Touchscreen housing and dynamic sound

In today’s age of an overabundance of really good options in the truly wireless space, it’s hard for a brand to stand out and be considered. This is not the case with the JBL Live Beam 3 – despite all its advantages in terms of sound quality, battery life and durability, the conversation starts with the charging case, and specifically with the 1.45-inch touchscreen located in the case. That’s right, one of the last bastions of screen-free interaction – your TWS earbuds – now has a touchscreen for interaction.

The Live Beam 3 case allows for many of the uses you would typically take out your phone for. Some of them concern the settings of the headphones, others concern the housing itself. Try this – you come home and want to change the “vocal” equalizer preset you’ve had all day on work calls to the “jazz” preset you use when you’re making a snack in the kitchen? Or maybe you want to get used to the latest episode of Bridgerton? There is no need to launch the JBL Listens app on your smartphone, just swipe the case and change the equalizer, ANC, volume and surround sound settings. Especially if you’ve taken a personalized hearing test, you can switch between modes for days without even opening the app to change settings. There’s even a basic timer and flashlight, as well as the ubiquitous runtime and battery life display, and even the ability to view incoming calls and notifications from your connected phone. Although you can play/pause/change the music, this is not the case. view track information.

But what do buds sound like? Firstly, these are stem-like buds weighing 5g, comfortable to wear for hours. By default, the sound characteristics lean slightly towards the bass side, but are balanced enough for most genres. There’s an undeniable sense of dynamics and punch to the music, and that’s before we delve into the custom EQ settings. Noise cancellation is reliable and effective, although not at the cutting edge, especially on models like the Sony WF-1000XM5. I liked the transparency modes – both ambient awareness and conversation mode – both worked well in my testing.

Surprisingly, the screen didn’t consume as much battery as I expected – once you get past the initial novelty, the screen isn’t used much at once, and the screen turns off automatically if you leave the same. The headphones last almost 10/12 hours with ANC on/off, and a quick ten-minute charge provides four hours of listening time, with the option of another three charges with the case fully charged. A one-of-a-kind case is worth its weight in gold, and it’s good to see JBL continue to innovate in new ways that drive the category forward.

Rating: 8/10

Price: Rs. 24,999