JBL’s Tour Pro 3 offers a peek into the future of TWS buds

Standing out in the premium TWS market, particularly when you have to contend with well-entrenched competition from Apple, Sennheiser, and Sony, is daunting, but JBL arrives to the party with the Tour Pro 3. Sporting a touchscreen on its smart charging case, the Tour Pro 3 is a guaranteed conversation starter, but is that enough?

It all starts with the case and its 1.57-inch touchscreen, which lets you quickly control media playback and volume, switch noise cancellation modes, spatial audio modes and equalizer presets, and it even takes care of mundane stuff like showing you battery levels, finding a lost bud, starting a quick timer or even setting a wallpaper.

JBL's wireless earbuds, the Tour Pro 3, has functional features

Courtesy a Bluetooth transmitter, you can stream audio from almost any source to the buds – an old record/cassette player or an in-flight entertainment system – via the bundled USB cable or a 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter, a feat no other mainstream TWS buds can do. Plus, there’s Bluetooth 5.3 with multi-point pairing and support for Auracast, the latter allowing audio broadcasts to compatible nearby devices. Fitting all this tech into the case does make it chubbier than its peers, and while the buds are IP55 rated for water resistance, the case is not.

The earbuds themselves are a familiar design, with stubby, egg-shaped buds attached to a short, touch-sensitive stem. Each earbud has two drivers - a 10.2mm dynamic driver and a 5.1-by-2.8mm balanced armature driver, and there’s support for AAC, LDAC high-resolution, and SBC codecs. Pair it with an Android over LDAC and the Tour Pro 3 belts out a mature, engaging if bass-forward sound signature which is great for pop music, EDM and the like, less so for instrumental or classical music. Even with spatial audio turned on, the sound stage is slightly limited. Active noise cancellation is respectable if not segment beating, drowning out the hum of the metro commute or regular ambient sounds in the office.

The upside of the portlier case is three full charges in the case, which extends the 7-8 hour battery life per bud (with ANC on) and a quick 10-minute charge gives you up to three hours of usage. In all, the Tour Pro 3 does a lot well – a mainstream sound signature paired with good ANC and battery life – and the added smarts on the case make a…strong case for the buds.

Rating: 8/10

Price: ₹22,999

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