I tried the surprising follow-up to the best ultra-cheap earbuds, and they offer surprisingly good noise cancellation for under $30
Over the past few years, TechRadar’s audio team has regularly raved about the JLab Go Air Pop – ultra-budget earbuds that defied their low price tag with impressive performance and build quality. They’ve been a regular feature in everything from our list of the best budget earbuds to our full rundown of the best wireless earbuds of all kinds.
However, they’ve been getting harder to come by lately, so we went looking for some alternatives to recommend… but it turns out the reason for that is because their successor was set to secretly launch at IFA 2024.
I say secretly, but JLab will happily tell you all about them if you visit their booth. They even gave me a pair to try out. However, the company has mostly been talking about launching three other pairs of earbuds at the same time, and has been keeping very quiet about this one at first.
Obviously, I found that to be unacceptable, so here’s what you need to know about the JLab Go Air ANC: they have active noise cancellation; they’re super small and light; they have six hours of battery life in the earbuds and 24 hours in the case; they have a built-in USB-C charging cable; they have multi-point pairing; they later come in cool 2000s-inspired translucent cases (they currently come in solid black, green, and pink); they’re IP55 waterproof; and they’re still ridiculously cheap at their $29.99 asking price — so roughly £25 or AU$45, though those latter two figures, unlike the confirmed US dollar MSRP, are unofficial estimates.
I tried them out during my time at IFA, and it really feels ridiculous that something so cheap can deliver music that’s as well-rounded as you get here. Compared to the AirPods Pro 2 that I also had with me at the time, there’s obviously a lot less bass depth, the details aren’t as sharp, and the midrange is softer. But it all seems fair considering they’re a seventh of the price.
The ANC is also amazingly effective. I know you’re expecting me to add “for $35” to this, but based on my early testing it’s just Good. With music playing and the volume at about 60% or so, they were as effective as I needed them to be during my flight, a test that more expensive earbuds failed to pass. They falter more when listening to podcasts, though, as the relative thinness of the mid-range and slightly soft detail means that vocals are more likely to be drowned out by the sounds that do get through. There’s a transparency mode that’s quite coarse, but also effective.
I love how lightweight and discreet the buds are – if you like your buds to not feel like you’re wearing a cybernetic attachment in your ears, these are perfect for you. They have touch controls that include on-ear volume controls, and you can also switch between ANC modes with a tap, and you can even switch EQ modes with a triple tap, though I haven’t played with that yet.
I found them to be very comfortable, although with the medium eartips I found the in-ear seal to be weak enough to let in outside noise depending on the position my head was in, as it changes the shape of your ear slightly. That’s something we’ll dive into more in a full review, but it’s certainly a difference from more expensive earbuds.
The case is super slim, which I always appreciate in a pair of earbuds. JLab has kept one of the weirder foibles from the previous version, namely a built-in charging cable, but this time around it’s USB-C. JLab knows what it’s doing so I have to assume that’s what people will want, but it just seems a shame to remove the flexibility of being able to plug into different power sources. I got my mom a pair of the Go Air Pop earbuds, but I don’t know if I would get her the Go Pop ANC because she doesn’t have a USB-C charger of any kind at home, and if I had to buy one it would really change the value of the earbuds.
As the editor of TechRadar.com, I’ve been running a house entirely of USB-C devices for a while now. So if you’re a reader of that renowned publication, this might seem like a silly complaint.
We’ll have to pass judgment on them in more detail, but I’ll leave you with my overriding thoughts on the good value they offer so far: More than once, when I was using them specifically to test the ANC, I’d formed my judgment and taken notes, and then not bothered to switch back to the AirPods Pro 2 while still wearing them. there in my pocket. The Go Pop ANC were already working perfectly, so I just kept using them. It’s not like I’d permanently switch from my premium earbuds to these or anything, but as a picky listener, it’s a wonder I didn’t immediately switch back.
