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While there are plenty of over-ear headsets with external microphones, it’s something you don’t expect to see in earbuds, especially true wireless earbuds. At least, until now, that is. TheJLab Work Budsfeature an external mic for better voice and call quality, which is a first.
JLab has made a name for itself as a brand that provides solid, affordable headphones and earbuds, but the company isn’t exactly known as an innovator. Adding an external microphone to wireless earbuds may not sound like a massive leap forward, but it’s still something we haven’t seen to date.
This external microphone may make the JLab Work Buds a perfect office companion, but are they as effective off-duty as they are when you’re working? They’re not perfect, but they’re surprisingly flexible.
JLab Work Buds
The JLab Work Buds feature an external microphone, something unseen in wireless earbuds until now, and that makes them a great pick for calls and video chats. They also work quite well for music, podcasts, and videos, making them a great all-around set of affordable earbuds.
Price & Availability
The JLab Work Buds only come in one color option, black. They sell for a retail price of$80 on Amazon, though you’ll already find them on sale for less occasionally.
Design & Fit: Easy to Fit, But Keep Them Safe
When it comes to the look of the JLab Work Buds, they are defined by the removable external microphone. The mic plugs into either earbud, which is a useful touch, but even without the microphone, the earbuds have a sleek, professional look that will fit perfectly in an office setting.
Getting the fit right is easy as well, thanks to the fit kit that JLab includes in the box. In addition to the three different sizes of silicone tips, you get three larger fittings that go around the outside to help the Work Buds fit securely into your ear. Taking the right fit may take testing a few combinations, but once you find the proper combo, the earbuds are comfortable for hours at a time.
As the name of the earbuds hints, these are primarily aimed at those using them at work or working from home. To this end, there is nowater resistanceat all. Surely, a few drops of water won’t be catastrophic, but you don’t want to take these outside in the rain.
Sound Quality: Great For Calls and Surprisingly Good for Music
The Work Buds are built around 6mm dynamic drivers, which aren’t the biggest but are squarely in the range you would expect for wireless earbuds. For my listening tests, I started from a custom EQ setting that I set completely flat.
Listening to the Murlocs’ “Aletophyte,” I noticed that even on this flat setting, the earbuds leaned toward a somewhat hyped sound, with a boost in the lows and excited-sounding highs. Switching to the JLab Signature preset, the vocals gained some additional air, and everything sounded slightly more exaggerated but not necessarily over the top.
Switching to something calmer with the Miles Davis track “All Blues,” I was surprised by how detailed the sound of the brushes on the snare drum was. For a fairly affordable set of work-focused earbuds, I wasn’t expecting such handling of relatively detail-focused audio. When the drums kicked in fully and the instruments got a little louder, the sense of the sound opening up was quite effective.
Not everyone spends all day listening to music, and the Work Buds seem suited to all sorts of sound. There’s a podcast setting in the EQ that does exactly what you’d expect, losing the booming low end for podcasts and audiobooks, but this also works quite well for calls.
While the external mic is the main selling point of the Work Buds, it’s not actually the only mic you have available. When using the earbuds without the external microphone, you may still make calls or use your phone’s voice assistant, as the earbuds also include an internal mic. This works fine in a pinch, but it’s easily outclassed in sound quality by the external mic.
Switching to the external microphone, the difference in voice pickup is noticeable. The internal mic sounds unfocused and distant compared to the external microphone. It likely has a better pickup element than the internal microphone, but simply moving the microphone closer to your mouth also makes an important difference.
The Work Buds don’t featureactive noise cancellation, which is understandable given the price. That said, they do feature a Be Aware mode, which is similar to theTransparency modefound on Apple AirPods Pro and many other earbuds. It isn’t anywhere near Apple’s take on this mode (though few earbuds are), but it’s still a great feature for an office environment where you might want to be able to hear your coworkers.
Microphone Audio Sample: External
Controls & Software: Easy Customization
The Work Buds use Bluetooth 5.3, the latest version of the standard at the time of this writing. The only supported audio codec seems to be the usual SBC codec, though this can sound more than fine as long as the manufacturer implements it well.
Somewhat surprisingly for the price, considering the connectivity is so bare otherwise, the JLab Work Buds supportmultipoint Bluetooth. This feature lets you connect the earbuds to two different devices, like your computer and phone, and easily switch between the two. For example, you could switch between listening to music on your computer and taking calls on your phone with zero effort.
One area where the Work Buds fall down somewhat is the range. I noticed the earbuds started to lose track of my phone while I was still well within the 30-foot range generally accepted to be the Bluetooth-safe zone. The earbuds seemed more prone to lose signal when there was a wall between them and the source as well.
Like plenty of earbuds, the JLab Work Buds feature capacitive touch controls. These aren’t so sensitive that you’ll accidentally trigger them simply by adjusting the earbuds in your ears, but they can still register accidental taps. Fortunately, one of the many features of the new JLab App (available foriPhone and iPad, as well asAndroid devices) is the ability to either customize or completely disable the touch controls.
The app also has other functions in addition to customizing the controls. you’re able to update the firmware, adjust the EQ, and configure the Clear Voice environmental noise control for the microphone. This is also where you can enable JLab’s Be Aware feature, which we’ll look at later on.
Finally, the app features a toggle between Music Mode and Movie Move. At first, these may seem similar, and they are, at least when it comes to sound. Movie mode is supposed to make for better lip sync when you’re watching videos, but in my experience, I didn’t notice much of a difference either way.
Battery: All-Day Battery Life
While the Work Buds only have a 70mAh battery powering each earbud, they offer ample playback time. JLab estimates up to 10 hours of playback, though this will differ based on playback volume and other factors. Even if you land a little short of the estimated time, these should easily get you through a workday.
The included charging case takes roughly two hours to charge the earbuds from empty to full. If you don’t have that kind of time, a 15-minute charge will get you up to two hours of listening time. This means even if they do start to run out in the middle of a busy day, a quick break will get you back in the game.
Despite the large size of the case (sorry, “dock” is what JLab calls it), there is nowireless chargingsupport. Sure, it may not fit on certain wireless chargers, but it would still be nice to see here, especially since wireless charging is a feature we often see on cheaper earbuds.
Competition
Because of the unique design of the JLab Work Buds—specifically that external microphone—there isn’t much in the way of direct competitors. TheAudio-Technica ATH-SQ1TWearbuds are similarly priced, and they’ll work for calls, but they don’t stack up in terms of call quality. Battery life outside of the charging case is lower with the Audio-Technica earbuds as well.
If you’re mainly using video chat instead of phone calls, you could get away using a gaming headset like theNZXT Relay Headset, but these aren’t always ideal in a professional context. At least for now, the JLab Work Buds stand in a category of their own.
Should You Buy the JLab Work Buds?
While adding an external mic to earbuds isn’t a groundbreaking innovation, making that microphone work with either earbud is a creative piece of design worth commending. That theJLab Work Budsalso do solid work with music is an unexpected bonus, especially at the price they sell for.
Yes, the wireless range isn’t quite up to par with most other wireless earbuds, but realistically, how far are you from your phone while you’re making calls or listening to music in the first place? It’s somewhat harder to forgive the lack of wireless charging and the overly bulky case, but this is offset by the 10-hour battery life.
One look at the JLab Work Buds confirms what the name already suggests: these are meant for someone who spends a lot of time on calls, and they look office-ready. That said, at the price they sell for, the Work buds are a reasonable option for anyone looking for an affordable set of do-everything earbuds.
