Think JLab and your mind’s eye may picture affordable but capable headphones and earbuds that find their way onto our best budget wireless earbuds buying guide, as well as our best wireless headphones and best wireless earbuds lists. But as Bob Dylan once sang: the times they are a-changin’. That's because JLab has just announced its first foray into the world of "luxury" headphones, with the new JBuds Lux ANC Wireless Headphones.
Despite the Buds part of the moniker, the JBuds LUX ANC are a pair of over-ear headphones packing a suite of features one would expect from the likes of the Sony WH-100XM5 or Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless; in fact the headphones' design has a good whiff of the excellent Sony WH-1000XM4 about it.
Soft, foldable “Cloud Foam” ear cups hold 40mm drivers rocking a 20 – 20kHz frequency response, along with features like Immersive Lab quality sound, spatial audio support, Bluetooth Multipoint and Bluetooth LE Audio connectivity; again, features you’d expect from high-end headphones from Sony and Bose.
And like those brands, the JBuds Lux ANC come with smart adaptive noise cancellation, which can detect the environment you’re in and adjust the active noise cancellation mode (there are three options: ANC On, ANC Off and Be Aware) to make sure you hear oncoming traffic when you’re out running or cycling but want an inspiring song or podcast to keep you chugging along, especially in the dark days of January.
Whether this clever ANC can deliver the smarts and sound-blocking clout of the class-leading XM5s remains to be seen. But JLab’s potential ace in the hole is that the JBuds Lux ANC cost a mere $79.99 (approximately £62 / AU$119), which is considerably cheaper than the aforementioned Sony and Bose headphones. It even comes close to some of the best cheap headphones you can buy right now.
To top it all off, JLab is claiming that the JBuds Lux ANC will deliver 42 hours of playtime, which would be rather impressive if accurate. We’ll need to give these headphones a good test to see if JLab can indeed make a play for the luxury ANC headphones arena at a competitive price.
Pre-orders for the JLab JBuds Lux ANC Wireless Headphones are live now, with shipping expected from mid-February. But we’d suggest you wait for our full review before ordering these headphones.
JBuds ANC 3 True Wireless Earbuds bring in smart noise cancellation and a big battery life
Not content with just introducing a new pair of wireless headphones, JLab also revealed the JBuds ANC 3 True Wireless Earbuds, an updated take on the second-generation JBuds ANC True Wireless Earbuds and of course the excellent JLab Go Air Pop.
You’d be hard-pressed to notice much difference, on the outside. But these new buds, which are available now in the US for $59 (approximately £46 / AU$111), come with a claimed 42 hours plus of playback time. And they boast the Smart Active ANC that the JBuds LUX ANC come with.
Competition is tight on our best noise-cancelling earbuds list, with JLab yet to have a pair of buds in contention for a spot – although given their rock-bottom pricing, it's a tad churlish to expect that. So it’ll be interesting to see if the updated feature set can put the JBuds ANC 3 True Wireless Earbuds in a competitive position. We’ll have to give these a proper test – watch this space.
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