Considering the JBL Live 300TWS’s price and relatively simple design, I expected an equally simple experience—but I shouldn’t have judged a pair of true wireless earbuds on its subdued looks. A couple of weeks on, the Live 300TWS’s features still dazzle me, and the music quality is far better than I expected from buds in this price range.

The 2.7-inch-wide case alone looks as if it could come from a premium set of earbuds. Smooth, compact, and pocketable, its notification lights have a chic air reminiscent of luxury goods: A ring around the USB-C port along the bottom pulses white while the earbuds charge inside—the better to see where to stick the plug in low light—and it shifts to red once the cable is in. The act of opening the case could be more elegant, though; eventually, I fumbled far less with the lid after learning to pull it up from the sides.

The case is also attractive in light of JBL’s estimate that they deliver 14 extra hours of battery life, as you’ll need it. Despite JBL’s claim that the buds will play music for a full six hours, on two occasions they sputtered out before I reached the fifth hour.

Leif Johnson / Macworld

As for the earbuds themselves, the Live 300TWS fit perfectly in my ear right out of the box. In what was a first for me, I didn’t need to experiment with the two other ear gels or four stability fins. They fit so snugly that they almost doubled as earplugs—they even look a bit like them from a distance. (Or at least as black, blue, purple, or white metallic bolts drilled carefully into your skull, depending on which color model you bought.)

However, don’t go jumping into swimming pools with them. They may look waterproof, but in truth, they only have a rating of IPX5. So while these earbuds will survive workouts—speaking of, they never budged from my ears during outdoor jogs—you’re going to be in for an unpleasant surprise if you submerge them. If you need that kind of durability, check out the many other earbuds with a rating of IPX7.

Features

The JBL Live 300TWS lack active noise canceling, but their passive noise cancellation from the good fit and seal works about as well as a low-grade set of earplugs. In other words, it won’t drain out airplane noise, but it does a good job of muffling normal office sounds. And conveniently, JBL equipped these buds with a couple of features to address how unwieldy it can be to take them out of your ears often.

First is “Ambient Aware” mode, which uses the microphones to pick up sounds from your surroundings. While I’ve heard better, it works well enough that I never felt compelled to pull these out to hear traffic and conversations. The second, more unique mode is “TalkThru,” which drops the volume of your music to barely audible levels so you can keep jammin’ while carrying on a conversation. I was particularly grateful for it while standing in checkout lines at the grocery store.

Normally, I’d expect to find these features in ANC buds, and they’re a welcome addition. There’s a small catch, though: You have to choose which of the two you want to assign as to the forward swipe on the left earbud. You’ll always have to activate the other through the My JBL Headphones app.