JLab Go Air Pop+ Review

These earbuds offer a mind-boggling value. With solid sound quality — including a sound stage that's large enough to place instruments in space — a functional app, responsive touch controls, and even a transparency mode, this is an excellent option for budget-minded shoppers.

Performance Comparison

Sound Quality

The JLab Go Air Pop+ earbuds offer a pleasant listening experience that is only remarkable because of the earbuds' low price. For such a low investment, they sound marvelous. The rich mids shine with impressive texture, but the treble lacks sparkle and detail, and the bass can be inconsistent. As one expert listener says, “It's a pleasant audio experience that neither offends nor impresses.”

These earbuds present a narrow soundstage that can feel crowded and stuffy at times, yet it's just roomy enough to let you hear each instrument and vocal clearly and to place them in space around you. And there is some height, sounding more like a very narrow concert hall than a low-ceiling basement, which is appreciated. Still, I don't hear as much detail in the mix as I'd like.

The frequency mix is enjoyable but inconsistent. The emphasis across the bass, mid, and treble ranges feels nicely balanced. Then, occasionally, the bass line booms and overpowers the mix. At its worst, it sounds boomy and distorted, and even competes with vocals at times.

For example, in Kameron Marlowe's “Tequila Talkin'”, the bass is so loud that it sounds like a duet between the bassline and the lyrics. In “Everything is Everything” by Lauryn Hill, these earbuds push the bassline front and center, competing a bit with Hill's vocals. I couldn't find a rhyme or reason to explain why it happened with some songs and not others.

Most of the time, the bass is more subtle, sounding neutral or even slightly washed out. Instead of sounding consistently powerful like our favorite options, it swings between hitting too hard and pulling back too far. They never feel sloppy, though, and are expressive enough to maintain a strong presence, even if they're less detailed than I'd like. Overall, they're decent, good even, but never great.

The mids are the standout here, offering a rich spread of texture and color that captures vocal and instrumental nuance surprisingly well. The vocals occasionally sound a bit recessed or veiled, though. The clarity I crave feels just out of reach, like a crystal clear alpine lake with just enough wind for the ripples to obscure the reflection. Still, there's a strong sense of space and an accurate, human timbre.

The treble range, meanwhile, needs some work. It's nicely developed and present in the mix, but it lacks detail and vibrancy. Occasional, mild vocal distortion across genres also brings the score down a notch. That said, I do appreciate that even complex instruments hold their place in the mix without sharpening enough to make me wince. While the high notes never felt piercing, my ears often felt fatigued after long listening sessions.

The gain offers a decent volume range. While the lows tend to bloat a bit at higher levels, the highs didn't get peaky or piercing. There's much of an attack or dynamic finesse at any level, so intense crescendos and decrescendos don't deliver their intended impact. Still, the earbuds translate energetic shifts well enough to keep the emotional arc intact.

To ground our listening impressions in hard data, we turned to our trusty ear and head simulator, Darwin, a Brüel & Kjaer Type 5128 and SoundCheck software. With their help, we measured the Lab Go Air Pop+ earbuds' frequency response and compared the results to our custom-built GearLab House Curve. Here, we see that much of the bass range is elevated above our preferred curve, and a portion of the treble range also spikes above it. These measurements echo the feedback we received from our listening panel.

User Experience

With an impressively useful app, a transparency mode, and a safe hearing feature, these earbuds are far more sophisticated than I would expect at this price point. We had over a dozen testers try them out and found that, overall, they're a pleasure to use, with effective touch controls and a comfortable and secure fit.

Comfort

These earbuds earned slightly above average comfort scores among the handful of testers who tried them. Personally, I find their classic design more inoffensive than comfortable, with a shape and size that's very similar to the Beats Solo Buds. They don't create hotspots, but they're not so lightweight that I forget I'm wearing them.

The silicone ear tips effectively seal your ear canal, which helps block distracting sounds. On the downside, that seal creates a slight suction, which can lead to a strange feeling of internal pressure during extended use. It's not painful, but it can cause some discomfort after several hours. That said, I can still wear them for a solid four hours before my ears tire.

They also breathe pretty well. Though if I worked out while wearing them, they could hold onto some sweat. (Yes, it is gross, but it's also pretty common.) Despite these minor issues, I find myself reaching for them regularly. They're comfortable enough for everyday use, and their fun dark pink color and compact, travel-friendly case make them an easy favorite.

Stability

While these earbuds don't sit very deep in your ear, the silicone tips provide just enough grip to keep them in place, even during our quite aggressive head-banging test. They can loosen if you're moving around a lot, but a quick twist fixes the problem.

We do wish the hard plastic exterior of the case and the earbuds themselves had a textured finish to make them easier to hold onto. On the upside, they're inexpensive enough that if you drop or lose them, they're pretty painless to replace. An IPX4 rating means they can handle light splashes and sweat without issue.

Customization

For budget earbuds, the Go Air Pro+ earbuds offer a surprisingly robust suite of customization features. Through a no-frills companion app that's available on both Apple and non-Apple devices, you get access to adjustable EQ settings and a handful of presets. That's a welcome inclusion at this price point.

