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.
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00:00 Tell me what you think of the sound.
00:01 Pretty clear. It's crispy.
00:02 The voice comes in really clear.
00:04 Not a lot of bass. Pretty treble heavy.
00:06 High quality. Noise cancelling.
00:09 In the past few years, wireless earbuds have come a long way.
00:12 You no longer need to shell out $200 to get a decent pair.
00:16 With improved sound drivers and support for higher quality codecs,
00:19 smaller and more budget-friendly options like the $40 JLab JBuds Mini can be a great choice.
00:24 On the other hand, maybe you're an audiophile or you commute a lot.
00:29 Stand clear of the closing doors, please.
00:31 And you want a more sophisticated overall sound profile,
00:34 plus some bells and whistles like active noise cancellation.
00:38 If you have the budget for it, the AirPods Pro 2 are still a popular choice,
00:41 especially for Apple users.
00:43 But did you know that the Sony WF-1000XM5,
00:46 which we'll call the Sony XM5s for the sake of this video,
00:49 are actually our top recommended all-around premium buds that you can get for under $300?
00:55 Both are great earbuds, but for seven times the price,
00:58 and the obvious aside, sound quality,
01:00 what are the key differences between the Sonys and the JLabs?
01:03 To see how these two earbuds stack up,
01:05 I'm going to take you through the key points of comparison,
01:07 plus I'm going to ask a few people who have never tried either before
01:10 to tell me what they think of the sound and the quality for the price.
01:14 Both use Bluetooth 5.3 and are IPX4 water-resistant,
01:22 which basically means they won't get damaged if you get caught in the rain,
01:25 and they're protected against sweat during workouts.
01:27 That said, the Sony app definitely has more customization
01:32 with different levels of ANC and ambient awareness.
01:35 I'm out in a busy market right now, so I definitely want to enable speak-to-chat.
01:39 That way I don't have to pause my music.
01:41 When the earbuds detect I'm talking,
01:43 it will automatically pause the music, turn off ANC,
01:45 so I can have a conversation with the vendor in front of me.
01:48 Hi, I look forward to this every year.
01:51 Can I please have one small hot chocolate?
01:53 By comparison, if I were wearing the JLABS,
01:56 I would either have to double-tap to pause my music,
01:59 or more likely actually take it out, and it's just not as convenient.
02:03 While the JLABS don't have active noise cancellation,
02:07 they have a tight seal, so the passive noise cancellation
02:10 is actually pretty good at dampening sounds like traffic and sirens.
02:13 That said, when I'm commuting,
02:15 I think I need active noise cancellation to block out some of the chaos
02:19 that comes with the New York City subway system.
02:21 Ah, peace and quiet.
02:26 Battery life is also a huge factor to take into consideration.
02:42 The Sonys last for eight hours of active listening,
02:44 with 24 hours total with the charging case.
02:47 The JLABS last for five and a half hours of listening,
02:50 with 20 hours total provided by the charging case.
02:52 Those extra hours do mean that you can spend longer periods of time
02:56 with the Sony earbuds in your ears than the JLABS ones.
02:58 I could see that coming in handy for, say, a long flight.
03:01 Either way, both do offer fast charging.
03:04 You get one hour of listening with a 15-minute charge,
03:07 and one hour of listening with just a three-minute charge on the Sonys,
03:10 which is just insane.
03:12 Now, looking at these two earbuds,
03:14 the JLABS make every other pair of earbuds look absolutely ginormous.
03:19 These wireless earbuds are currently the smallest earbuds on the market,
03:22 weighing just 3.14 grams per bud.
03:25 The Sony Mark Vs weigh 5.9 grams each,
03:28 which might not sound like a huge difference,
03:30 but when we're talking about something you wear on your head,
03:33 fractions of a gram make a difference.
03:35 If you see your tech as a fashion statement,
03:37 it's important to look at the colors available for each bud.
03:40 The JLABS come in five fun colors,
03:42 including this mint, as well as aqua, black, pink, and sage.
03:47 On the other hand, while the Sonys do look more premium overall,
03:50 they only come in silver and black.
03:52 And you might be surprised,
03:55 especially when I tell you that the more affordable JLABS
03:58 have some unique advantages.
03:59 A literal built-in advantage of the JLABS
04:02 is that the case has a little fabric carrying loop,
04:05 so I can attach it to my keychain just like that.
04:09 They're small enough that they go with my keys for the most part.
04:12 And I'm a sucker for a carrying loop.
04:15 Look at that.
04:17 Talk about convenience.
04:18 And now when I'm ready to put them away,
04:20 I don't have to worry about having lost this very tiny case.
04:23 I know they're right here on my keys.
04:26 Now that I've told you about the distinct features,
04:28 let's find out if people can hear and feel the difference
04:30 of what an extra $240 gets you.
04:38 So I'm going to do this test blind
04:39 because I really want you to focus
04:40 on what the earbuds sound and feel like.
04:44 First impressions of the sound quality.
04:46 The voice comes in really clear,
04:48 and the deep sounds are really nice.
04:50 I like it. Sound quality's full.
04:54 I like the way they fit also. It's really nice.
04:56 And I also, I couldn't hear like a single thing you were saying.
04:59 It's not mucky. It's like pretty clear. It's crispy.
05:02 The music sounds good.
05:03 Feels pretty clear.
05:04 High quality.
05:06 Loud.
05:07 Noise canceling.
05:09 Not a lot of bass. Pretty treble heavy.
05:12 That's the impression I'm getting.
