JBL Tour Pro 3 – Hardware Review
When wireless earbuds were first introduced, it felt like the overall technology behind them wasn’t all too practical. Sure, you would not need a cable that would inevitably get tangled in your backpack or purse, but pairing the earbuds often proved to be a hassle. As a direct result of this, a lot of people still preferred wired earbuds for their daily commutes, workouts, or even to listen to their MP3 players. The quality of wireless earbuds has increased exponentially over the last few years. The earbuds themselves became more powerful, the battery life improved a lot, the sound quality became crisper, and above all, pairing the earbuds with your media device of choice has never been easier than it is today. When looking back at devices like Sandberg’s Bluetooth Earbuds + Powerbank, where you had to follow several steps to get the earbuds working, we are happy to see the overall evolution. The subject of today’s review, JBL’s Tour Pro 3, presents us with another leap forward.
Design
For our review, we were given the Latte version of the Tour Pro 3. This unique color does have an edge over the competition, as most other brands often opt for black or white when it comes to general color schemes. We loved the almost gold-like colors, and it gives the Tour Pro 3 a premium finishing touch. The earbuds themselves are nothing truly unique in terms of shape and general design, but the overall finishing touches are nice. The earbuds have the JBL brand name on them with a glossy finish, while you can also see the external microphones, a small unintrusive LED light on each earbud, and a matching ear adapter.
The belle of the ball here is the actual charging case. Instead of a generic flat case, the Tour Pro 3 has a more vertical design, as the front of the case also has a small touchscreen with the JBL logo displayed at the bottom. Other than a few glossy finishing touches, the case has a very modest matte design without any real standout features.
Comfort
In terms of comfort, JBL’s premium earbuds do not disappoint. The ergonomic shape of the earbuds is very pleasant for longer periods, and the device comes with five rubber pairs of ear adapters and one foam pair of ear adapters. This allows you to choose what size of ear adapters suits you the best, ensuring a comfortable experience. The earbuds themselves are also extremely light, weighing only 5.6g each. The case weighs 71.8g, meaning it’s also very light to take with you. The case itself has rounded corners, ensuring it never becomes annoying when carrying the device in a pocket. As stated above, the Tour Pro 3 has a touchscreen, which is also a great comfort feature. Via the touchscreen, you can access several different options, allowing you to tweak settings on the go. We’ll get into that below.
Overview
As stated in our introduction, setting up modern wireless earbuds isn’t much of a hassle anymore. You’ll be able to quickly pair the Tour Pro 3 with your smartphone or other media device. If you have the JBL Headphones app installed, your phone will make things even easier for you. As always, you can customize your experience in the app or activate different features. It’s all very straightforward and the app is quite user-friendly. The battery life promises 44 hours of playback time. This includes the case charges, as your earbuds themselves will last roughly 10 hours per charge, depending on what you use them for. Normal media playback will not drain battery life as quickly as listening to music with ANC activated, for example. The microphones (which are great) also drain quite a bit of battery life, so keep that in mind when calling a lot. Charging the case will take roughly two hours.
The JBL Tour Pro 3’s convenient touchscreen on the case also presents you with a lot of useful options. You can always check the battery life of your earbuds and the case, you are able to check the time (after linking it with your phone), you can change volume settings, skip tracks, and so on. You’ll have all basic functions readily available, but also more premium features such as ANC and talkthrough or a simple flashlight and the Auracast toggle (more on that below). Spatial sound settings, language options, and personalization options are also available via the case’s touchscreen. We barely needed the actual app or our phone to change settings.
Even though pairing earbuds is not the most complicated process, it does get a bit tedious if you want to pair them to multiple devices. It gets even more annoying when all of said devices are turned on, making it so that your earbuds often connect to the first device in range. A fun feature of the Tour Pro 3 is that you can also connect devices via the USB-C connection of the so-called ‘smart case’. For example, when we were in the mood to play games on our PS5, we simply hooked up the Tour Pro 3 via the cable to our console, and we were good to go. When doing this, the earbuds instantly connect to the device of your choice, and there’s absolutely no setup required. This is an amazing feature when you notice things are getting late, and you want to enjoy your games or other media without waking anyone up.
JBL’s Tour Pro 3 also has the Auracast function, which allows you to broadcast to other Auracast devices. We sadly were unable to test this feature extensively, but basically, you can link other devices (wirelessly) to play the same audio. This could be nice for a social gathering, a party, or even a presentation. It’s a neat feature that we hope will be available with more and more products in the future.
The sound quality is superb. We enjoyed listening to our favorite tunes during our daily commute, and with the ANC turned on, we enjoyed calm and smooth experiences when using public transport. When outside, however, we still advise you to turn off the ANC, as it’s always best to stay aware of your surroundings. That being said, even for gaming purposes the earbuds worked great when connected to our favorite consoles, and we loved messing around with the equalizer settings. The bass can go quite deep, but we could also make voices pop to the foreground if we were watching some of our favorite series or movies. Messing around with the spatial sound options can make things quite epic, as it may feel like you are listening to your favorite artists as if you’re sitting in an actual theatre or concert hall.
Conclusion
JBL’s Tour Pro 3 offers an amazing experience for all types of media enjoyment. The earbuds are great to hook up to your console via the USB-C connection, allowing you to jump into your favorite game in mere seconds without any connection issues. Of course, the Tour Pro 3 also offers a great experience for your daily commute or binging your favorite series. Music sounds crystal clear, and with the easy-to-access equalizer and other options, you’ll be able to tailor everything to your personal needs. The Auracast function adds another bit of value to the mix, further justifying the premium price point. If you’re looking for a multifunctional pair of earbuds that offer great sound and comfort features, we suggest checking out the Tour Pro 3.
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