Can people actually tell the difference between cheap vs expensive tech products? In our new series What's the Deal?, we put the JLab JBuds Mini against the premium Sony WF-1000XM5 to see which are the best wireless earbuds for the price. In addition to comparing the key specs and features, we asked strangers to blind-test both earbuds to see which they'd spend their own money on, and their preferences might surprise you.
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Tell me what you think of the sound.
00:01Pretty clear. It's crispy.
00:02The voice comes in really clear.
00:04Not a lot of bass. Pretty treble heavy.
00:06High quality. Noise cancelling.
00:09In the past few years, wireless earbuds have come a long way.
00:12You no longer need to shell out $200 to get a decent pair.
00:16With improved sound drivers and support for higher quality codecs,
00:19smaller and more budget-friendly options like the $40 JLab JBuds Mini can be a great choice.
00:26On the other hand, maybe you're an audiophile, or you commute a lot.
00:29Stand clear of the closing doors, please.
00:31And you want a more sophisticated overall sound profile,
00:34plus some bells and whistles like active noise cancellation.
00:38If you have the budget for it, the AirPods Pro 2 are still a popular choice,
00:41especially for Apple users.
00:43But did you know that the Sony WF-1000XM5,
00:46which we'll call the Sony XM5s for the sake of this video,
00:49are actually our top recommended all-around premium buds that you can get for under $300?
00:55Both are great earbuds, but for seven times the price,
00:58and the obvious aside, sound quality,
01:00what are the key differences between the Sonys and the JLabs?
01:03To see how these two earbuds stack up,
01:05I'm going to take you through the key points of comparison,
01:07plus I'm going to ask a few people who have never tried either before
01:10to tell me what they think of the sound and the quality for the price.
01:18Both use Bluetooth 5.3 and are IPX4 water-resistant,
01:22which basically means they won't get damaged if you get caught in the rain,
01:25and they're protected against sweat during workouts.
01:29That said, the Sony app definitely has more customization
01:32with different levels of ANC and ambient awareness.
01:35I'm out in a busy market right now, so I definitely want to enable speak-to-chat.
01:39That way, I don't have to pause my music.
01:41When the earbuds detect I'm talking, it will automatically pause the music,
01:44turn off ANC, so I can have a conversation with the vendor in front of me.
01:48Hi, I look forward to this every year.
01:51Can I please have one small hot chocolate?
01:53By comparison, if I were wearing the J-Labs,
01:56I would either have to double-tap to pause my music
01:59or, more likely, actually take it out, and it's just not as convenient.
02:05While the J-Labs don't have active noise cancellation,
02:07they have a tight seal, so the passive noise cancellation
02:10is actually pretty good at dampening sounds like traffic and sirens.
02:13That said, when I'm commuting, I think I need active noise cancellation
02:17to block out some of the chaos that comes with the New York City subway system.
02:25Ah, peace and quiet.
02:38Battery life is also a huge factor to take into consideration.
02:42The Sonys last for eight hours of active listening,
02:45with 24 hours total with the charging case.
02:47The J-Labs last for five and a half hours of listening,
02:50with 20 hours total provided by the charging case.
02:52Those extra hours do mean that you can spend longer periods of time
02:56with the Sony earbuds in your ears than the J-Lab ones.
02:58I could see that coming in handy for, say, a long flight.
03:01Either way, both do offer fast charging.
03:04You get one hour of listening with a 15-minute charge
03:07and one hour of listening with just a three-minute charge on the Sonys,
03:10which is just insane.
03:12Now, looking at these two earbuds,
03:14the J-Labs make every other pair of earbuds look absolutely ginormous.
03:19These wireless earbuds are currently the smallest earbuds on the market,
03:22weighing just 3.14 grams per bud.
03:26The Sony Mark Vs weigh 5.9 grams each,
03:28which might not sound like a huge difference,
03:30but when we're talking about something you wear on your head,
03:33fractions of a gram make a difference.
03:35If you see your tech as a fashion statement,
03:37it's important to look at the colors available for each buds.
03:40The J-Labs come in five fun colors,
03:42including this mint, as well as aqua, black, pink, and sage.
03:47On the other hand, while the Sonys do look more premium overall,
03:50they only come in silver and black.
03:54And you might be surprised,
03:55especially when I tell you that the more affordable J-Labs
03:58have some unique advantages.
04:00A literal built-in advantage of the J-Labs
04:02is that the case has a little fabric carrying loop,
04:05so I can attach it to my keychain just like that.
04:09They're small enough that they go with my keys
04:11for the most part, and I'm a sucker for a carrying loop.
04:15Look at that.
04:17Talk about convenience.
04:19And now when I'm ready to put them away,
04:20I don't have to worry about having lost this very tiny case.
04:23I know they're right here on my keys.
04:26Now that I've told you about the distinct features,
04:28let's find out if people can hear and feel the difference
04:30of what an extra $240 gets you.
04:33So I'm going to do this test blind
04:35because I really want you to focus
04:36on what the earbuds sound and feel like.
04:40First impressions of the sound quality.
04:41The voice comes in really clear
04:43and the deep sounds are really nice.
04:48I like it.
04:48Sound quality is full.
04:50I like the way they fit also, it's really nice.
04:52And I also, I couldn't hear like a single thing you were saying.
04:55It's not mucky, it's like pretty clear.
04:57It's crispy.
04:58The music sounds good.
