JBL is entering the truly wireless earbuds market with the JBL Free, a pair of earbuds that will allow users to “cut the cord” from their listening experiences. JBL is offering these earbuds in two different colors, which include Black and White options. Like JBL’s recently announced Reflect Fit sport headphones, the Free will also have some design elements that make them a great option for those with an active lifestyle, as they feature a splashproof build and they’ll come with earbud tips in small, medium, and large sizes, as well as Secure Fit Silicone sleeves in medium and large sizes, to ensure a more secure fit during your workouts or during any other activity.
As JBL is well-known for high quality audio equipment ranging from speakers to headphones and even home theater audio, consumers can expect the JBL Free to sound pretty good, and this will likely be an even better experience thanks to JBL’s Signature Sound technology that the company has integrated. The earbuds will also allow for the user to slip in just one earbud if they want to be able to hear outside noise with the other ear, and there is an integrated mic for taking voice calls as well so you can use these for listening to music or the audio for any other media content and for taking calls.
For most truly wireless earbuds while the ability to listen to music completely free of wires is a great offering, the issue for consumers has generally been low battery life, potentially leaving them with dead earbuds that can’t be used until they recharge. The JBL Free earbuds don’t have a massive increase in battery life compared to other similar products, but they do seem to offer more battery life than plenty of those options as the Free will allow for up to four hours of continuous playback, with an additional 20 hours of playback from the recharges that the case will offer. What’s more, is that the charging case can deliver up to an hour of music playback in just 15 minutes, so if you don’t have a lot of time to charge the earbuds you should still be able to get some amount of use out of them before you charge them up for a longer period. What isn’t made clear, is if the up to four hours of playback is for locally stored music or streaming music, as options like Samsung’s original Gear IconX allowed for up to three hours of continuous playback, but only for music that was stored on the earbuds, while streaming battery life was much shorter at one to one and a half hours. The JBL Free truly wireless earbuds are set to go on sale in October of this year at a price of $149.99, and will be available at JBL’s website as well as other retailers.