• 6 months ago
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.
Transcript
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.

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