04:59I like the way they fit, it's really nice.
05:01It's clear, it's crispy.
05:02The music sounds good.
05:03Feels pretty clear, high quality, loud, noise canceling.
05:09Not a lot of bass, pretty treble heavy.
05:12That's the impression I'm getting.
05:14What stands out to you?
05:15Sorry, what was that?
05:16Like I can't really hear what's going on outside.
05:19I literally can't hear anything you're saying right now.
05:21I'm guessing it has noise cancellation
05:24or something like that.
05:25Now that I turned it off, I can hear like a siren,
05:28but let me see.
05:30No, I can't hear it now.
05:31And I can't hear you talk.
05:33That's great.
05:34What do you think about the feel?
05:36They like, I don't know,
05:37they're just like nice, it's centralized.
05:39They're really small
05:41and they fit inside my ear really nicely.
05:43We're going for the second pair.
05:46The bass on this one's deeper.
05:48This is like a fuller sound.
05:49Like it doesn't, it sounds more like over ear headphones
05:52than in ear.
05:54I mean, they sound a little better on the bass end,
05:57but I would say that these are the better of the two.
05:59Yeah, the first one felt lighter to me.
06:01The second one felt more substantial.
06:02So I was guessing I would probably get a better response
06:05in terms of the audio from that.
06:07Okay, immediately it's definitely sounds like better quality.
06:11Just the sound sounds better.
06:12Pretty good like surround sound on that one.
06:14I felt like I got the better entirety of the song.
06:18My love to dance.
06:19The bass quality on the first one was like decent,
06:21but the second one was much better.
06:22The second ones were a little bit like bulkier.
06:24The shape was a little bit weirder,
06:26but I think the sound quality on the second
06:27was slightly better.
06:29These feel more bulbous here.
06:31Bulbous.
06:32My first time hearing for both of them,
06:35I do prefer the first one.
06:38I like the first ones better.
06:39These are huge feeling.
06:41So if you had to guess,
06:43how much do you think each of the earbuds cost?
06:45I would probably put the first one at like 80 to 120.
06:5075 to 80.
06:51130.
06:53And the second one, maybe like $200 range,
06:56maybe like 150 to 200.
06:59But I'm going to say 150-ish.
07:01Those feel a little bit larger,
07:03so maybe more materials in them.
07:04So maybe like 200.
07:07Are you ready to find out how much they cost?
07:09Yeah.
07:09So these are the J-Buds JLab Mini,
07:13and they cost $40.
07:14Okay, let's go.
07:15Wow, that's way cheaper than I was expecting.
07:19Definitely solid earbuds, so.
07:21Surprising?
07:22Surprising.
07:2240 is really, really low.
07:24And they actually cost $40.
07:27No way.
07:29Now that you know the price,
07:30if you had to buy one of these earbuds for yourself,
07:33which one would you pick?
07:34The Sony.
07:35I thought they sounded better enough for the price.
07:38I would probably buy these ones
07:40because I don't know that I'm willing to spend 280.
07:42I didn't notice enough beneficial differences
07:45that these ones stood out over these.
07:47Definitely the JLab.
07:48They're small.
07:50They fit my ears really, really well.
07:53They seem comfortable.
07:54And I really liked the audio quality.
07:56I would probably go with the $40 one.
07:57I know I'm not the type of person
08:00to keep my earbuds longer than a year.
08:02And I feel like I already have
08:04nice over-ear headphones for recording.
08:07So I don't need the quality as much as I need something
08:10that's efficient, kind of replaceable.
08:13So what's the deal?
08:15The $40 JLab JBuds Mini
08:17or the $280 Sony WF-1000XM5s?
08:22We saw split preferences in our blind testing,
08:24which just goes to show that in some respects,
08:26a budget pair of earbuds can keep up
08:28with a pair that's seven times the price.
08:30In fact, some people preferred the Minis
08:32for the small size and barely their feel.
08:35Although most people picked up
08:36that the Sonys were the more premium buds,
08:38some still would choose these
08:40because of the low price and comfortable feel.
08:42Price and comfort are important.
08:44So get these if those things matter to you.
08:46These are also a great pair of earbuds
08:47if you tend to lose your tech sometimes.
08:50And these are also a stocking stuffer that doesn't suck.
08:53I'd also consider them a great pair of earbuds
08:55for someone who's never owned wireless earbuds before.
08:58Personally, I'd be happy to have these to toss in my gym bag.
09:01But get the Sonys if you want the most customization
09:03and best sounding wireless earbuds on the market.
09:06Consider them an investment.
09:07They're gonna last you several years
09:09and you can use them in everyday scenarios
09:11such as commuting, work, and working out.
09:14Plus, if you wanna feel like you're sat
09:15in the middle of a concert anywhere you go,
09:18these are hard to beat.
09:19And as we saw in our testing,
09:21some people even thought that the soundstage
09:23was comparable to those offered by over-ear headphones.
09:25So which of these two earbuds are you more likely to buy?
09:28Be sure to let me know in the comments.
09:30And if this video helped you make your own decision,
09:32be sure to check out the latest deals
09:34linked in our description.
09:35Linked there as well are the full rated reviews
09:38for both of these earbuds.
09:39But if you wanna see what else we're up to,
09:40be sure to check out at Tom's Guide on social.
09:43And as always, I'm at Kate Kosich.
09:45Thanks for watching.
09:46I'll catch you next time.