’t protrude too much from the ear. If you do need to adjust the fit you are provided 3 pairs of eartips to get that perfect fit. 

The charging case is very small and comes with a simple design, the JLab logo on the top and a small LED on the front. 

What is different about the case is what is located at the base it has the charging cable and a short cable that is hidden into the recess on the base of the charging case. Unfortunately, the case just looks a little cheap when charging. The bonus I guess is you will never lose the charging cable. 

The case even survives the shake test which I was impressed with just goes to show the strength magnetic lid and mini magnets to hold the buds in place. 

Features 

The JLab Go Air Pop can be connected using Bluetooth 5.1 earbuds and they paired without any issue. However, they should normally offer to provide a 10M range I had a few issues in testing in terms of the connection cutting out when I was only 5M away from my phone and without any walls blocking the signal and this was concerning. 

As long as you keep your phone close you will have no issues with the range. The buds are also IP44 rated which means they are sweat resistant making them a good option for the gym.  

Moving to the battery life you get 8 hours from the buds and a total of 32 hours from the entire proposition when you include the battery life from the case. In testing, this is provided to be exactly as stated by the manufacturer.

Moving to controls that offer touch controls and are fairly responsive and the big bonus is they offer volume controls which many buds on the market skip such a simple control.  Below are the controls in full: 

Volume Up Single Tap – Left bud
Volume Down Single Tap- Right bud
Play/Pause Double Tap – Right Bud
Track Back Press & Hold for 1 sec -Left bud
Track Forward Press & Hold for 1 sec -Right bud
Smart Assistant  Double Tap- Left Bud
Answer Call Single tap either bud
Reject Call Double-tap either bud
Reject Call Press & Hold for 1 sec – Either bud
EQ Change Triple tap

The buds also come with a mic in each earbud for call handling and as you can see in the list above the buds do have an EQ change with options such as:

  • Balanced
  • Bass Boost
  • JLab Signature 

Sound Quality 

I have been testing the JLab Go Air Pop as my main pair of buds for 2 weeks now and they do play music, allow you to listen to podcasts and even use them on a conference call. The audio quality lacks any codecs such as aptX HD you do get SBC but it’s not very good. 

The buds come with 6mm drivers and when listening to a wide range of music you will notice the treble comes across as a little flat. It’s not all bad the overall sound quality is decent. They are £20 remember when listening to Kate Bush – Running up that Hill the vocals are handled well though the mids and bass weight is handled just right.  

When listening to something with a bit more instrumental where you can hear guitars present such as Kiss by Prince and the buds sound expansive with an open soundstage. You get all the bass funk into the intro but the vocals come off a little harsh. That aside if you are budget conscious these are a pair that will do a job and sound nice and clear when listening to podcasts and when listening on a conference call. We also tried them when taking calls and they did not disappoint either. 

Verdict

When you consider the JLab Go Air Pro they prevent excellent value for money and a decent number of features paired with touch controls that are fairly responsive. What JLab has done considering the cost provides you with a quality build, and very good battery life and the buds will fit the majority of people’s ears with ease. 

 

There is no app but to be honest the buds allow you to do most things you would do on the app apart from custom EQ adjustments. If you’re looking for a basic pair of buds that are not too flashy and budget is a key consideration these are a pair you really need to consider as your next pair of buds.

Product Rating: 

Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars    

Features: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Audio Quality: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

Value For Money: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0

 

Overall Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars  

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