05:13 What stands out to you?
05:15 Sorry, what was that?
05:16 Like I can't really hear what's going on outside.
05:19 I literally can't hear anything you're saying right now.
05:21 I'm guessing it has noise cancellation
05:24 or something like that.
05:24 Now that I turned it off, I can hear like a siren,
05:28 but let me see.
05:30 No, I can't hear it now.
05:31 And I can't hear you talk.
05:33 That's great.
05:34 What do you think about the feel?
05:36 They like, I don't know, they're just like nice,
05:38 it's centralized.
05:39 They're really small
05:41 and they fit inside my ear really nicely.
05:43 We're going for the second pair.
05:45 The bass on this one's deeper.
05:48 This is like a fuller sound.
05:49 Like it doesn't, it sounds more like over ear headphones
05:52 than in ear.
05:53 I mean, they sound a little better on the bass end,
05:56 but I would say that these are the better of the two.
05:58 Yeah, the first one felt lighter to me.
06:00 The second one felt more substantial.
06:02 So I was guessing I'd probably get a better response
06:05 in terms of the audio from that.
06:07 Okay, immediately it's definitely sounds like better quality.
06:11 Just the sound sounds better.
06:12 Pretty good like surround sound on that one.
06:14 I felt like I got the better entirety of the song.
06:18 My love to dance,
06:19 the bass quality on the first one was like decent,
06:21 but the second one was much better.
06:22 The second ones were a little bit like bulkier.
06:24 The shape was a little bit weirder,
06:26 but I think the sound quality on the second
06:27 was slightly better.
06:28 Oh, these feel more bulbous here.
06:31 Bulbous.
06:32 My first time hearing for both of them,
06:34 I do prefer the first one.
06:36 I like the first ones better.
06:39 These are huge feeling.
06:41 So if you had to guess,
06:43 how much do you think each of the earbuds cost?
06:45 I would probably put the first one at like 80 to 120.
06:50 75 to 80.
06:51 130.
06:53 And the second one, maybe like $200 range,
06:56 maybe like 150 to 200.
06:59 But I'm gonna say 150-ish.
07:01 Those feel a little bit larger,
07:03 so maybe more materials in them.
07:04 So maybe like 200.
07:06 Are you ready to find out how much they cost?
07:08 Yeah.
07:09 So these are the J-Buds JLab Mini.
07:13 And they cost $40.
07:14 Okay, let's go.
07:15 Wow, that's way cheaper than I was expecting.
07:19 Definitely solid earbuds, so.
07:21 Surprising.
07:21 Surprising.
07:22 40 is really, really low.
07:24 And they actually cost $40.
07:26 Whoa, no way.
07:28 Now that you know the price,
07:30 if you had to buy one of these earbuds for yourself,
07:33 which one would you pick?
07:34 The Sony.
07:35 I thought they sounded better enough for the price.
07:38 I would probably buy these ones
07:39 because I don't know that I'm willing to spend 280.
07:42 I didn't notice enough beneficial differences
07:45 that these ones stood out over these.
07:47 Definitely the JLab.
07:48 They're small.
07:50 They fit my ears really, really well.
07:53 They seem comfortable.
07:54 And I really like the audio quality.
07:55 I would probably go with the $40 one.
07:57 I know I'm not the type of person
08:00 to keep my earbuds longer than a year.
08:02 And I feel like I already have
08:04 nice over-ear headphones for recording.
08:07 So I don't need the quality as much as I need something
08:10 that's efficient, kind of replaceable.
08:13 So what's the deal?
08:15 The $40 JLab JBuds Mini
08:17 or the $280 Sony WF-1000XM5s?
08:21 We saw split preferences in our blind testing,
08:24 which just goes to show that in some respects,
08:26 a budget pair of earbuds can keep up with a pair
08:29 that's seven times the price.
08:30 In fact, some people preferred the Minis
08:32 for the small size and barely their feel.
08:35 Although most people picked up that the Sonys
08:37 were the more premium buds,
08:38 some still would choose these
08:40 because of the low price and comfortable feel.
08:42 Price and comfort are important.
08:44 So get these if those things matter to you.
08:46 These are also a great pair of earbuds
08:47 if you tend to lose your tech sometimes.
08:50 And these are also a stocking stuffer that doesn't suck.
08:53 I'd also consider them a great pair of earbuds
08:55 for someone who's never owned wireless earbuds before.
08:58 Personally, I'd be happy to have these to toss in my gym bag.
09:01 But get the Sonys if you want the most customization
09:03 and best sounding wireless earbuds on the market.
09:06 Consider them an investment.
09:07 They're gonna last you several years
09:09 and you can use them in everyday scenarios
09:11 such as commuting, work, and working out.
09:14 Plus, if you wanna feel like you're sat
09:15 in the middle of a concert anywhere you go,
09:18 these are hard to beat.
09:19 And as we saw in our testing,
09:21 some people even thought that the soundstage
09:22 was comparable to those offered by over-ear headphones.
09:25 So, which of these two earbuds are you more likely to buy?
09:28 Be sure to let me know in the comments
09:30 and if this video helped you make your own decision,
09:32 be sure to check out the latest deals
09:34 linked in our description.
09:35 Linked there as well are the full rated reviews
09:38 for both of these earbuds.
09:39 But if you wanna see what else we're up to,
09:40 be sure to check out @tomsguide on social.
09:43 And as always, I'm @KateKocic.
09:45 Thanks for watching.
09:46 I'll catch you next time.