While there's no ear fit test or location tracking, the app does include a “Safe Hearing” feature that lets you cap max volume at 85 or 95 dB, which is great for long-term ear health or for younger listeners who might not make the most prudent decisions.

The touch controls are also impressive at this price point, offering responsive tap-based commands to manage playback, calls, and volume without reaching for your phone. Add in the built-in charging cable and bright finishes (that dark pink really slaps), and you can color us impressed.

These inexpensive earbuds have only one truly irritating limitation — once they're paired with one device, there's no way to initiate pairing mode again from the buds or case. You need to manually unpair them from the connected device before switching to a new one. It's not ideal, but understandable given the price.

Noise Cancellation

Earbuds can turn down the dial on distracting ambient sounds in two ways. The first is by physically blocking the sound with the bulk of the earbuds and the seal they create, which is known as noise isolation. The second is with noise cancellation (ANC) tech.

While, understandably, these earbuds don't include ANC at this price point, you can pay a bit more for a version that does, though we haven't tested those. That leaves us with noise isolation created by the snug seal, and it works pretty well to lower the level of background sounds.

With these earbuds in place, I can hear people talking around me, but not well enough to understand what they're saying, and my keyboard fades to a faint clicking sound. They work well enough that we appreciate JLab's inclusion of a Be Aware Mode, often called transparency mode, which records the sounds around you and plays them over the speakers to bypass the muffling effect of the seal. Again, a wildly sophisticated offering in these affordable buds. The sound that comes through feels a bit artificial, but the music maintains its quality. I like that it keeps me in tune with my surroundings, and I can maintain a conversation over the sound of my music.

The test team used Darwin and SoundCheck Software to double-check our experiences, and the results are in the chart above. It shows that the earbuds block high frequency sounds much better than low, rumbling notes. That's to be expected, since noise cancellation is much better at combating the long-wavelength low notes. The noise isolation created by the earbuds themselves and their seal is much more effective, blocking nearly 40 decibels (dB) in the treble ranges and around 20 to 35 of the mid-tones.

Battery Life

The battery life isn't as impressive. In our tests, they lasted for 7.8 hours of continuous use at max volume. While I'd prefer the 9 hours that JLab claims, I find that 8 hours is usually enough to get through the day.

It helps that the case gives you four charges on the go, as long as it's charged itself. And a quick 10 minutes on the charger will get you an extra hour of listening time. While there's no wireless charging, the built-in USB charging cable keeps things convenient.

Call Quality

These earbuds are a little better than average when it comes to isolating our voices from the background during phone calls. I wouldn't recommend them to someone who wants to stay connected on the go, but for occasional calls, they work well enough, even in loud environments. To confirm these impressions, we turned to Darwin, playing recordings of both male and female voices through the built-in speaker in its mouth and capturing the playback through the earbuds. You can listen to the results for yourself below.

The baseline voice recording in a quiet room comes through fairly clearly with these buds, though it lands on the quieter side. The quality of both the male and female voices is generally smooth and easily understood, but there's a softness around the edges. Syllables aren't especially crisp, and there's a bit of bleed between words. Still, the overall tone is pleasant and easy on the ears.

In a simulated office environment, the earbuds struggled to separate voices from ambient sounds. Both speakers remain clearly audible in the foreground, but the gentle hum of office noise leaks in and competes for attention. The result is a somewhat cluttered listening experience that can be distracting.

During the subway stress test, the background noise is fully present, but it doesn't overwhelm the message. The earbuds maintain enough clarity to make out the speaker's words. The female voice does suffer from some mild distortion. It's not a dealbreaker, but loud environments do diminish the clarity overall.

Should You Buy the Bose QuietComfort Ultra?

These earbuds are a crazy good deal for anyone who isn't a stickler for top-tier audio quality. If you're looking for something affordable, flexible, and feature-packed, the Go Air Pro+ earbuds are a smart choice. They're ideal for casual listeners, students, or folks prone to losing their stuff. At just $25, these earbuds are pretty painless to replace. Parents looking for a budget-friendly option for kids will appreciate the volume-limiting feature, and everyday users will love the built-in charging cable and easy-to-use app. While they don't include ANC, the transparency mode and decent passive isolation offer enough awareness and sound control to suit commutes, workdays, and walks around town.

What Other Earbuds Should You Consider?

If you're considering the JLab Go Air Pro+ earbuds, we're assuming you're shopping on a budget, and it's hard to compete with these little guys on the basis of price. That said, wired earbuds require substantially less sophisticated technology and can deliver better sound quality than most wireless earbuds for far less money. If you prize your budget and your wallet equally, consider the Linsoul KZ ZSN Pro X and UliX Rider, though neither offer the smart features found in the Go Air Pro Earbuds. Step up to the EarFun Air Pro 4 or Nothing Ear Wireless, and you'll get active noise cancellation and better sound tuning. You'll pay quite a bit more, though less than top-tier models. For $25, the Go Air Pro+ won't beat these options in raw performance, but they hold their own surprisingly well and offer an unbeatable value.