JBL Wave 300 TWS Review: a good price, but...

7/10

Editor's rating

Where to buy at the best price ?

£ 45.60 on Amazon

GOOD POINTS

Compact housing
Good ruggedness
Easy pairing
Good sound quality
Easy to use

NEGATIVE POINTS

Format not adaptable to all morphologies
Lack of customisation
Connection not always stable
Latencies with video content
No noise reduction
Call quality can be improved
No volume control

Summary

Design

Available in several colours (black, white, sky blue and pink), these headphones have a sober and rather discreet design on the ear. Even so, the quality of the overall design gives them an air of fragility at first sight.

The charging box is light and very compact, which makes it easy to store in a pocket. However, the top opening is not easy to open with one hand.

These headphones do not have silicone ear tips, so it is difficult to adjust the ear cups to the morphology of each ear due to the universal shape of the tips. This may also explain the slight discomfort felt after several hours of testing these headphones. However, they stay perfectly well in the ears.

IPX2 certified, the Wave 300 TWS are resistant to splashes or light rain, but cannot cope with excessive perspiration or heavy rain. Therefore, they are not best suited for sports.

While the touch controls are easy to use, we find them a little unresponsive. On the other hand, be careful not to touch any of them when placing the headphones on your ears.

The touch controls allow you to manage music playback, activate the voice assistant (Siri, Bixby, Google Assistant) or pick up calls. Unfortunately, due to the lack of compatibility with the My JBL Headphones app, they cannot be customised and lack volume control (possible from the smartphone).

When opening the charging case, the smartphone immediately detects the headphones, which speeds up the pairing process. However, the Bluetooth 5.2 connection has shown some instability, as we observed several desynchronisations. In addition, there is no multipoint connection.

Audio

Overall, the sound is clear, rich and sharp. All tonalities are well reproduced, including treble and bass (although not quite up to the level of a high-end model), and there is very little distortion.

On the other hand, as mentioned above, the lack of an app prevents you from having access to a manual equaliser, so you can’t adjust the sound defects.

This model can be used in Stereo mode with both headphones or in Mono mode with only one headphone, without any loss of sound quality. Unfortunately, there is no automatic pause when one of the headphones is removed.

The Wave 300 TWS supports the AAC and SBC codecs. With video content, we have recorded some latency with various streaming platforms. So for gaming, forget about it…

The JBL Wave 300 TWS also lack active noise reduction functions and ambient noise mode. In addition, we found the passive noise reduction to be inefficient, especially since there are no silicone ear cushions.

During phone calls, we noticed that the volume decreases. In quiet environments the conversation is quite audible, but in windy or noisy places, the call quality is mediocre.

Microphone sound performance:

Battery life

These headphones have a battery life of around 6 hours. If you add the additional 20 hours in the charging case, the total battery life is 26 hours.

To check the battery level, you will find a % indicator on the Bluetooth interface of the smartphone. The charging case also has an LED light to let you know when charging is complete. For more information, you will know that with 10 minutes of charging, you will have up to one hour of autonomy.

For a full charge via USB-C, you will have to wait approximately 2 hours.

Conclusion

7/10

The JBL Wave 300 TWS are mainly characterised by their simplicity and good sound quality. However, they lack a bit of stability and do not have an app. In addition, many of the features can be improved, especially the call quality.

We recommend it to those who are looking for an urban model and are satisfied with good sound quality, without the need for a wide range of features.